Monday Night Football
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''Monday Night Football'' (often abbreviated as ''MNF'') is the branding used for broadcasts of
National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a Professional gridiron football, professional American football league in the United States. Composed of 32 teams, it is divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National ...
(NFL) games that air on Monday nights. It originally ran on ABC from
1970 Events January * January 1 – Unix time epoch reached at 00:00:00 UTC. * January 5 – The 7.1 1970 Tonghai earthquake, Tonghai earthquake shakes Tonghai County, Yunnan province, China, with a maximum Mercalli intensity scale, Mercalli ...
to
2005 2005 was designated as the International Year for Sport and Physical Education and the International Year of Microcredit. The beginning of 2005 also marked the end of the International Decade of the World's Indigenous Peoples, Internationa ...
, before moving exclusively to sister network
ESPN ESPN (an initialism of their original name, which was the Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by the Walt Disney Company (80% and operational control) and Hearst Commu ...
from
2006 2006 was designated as the International Year of Deserts and Desertification. Events January * January 1– 4 – Russia temporarily cuts shipment of natural gas to Ukraine during a price dispute. * January 12 – A stampede during t ...
to
2019 This was the year in which the first known human case of COVID-19 was documented, preceding COVID-19 pandemic, the pandemic which was declared by the World Health Organization the following year. Up to that point, 2019 had been described as ...
. While still airing on ESPN, ''MNF'' returned to ABC in
2020 The year 2020 was heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to global Social impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, social and Economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, economic disruption, mass cancellations and postponements of even ...
beginning with select
simulcast Simulcast (a portmanteau of "simultaneous broadcast") is the broadcasting of programs or events across more than one resolution, bitrate or medium, or more than one service on the same medium, at exactly the same time (that is, simultaneously) ...
s, later expanding to select exclusive telecasts in
2022 The year began with another wave in the COVID-19 pandemic, with SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant, Omicron spreading rapidly and becoming the dominant variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus worldwide. Tracking a decrease in cases and deaths, 2022 saw ...
, and the bulk of games in simulcast with ESPN since
2023 Catastrophic natural disasters in 2023 included the Lists of 21st-century earthquakes, 5th-deadliest earthquake of the 21st century 2023 Turkey–Syria earthquakes, striking Turkey and Syria, leaving up to 62,000 people dead; Cyclone Freddy ...
. In addition,
ESPN2 ESPN2 is an American multinational pay television network owned by ESPN Inc., a joint venture between the Walt Disney Company (which owns a controlling 80% stake) and Hearst Communications (which owns the remaining 20%). ESPN2 was initially ...
features the '' Manningcast'' alternate telecast of select games, which was established in 2020, and since
2021 Like the year 2020, 2021 was also heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, due to the emergence of multiple Variants of SARS-CoV-2, COVID-19 variants. The major global rollout of COVID-19 vaccines, which began at the end of 2020, continued ...
,
ESPN+ ESPN+ is an American over-the-top subscription video streaming service available in the United States, owned by ESPN Inc., which is a joint venture between the Walt Disney Company (which owns a controlling 80% stake) and Hearst Communicati ...
has served as the American streaming home of ''MNF''. During its initial run on ABC, ''MNF'' became one of the longest-running American television series, as well as one of the highest-rated, particularly among male viewers. Since
1993 The United Nations General Assembly, General Assembly of the United Nations designated 1993 as: * International Year for the World's Indigenous People The year 1993 in the Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands had only 364 days, since its ...
, it has been preceded by the ESPN pregame show ''
Monday Night Countdown ''Monday Night Countdown'' (officially ''Monday Night Countdown presented by ESPN Bet'') is an American Pre-game show, pregame television program that is broadcast on ESPN, preceding its coverage of ''Monday Night Football''. For the network's non ...
''. Per an NFL broadcasting policy intended to allow those who do not subscribe to
cable Cable may refer to: Mechanical * Nautical cable, an assembly of three or more ropes woven against the weave of the ropes, rendering it virtually waterproof * Wire rope, a type of rope that consists of several strands of metal wire laid into a hel ...
or
satellite television Satellite television is a service that delivers television programming to viewers by relaying it from a communications satellite orbiting the Earth directly to the viewer's location.ITU Radio Regulations, Section IV. Radio Stations and Systems ...
to see local games televised by a pay television network, the ESPN-exclusive games are also made available on an over-the-air station in each participating team's local market. ''MNF'' is broadcast in Canada on TSN and RDS, in most of Australia on ESPN Australia, in Portugal on Eleven Sports, on TV 2 Sport in Denmark, on Channel 5 in the United Kingdom, and in some other regions of the world outside the U.S. on
ESPN International ESPN International is a family of Broadcasting of sports events, sportscasting and production networks around the world. It was begun in 1983, is operated by ESPN Inc. and owned by The Walt Disney Company. Current operations Canada ESPN Int ...
. A Spanish-language version airs on
ESPN Deportes ESPN Deportes (, ) is an American multinational Spanish-language pay television sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., a joint venture between The Walt Disney Company (which owns a controlling 80% stake) and Hearst Communications (which owns the ...
in the U.S. and on ESPN International in Latin America, while a Portuguese version airs on
ESPN Brasil ESPN is the Brazilian division of ESPN Inc. Launched in March 1989 as Canal+, it was the first country-specific version of ESPN outside the United States, launched in June 1995. The channel has covered major sporting events, like the 1996 Summer ...
.


