Bad 'Monday Night Football' game choices

[SabresRule]

Sometimes,

'Monday Night Football' makes bad scheduling and game decisions.

Consider this laughable stat:

Last year, the Dolphins and Falcons, which combined for a 5-27 record, got THREE appearances on Monday; in contrast, Dallas and Green Bay, which both went 13-3, got TWO combined appearances.

Also, sometimes, ABC used to schedule Sunday night games that were marquee matchups and put a dud on Monday.

1980- Chargers vs. Cowboys was on Sunday night, while Dolphins/Jets was on Monday night.

Let me get this straight. ABC chose a game between the at-the-time anonymous and very-boring Dolphins (or Dull-phins, as I refer to those early 80s pre-Marino teams) and a not-so-great Jets team.

Air Coryell vs. America's Team, a marquee matchup that would have been perfect for Monday night, gets shafted in favor of a big market with a bad team?

1983- Raiders/Cowboys was on Sunday night; Giants/Cardinals was on Monday.

This was beyond stupid. The at-the-time unbeaten Cowboys against the last Raider world championship team gets a Sunday night slot (Sunday night games were not as common as they are now), while a game between a barely-above-.500 Cardinal team and a 3-win Giants team got the big-time slot?

Fittingly, Raiders/Cowboys was a 38-37 thriller, while the G-Men and Cards played to a TIE. Can you say poetic justice?

Anyway,

can you ever recall any questionable ideas/choices for a 'Monday Night' game?

 

[brainfry]

Green Bay (8-8) at Tampa Bay (2-14) in 1983--Green Bay won 12-9 in OT in a just plain awful game--was supposedly the last straw for Howie. He retired.

 

[Greg Bimson]

I could be wrong about this, but I don't think I am...

Also, sometimes, ABC used to schedule Sunday night games that were marquee matchups and put a dud on Monday.

I don't believe there was "Sunday Night Football" until the "later" 1980's.

I do know that ABC had some special editions of "Monday Night Football" on other nights, but I do not beleive any of them were during the middle of the regular season on Sundays. It would have only happened if there was a conflict with the World Series.

 

[yourbeliefs]

I can only imagine the HUGE ratings that ESPN will get when Arizona plays San Francisco in early November.

 

[Greg Bimson]

And game selection for MNF, just like ESPN/TNT Sunday Night Football, was set in stone way before the season began. It wasn't until Sunday Night Football moved to NBC that the "flex scheduling" started. But it never applied to MNF...

This was beyond stupid. The at-the-time unbeaten Cowboys against the last Raider world championship team gets a Sunday night slot (Sunday night games were not as common as they are now), while a game between a barely-above-.500 Cardinal team and a 3-win Giants team got the big-time slot?

And when the scheduling (including MNF) for the season was completed, every team was 0-0. To predict that the LA Raiders (who would go on and win the SB) and the Cowboys would be so good at the beginning of the season when the schedules were created was a lark...

 

[BillD1984]

I could be wrong about this, but I don't think I am...I don't believe there was "Sunday Night Football" until the "later" 1980's.

I do know that ABC had some special editions of "Monday Night Football" on other nights, but I do not beleive any of them were during the middle of the regular season on Sundays. It would have only happened if there was a conflict with the World Series.

ABC had about four or five Sunday night/Thursday night "special edition" games a year, from the late 70's to about the mid 80's.

 

[stone phillips420]

i thought tnt did thursday night football?

 

[yourbeliefs]

i thought tnt did thursday night football?

I think they and ESPN would alternate. Now of course it's all on the NFL Network.

 

[Greg Bimson]

TNT had Sunday Night Football for about six or seven years. They split the schedule with ESPN during the beginning of the 1990's.

I cannot find any instances of Sunday Night Football on ABC during the 1983 season.

 

[BillD1984]

I cannot find any instances of Sunday Night Football on ABC during the 1983 season.

You're probably right.

However, I do remember a few Thursday night games on ABC in the mid '80's.

Patriots at Jets was a week 2 Thursday night game on ABC in '86.

 

[duckydan]

How about a game which was both a bad choice and an awful game:

Pittsburgh Steelers vs Miam Dolphins - 11/26/2007
Final score - 3 - 0 on a last second field goal

This was the game where the field was so wet neither team could move the ball

 

[hallrk]

ABC had about four or five Sunday night/Thursday night "special edition" games a year, from the late 70's to about the mid 80's.

I can remember a Sunday Night game when I was in high school, which would have been around 1980. Dallas played the Rams and was a terrific game. All my friends at school were wishing there was a Sunday night game every week way back then.

 

[BillD1984]

I can remember a Sunday Night game when I was in high school, which would have been around 1980. Dallas played the Rams and was a terrific game. All my friends at school were wishing there was a Sunday night game every week way back then.

Yup. I remember a Pats at Oakland Sunday Nighter in 1978. Pats won it in the last minute, 21-14.

The week before, the Patriots hosted the Colts on MNF.

 

[Greg Bimson]

I could swear that the Darryl Stingley exhibition game was a night game, but that the regular season meeting was not a night game.

 

[BillD1984]

I could swear that the Darryl Stingley exhibition game was a night game, but that the regular season meeting was not a night game.

The exhibition game was a night game, but so was the regular season game.

It was week 4.

 

[HD MM]

How about a game which was both a bad choice and an awful game:

Pittsburgh Steelers vs Miam Dolphins - 11/26/2007
Final score - 3 - 0 on a last second field goal

This was the game where the field was so wet neither team could move the ball

+1000. What a stinker of a game.

 

[Visitor]

If I recall - not sure if they still do it this way - teams playing on MNF used to be influenced by the record of the teams in the previous season. That didn't mean losing teams wouldn't be on MNF, but they would usually be playing a team that did well the previous season. Also doesn't the NFL schedule the games and not ABC anyway?

 

[Greg Bimson]

If I recall - not sure if they still do it this way - teams playing on MNF used to be influenced by the record of the teams in the previous season. That didn't mean losing teams wouldn't be on MNF, but they would usually be playing a team that did well the previous season. Also doesn't the NFL schedule the games and not ABC anyway?

That was kinda my point...

The schedules were set in stone once they were released. ABC got the games that the NFL gave them way before the season started. It isn't like ABC could have turned around and asked for a different Monday night game. It still doesn't happen now.

So when saying about the 1983 Raiders/Cowboys matchup that an undefeated team is going up against what would be the SB champs, it didn't matter as the Monday night game was given to ABC when every teams' record was 0-0. ABC could not have received Raiders/Dallas on Monday night, when they already had Giants/Cards.