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The heyday of Monday Night Football, with its team of Howard Cosell, Don Meredith and Frank Gifford, was one of the main factors that made the NFL what it is today, writes David Sweet.

When MNF moved to all-sports network ESPN in 2006, the once-nightly event became an all-day extravaganza. Whereas ABC didn’t even have a lead-in to MNF, ESPN runs a pre-game program along with information before, during and after the game on its radio affiliates and ESPN.com.

As a result, Monday Night Football comprised all of the top 10 shows on basic cable in 2006.

The best example of how TV has elevated pro football occurs once a year, when about 93 million Americans (and at least another billion more around the globe) watch the Super Bowl. Companies pay more than $2.5 million for a 30-second commercial. People who don’t know a football from a pancake tune in. The Super Bowl has become so big that the game is often secondary: you remember the “wardrobe malfunction” during the halftime show a few years back, but do you recall who won the game?

The marriage of the NFL and television would never have reached this point without a solid strategy, one whose premise is revolutionary.

Early on, when television revenue was a pittance, the franchises agreed to split the money equally; this way, a Green Bay team playing in a town with fewer than 100,000 people could still compete with a New York franchise. Innovations such as the wild card kept fans watching even mediocre teams on television late into the season, because they still had a shot at the playoffs.

By 2005, things had become so good that league itself launched a channel, NFL Network, where it broadcasts preseason and regular-season games, football analysis shows and more.

What does the future hold? For fans, controlling their own camera angles will come into play. For owners, the cash windfall may even get better. In this country, the Shot Heard ’Round the World is a distant memory; the noise these days bursts forth from millions of living-room sofas on Sunday afternoons, where the successful marriage of football and television captivates fans year after year.

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