End of an Era…

I’ve just sat down to watch my team, the New England Patriots, on what is the last telecast of ABC’s Monday Night Football. The broadcast moves to ESPN next season, but will have about 1/5 the viewership that it does now since not all homes have ESPN.
Monday Night Football and I are the same age: 36. I’ve never known a world without tuning into Channel 9 at 9pm on Monday night to hear that theme.
You know the one. (How could you not?)
I remember being a kid in school when my bedtime was 9pm. I’d go up the stairs to my room hearing that music all the way up. As I grew older, it became something you had to tune in for and when you heard that music, you knew you were in for the NFL’s best game of the week. That music…still to this day…gives me goose bumps. It really does.
In my world, Al Michaels has always been the premier announcer on that telecast. I remember a bit of Cosell on MNF but, to me, the classic MNF booth was Michaels, Frank Gifford and Dan Dierdorf. When Boomer Esiason joined the booth, it was the start of the decline for me. The ratings have been in a steady drop off for some time, apparently, and I’m honestly surprised that ABC has stuck behind it this long.
MNF may be switching homes, but it’s just not the same. There’s no way it really could be. I may still watch on occasion, but it’s not the event that it once was anymore. Not on cable.
So long, Monday Night Football. Thanks for some really incredible memories over the years and for the indoctrination into NFL Nation.