Overview


History

During the early 1960s,
NFL Commissioner The commissioner of the National Football League is the chief executive officer of the National Football League (NFL). The position was created in 1941. The current commissioner is Roger Goodell, who assumed office on September 1, 2006. Until 1 ...
Pete Rozelle Alvin Ray "Pete" Rozelle (; March 1, 1926 – December 6, 1996) was an American professional football executive. Rozelle served as the commissioner of the National Football League (NFL) for nearly thirty years, from January 1960 until his retire ...
envisioned the possibility of playing at least one game weekly during
prime time Prime time, or peak time, is the block of broadcast programming taking place during the middle of the evening for television shows. It is mostly targeted towards adults (and sometimes families). It is used by the major television networks to ...
that could be viewed by a greater television audience. An early bid by the league in
1964 Events January * January 1 – The Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland is dissolved. * January 5 – In the first meeting between leaders of the Roman Catholic and Orthodox churches since the fifteenth century, Pope Paul VI and Patria ...
to play on Friday nights was soundly defeated, with critics charging that such telecasts would damage the attendance at
high school football High school football, also known as prep football, is gridiron football played by High school (North America), high school teams in the United States and Canada. It ranks among the most popular high school sports, interscholastic sports in both c ...
games, and in any event had been prohibited by the
Sports Broadcasting Act of 1961 The Sports Broadcasting Act of 1961 affects Title 15 of the United States Code, Chapter 32 "Telecasting of Professional Sports Contest" (§§ 1291-1295) The act amended antitrust laws to allow, among others, sports leagues to pool the broadcast ...
for that very reason alongside Saturday games to protect
college football College football is gridiron football that is played by teams of amateur Student athlete, student-athletes at universities and colleges. It was through collegiate competition that gridiron football American football in the United States, firs ...
. Two years later, Rozelle would build on this success as the NFL began a four-year experiment of playing on Monday night, scheduling one game in prime time on CBS during the
1966 Events January * January 1 – In a coup, Colonel Jean-Bédel Bokassa takes over as military ruler of the Central African Republic, ousting President David Dacko. * January 3 – 1966 Upper Voltan coup d'état: President Maurice Yaméogo i ...
and
1967 Events January * January 1 – Canada begins a year-long celebration of the 100th anniversary of Canadian Confederation, Confederation, featuring the Expo 67 World's Fair. * January 6 – Vietnam War: United States Marine Corps and Army of ...
seasons, and two contests during each of the next two years.
NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast. It is one of NBCUniversal's ...
followed suit in
1968 Events January–February * January 1968, January – The I'm Backing Britain, I'm Backing Britain campaign starts spontaneously. * January 5 – Prague Spring: Alexander Dubček is chosen as leader of the Communist Party of Cze ...
and 1969 with games involving
American Football League The American Football League (AFL) was a major professional American football league that operated for ten seasons from 1960 until 1970, AFL–NFL merger, when it merged with the older National Football League (NFL), and became the American Foot ...
