Michael Ventre

ABC’s “Monday Night Football” has come to an end. Before lighting candles in its memory, it should be noted that it really isn’t going away, just moving to pay television on ESPN. Disney, the company that owns both ABC and ESPN, called an audible when it noticed that ratings were in steady decline on the broadcast network. For most people, the main difference between ABC’s “Monday Night Football” and ESPN’s “Monday Night Football” will be pressing different numbers on the remote.

So there is no need to dab tissues in the corners of your eyes. This was a corporate decision involving corporate earnings and will not affect the quality of viewing.

What this does, however, is allow the sports world to pause and reflect on MNF’s impact. In truth, not all of it has been positive.

“Monday Night Football” made its debut in 1970. By the next season, the MNF team of Howard Cosell, Don Meredith and Frank Gifford helped create a blend of sports and entertainment the likes of which had not been seen before. Cosell’s presence in particular took the show to a new stratosphere of sports programming because he opined like Jack Lambert tackled. People didn’t just gab around the water cooler about Howard the next day, they vented and fumed.

Although Cosell was one-of-a-kind, that didn’t stop imitators from trying to copy his formula. Cosell and MNF thus ushered in a cult of personality in sports broadcasting that has reached pandemic proportions today. Cosell’s heirs include Stuart Scott and his “booyaa!”; Chris Berman and his silly nicknames, and just about every TV and radio wacko who puts an emphasis on style over substance to gain attention.

That’s not to say style isn’t important. On the contrary, it’s vital. It’s the mother’s milk of the entertainment business. But style doesn’t work unless it’s rooted in substance. It was that delicate mixture that made even the most ardent Cosell haters grudgingly acknowledge that the man knew what he was talking about. Today the style often comes first, in overwhelming doses, and as a result audiences resent many of the current microphone jockeys rather than respect them.

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But aside from unleashing an onslaught of would-be Howards, “Monday Night Football” was probably the most influential sports show ever, and overall the fan is far better off today because of its impact.

Since Fox got a piece of the NFL action just prior to the 1994 season, it has made a name for itself with technological innovations like the little scorebox and various odd camera positions. But “Monday Night Football” sired most of the cleverness seen today, like the rampant use of instant replay, multiple cameras and mikes, snazzy graphics, halftime highlights of Sunday’s games and lots of fan coverage. MNF caused as much of a stir when it debuted in the sports realm as “All In The Family” did in the world of sitcoms — minus the provocative social observations, of course, unless you count Cosell’s infamous “little monkey” remark about Alvin Garrett in 1983.