teams. During negotiations on a new television contract that would begin in
1970 Events January * January 1 – Unix time epoch reached at 00:00:00 UTC. * January 5 – The 7.1 1970 Tonghai earthquake, Tonghai earthquake shakes Tonghai County, Yunnan province, China, with a maximum Mercalli intensity scale, Mercalli ...
(coinciding with the completion of a
merger Mergers and acquisitions (M&A) are business transactions in which the ownership of a company, business organization, or one of their operating units is transferred to or consolidated with another entity. They may happen through direct absorpt ...
between the NFL and AFL), Rozelle concentrated on signing a weekly Monday night deal with one of the three major networks. However, both NBC and CBS were reluctant to disturb their regular programming schedules. On the other hand, ABC was a distant third in prime time ratings and more willing to take any perceived risk, moreover, ABC's existing Monday night prime time lineup was a particular weak spot. As a result, Rozelle made a deal with ABC. Despite high ratings, ABC lost millions of dollars on televising the games during the late 1990s and 2000s. The NFL also indicated that it wanted Sunday night to be the new night for its marquee game, because more people tend to watch television on Sundays, and games held on that night would be more conducive to flexible scheduling, a method by which some of the NFL's best games could be moved from the afternoon to the evening on Sunday on short notice. Given these factors, as well as the rise of ABC's ratings on Sunday night, and the network's wish of protecting its TV series ''
Desperate Housewives ''Desperate Housewives'' is an American mystery comedy-drama television series created by Marc Cherry, and produced by ABC Studios and Cherry Productions. It aired for eight seasons on ABC from October 3, 2004, until May 13, 2012, for a tota ...
'' on that night, on April 18, 2005, ABC and the NFL announced the end of their 36-year partnership, with the ''Monday Night Football'' broadcasts being moved to ESPN starting with the 2006 season. In
2011 The year marked the start of a Arab Spring, series of protests and revolutions throughout the Arab world advocating for democracy, reform, and economic recovery, later leading to the depositions of world leaders in Tunisia, Egypt, and Yemen ...
, ESPN extended its ''MNF'' contract for an additional eight seasons, giving it rights to the broadcasts until 2021. The deal, valued around 15 billion, also gave ESPN rights to expanded highlights, international, and streaming rights. A new deal signed in
2021 Like the year 2020, 2021 was also heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, due to the emergence of multiple Variants of SARS-CoV-2, COVID-19 variants. The major global rollout of COVID-19 vaccines, which began at the end of 2020, continued ...
sees ESPN retain these rights through 2033. Included with the new contract are the rights to two
Super Bowl The Super Bowl is the annual History of the NFL championship, league championship game of the National Football League (NFL) of the United States. It has served as the final game of every NFL season since 1966 NFL season, 1966 (with the excep ...
s in 2027 and 2031, the introduction of flexible scheduling, three doubleheaders during the season with exclusive games on ABC, one divisional playoff game, and one exclusive game on
ESPN+ ESPN+ is an American over-the-top subscription video streaming service available in the United States, owned by ESPN Inc., which is a joint venture between the Walt Disney Company (which owns a controlling 80% stake) and Hearst Communicati ...
.


Simulcasts on ABC

Beginning with the 2020 season, select ''Monday Night Football'' games have been simulcast on ABC. In the 2020 season, three games were simulcast. In the 2021 season, three ''Monday Night Football'' games and the new Week 18 Saturday doubleheader were simulcast. After ESPN renewed its ''Monday Night Football'' contract, it was revealed that these simulcasts would expand starting with the 2022 season. To accommodate the expanded simulcasts, ABC announced that ''
Dancing with the Stars ''Strictly Come Dancing (widely known as Dancing with the Stars)'' is an international television franchise based on the format of the British TV series '' Strictly Come Dancing,'' itself a successor to the show ''Come Dancing'' (1950–1998) ...
'' would move to
Disney+ The Walt Disney Company, commonly referred to as simply Disney, is an American multinational mass media and entertainment industry, entertainment conglomerate (company), conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios (Burbank), Walt Di ...
for its 31st season only. ABC later announced that ''DWTS'' returned to ABC and simulcast on Disney+ after one year and moved to Tuesdays permanently. On September 18, 2023, amid the
2023 Hollywood labor disputes From May 2 to November 9, 2023, a series of long labor disputes within the Cinema of the United States, film and Television in the United States, television industries of the United States took place, mainly focused on the strikes of the 2023 W ...
, ABC announced that it would simulcast ''Monday Night Football'' during each week of the 2023 NFL season. The decision was made while the season was already underway, and therefore upset the league's other broadcasters. The move gave ABC an immediate financial benefit since ABC could now charge higher commercial fees during those additional weeks since NFL games generally have higher ratings than most other programming. The simulcast came at a cost for Disney's cable partners, who would lose revenue from
local insertion In broadcasting, local insertion (known in the United Kingdom as an opt-out) is the act or capability of a broadcast television station, radio station or cable system to insert or replace part of a network feed with content unique to the local s ...
advertising as viewers gravitated towards their local ABC station to watch the game instead, rather than the ESPN networks. ABC's planned simulcast schedule for the 2024 NFL season had reverted back to four games, before Disney confirmed the simulcasts would continue until the end of the season on October 11, 2024, bringing the ESPN/ABC simulcast total from the originally planned four to ten. In 2025, ABC announced that Monday Night Football will become a permanent part of its fall schedule with the network at least airing ten games (two of those being exclusive split Doubleheader games).


Scheduling problems

To avoid unfairness due to a ''Monday Night Football'' game where, just before the first
playoff The playoffs, play-offs, postseason or finals of a sports league are a competition played after the regular season by the top competitors to determine the league champion or a similar accolade. Depending on the league, the playoffs may be eithe ...
game, a team may have five days off and others six, and also to allow the league to have games with mutual playoff implications played at the same time, most games during the final week of the regular season are played on Sunday. Consequently, there is no Monday night game that week. From
2003 2003 was designated by the United Nations as the International Year of Fresh water, Freshwater. In 2003, a Multi-National Force – Iraq, United States-led coalition 2003 invasion of Iraq, invaded Iraq, starting the Iraq War. Demographic ...
to
2005 2005 was designated as the International Year for Sport and Physical Education and the International Year of Microcredit. The beginning of 2005 also marked the end of the International Decade of the World's Indigenous Peoples, Internationa ...
, one game was played on Thursday and another on Monday under the ''Monday Night Football'' banner. Starting in
2006 2006 was designated as the International Year of Deserts and Desertification. Events January * January 1– 4 – Russia temporarily cuts shipment of natural gas to Ukraine during a price dispute. * January 12 – A stampede during t ...
, when the series moved to cable, two games are played on the opening Monday night to capitalize on fan interest during "
NFL Kickoff NFL Kickoff Game is the name given to the first game of the National Football League (NFL) NFL regular season, regular season. A single game is held, preceded by a concert and other ceremonies. This first game of the season is usually scheduled ...
weekend". Before
2023 Catastrophic natural disasters in 2023 included the Lists of 21st-century earthquakes, 5th-deadliest earthquake of the 21st century 2023 Turkey–Syria earthquakes, striking Turkey and Syria, leaving up to 62,000 people dead; Cyclone Freddy ...
, the ''MNF'' schedule was set during each Spring before the regular season, which could not be changed. Thus, the league and network cannot guarantee that each late-season ''MNF'' matchup would have any significance or would be highly anticipated. The problem of having a national spotlight game which during the season's most critical weeks late in the year probably would not show the most important game of the week was long known by the league and network. As a result of this, the NFL wished to move the "Game of the Week" idea to Sunday nights to make flex scheduling possible, and they had long stated that it was only interested in having flex scheduling on Sundays, and not Mondays since it is easier logistically on relatively short notice to move kickoff times by hours instead of days. This became one of the major factors leading to the 2006 end of ''MNF'' on ABC, and
NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast. It is one of NBCUniversal's ...
instead agreeing to air the "Game of the Week" with flex scheduling on '' Sunday Night Football''. The NFL finally agreed to expand flex scheduling to ''MNF'' beginning in the 2023 season. That same season, in Week 15, the originally scheduled game between the Kansas City Chiefs and New England Patriots became the first game to be flexed out of the MNF spot; it was replaced with a matchup between the Philadelphia Eagles and the Seattle Seahawks. 2023 was also the first NFL season
New Year's Day In the Gregorian calendar, New Year's Day is the first day of the calendar year, January 1, 1 January. Most solar calendars, such as the Gregorian and Julian calendars, begin the year regularly at or near the December solstice, northern winter ...
fell on a Monday in the penultimate week of the regular season, consequently to avoid a conflict with the
College Football Playoff The College Football Playoff (CFP) is an annual single-elimination tournament, knockout invitational tournament to determine a national champion for the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision, D ...
there were no Monday games scheduled for the final two weeks of the regular season.


Franchises with the most appearances

The franchise with the most Monday night appearances is the
Dallas Cowboys The Dallas Cowboys are a professional American football team based in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex. The Cowboys compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) NFC East, East division. T ...
, with 85. The
Pittsburgh Steelers The Pittsburgh Steelers are a professional American football team based in Pittsburgh. The Steelers compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the American Football Conference (AFC) AFC North, North division. Founded in 1933 P ...
secured the all-time lead with most wins on November 28, 2022, at 52. The most common ''Monday Night Football'' pairings are Broncos vs. Raiders (19 times as of ) and Commanders vs. Cowboys (17 match-ups as of , most among NFC matchups). The defunct
Candlestick Park Candlestick Park was an outdoor stadium located in the Bayview-Hunters Point, Hunters Point area of San Francisco, California, United States. It was originally the home of Major League Baseball's San Francisco Giants, who played there from 1960 S ...
in
San Francisco San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...
holds the record for hosting the most ''Monday Night Football'' games, including its 36th and final Monday night game on December 23, 2013. Among the active stadiums following the conclusion of the 2017 season,
Miami Gardens, Florida Miami Gardens is a city in north-central Miami-Dade County, Florida, United States. It is a suburb of Miami and located north of Greater Downtown Miami, downtown Miami with city boundaries that stretch from Interstate 95 in Florida, I-95 and N ...
's
Hard Rock Stadium Hard Rock Stadium is a multi-purpose stadium in the Southeastern United States, located in Miami Gardens, Florida. The stadium is the home field for the Miami Dolphins of the National Football League (NFL) and the Miami Hurricanes, the Univers ...
had hosted the most games with 36. Eight new NFL stadiums have made their regular season debuts on ''Monday Night Football''. Most recently,
Allegiant Stadium Allegiant Stadium is a domed multi-purpose stadium located in Paradise, Nevada, southwest of adjacent Las Vegas. Opened in 2020, it is the home field of the Las Vegas Raiders of the National Football League (NFL) and the University of Nevada ...
in
Paradise, Nevada Paradise is an Unincorporated towns in Nevada, unincorporated town and census-designated place (CDP) in Clark County, Nevada, United States, adjacent to the city of Las Vegas. It was formed on December 8, 1950. Its population was 191,238 at the ...
, hosted its first NFL game on September 21, 2020, when the
Las Vegas Raiders The Las Vegas Raiders are a professional American football team based in the Las Vegas Valley, Las Vegas metropolitan area. The Raiders compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the American Football Conference (AFC) AFC West ...
defeated the
New Orleans Saints The New Orleans Saints are a professional American football team based in New Orleans. The Saints compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) NFC South, South division. Since 1975, the team ...
34–24 on ''Monday Night Football''.


As entertainment

''Monday Night Football'' has continued to provide entertainment as sports throughout its run. In addition to the extra cameras, the program has also pioneered technological broadcast innovations, such as the use of enhanced
slow motion Slow motion (commonly abbreviated as slow-mo or slo-mo) is an effect in film-making whereby time appears to be slowed down. It was invented by the Austrian priest August Musger in the early 20th century. This can be accomplished through the use ...
replays and computerized graphics. Celebrity guests – such as former Vice President
Spiro Agnew Spiro Theodore Agnew (; November 9, 1918 – September 17, 1996) was the 39th vice president of the United States, serving from 1969 until his resignation in 1973. He is the second of two vice presidents to resign, the first being John C. ...
, singers
Plácido Domingo José Plácido Domingo Embil (born 21 January 1941) is a Spanish opera singer, conductor, and arts administrator. He has recorded over a hundred complete operas and is well known for his versatility, regularly performing in Italian, French, ...
and former Beatle
John Lennon John Winston Ono Lennon (born John Winston Lennon; 9 October 19408 December 1980) was an English singer-songwriter, musician and activist. He gained global fame as the founder, co-lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist of the Beatles. Lennon's ...
, former President
Bill Clinton William Jefferson Clinton (né Blythe III; born August 19, 1946) is an American politician and lawyer who was the 42nd president of the United States from 1993 to 2001. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, ...
, and even
Kermit the Frog Kermit the Frog is a Muppet character created in 1955 and originally performed by Jim Henson. An anthropomorphic green frog, Kermit is the pragmatic everyman protagonist of numerous Muppet productions, most notably as the showrunner and host o ...
– were often featured during the game to "liven up" the broadcast. The December 9, contest featured a rare instance of two celebrities entering the booth, with Lennon being interviewed by Howard Cosell and California
governor A governor is an politician, administrative leader and head of a polity or Region#Political regions, political region, in some cases, such as governor-general, governors-general, as the head of a state's official representative. Depending on the ...
Ronald Reagan Ronald Wilson Reagan (February 6, 1911 – June 5, 2004) was an American politician and actor who served as the 40th president of the United States from 1981 to 1989. He was a member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party a ...
speaking with Frank Gifford, with Reagan explaining the rules of
American football American football, referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada and also known as gridiron football, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular American football field, field with goalposts at e ...
(off-camera) to Lennon as the game went along. However, the late 1990s and early 2000s saw an even more increased reliance on the entertainment factor. Some halftime shows, featuring popular music stars, were broadcast in their entirety rather than being ignored in favor of analysis of the game by the commentators, as in previous seasons. On December 8, 1980, one of the most memorable moments of ''MNF'' occurred when Cosell announced in a news flash that
John Lennon John Winston Ono Lennon (born John Winston Lennon; 9 October 19408 December 1980) was an English singer-songwriter, musician and activist. He gained global fame as the founder, co-lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist of the Beatles. Lennon's ...
had been shot and killed in New York City. ''Monday Night Football'' was the first national broadcast to announce his death. An ABC advertisement for ''MNF'' featuring
Nicollette Sheridan Nicollette Sheridan (born November 21, 1963) is an American actress. She began her career as a fashion model before landing a role in the short-lived American Broadcasting Company, ABC primetime soap opera ''Paper Dolls'' in 1984, as well as st ...
of ''
Desperate Housewives ''Desperate Housewives'' is an American mystery comedy-drama television series created by Marc Cherry, and produced by ABC Studios and Cherry Productions. It aired for eight seasons on ABC from October 3, 2004, until May 13, 2012, for a tota ...
'' dropping her towel in front of
Philadelphia Eagles The Philadelphia Eagles are a professional American football team based in Philadelphia. The Eagles compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) NFC East, East division. The team plays its ...
wide receiver Terrell Owens created some controversy, including at least 1,997 complaints being sent to the FCC and outrage from FCC chairman
Michael Powell Michael Latham Powell (30 September 1905 – 19 February 1990) was an English filmmaker, celebrated for his partnership with Emeric Pressburger. Through their production company Powell and Pressburger, The Archers, they together wrote, produced ...
.
The Walt Disney Company The Walt Disney Company, commonly referred to as simply Disney, is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was founded on October 16 ...
, owner of ABC and the majority owner of ESPN, has used ''Monday Night Football'' to promote its other properties, releasing a trailer for the 2015 film '' Star Wars: The Force Awakens'' during one broadcast and incorporating
The Muppets The Muppets are an American ensemble cast of puppet characters known for an surreal humor, absurdist, slapstick, burlesque, and self-referential humor, self-referential style of Musical theatre, musical Variety show, variety-sketch comedy. Cre ...
into another trailer.


2000s


2006 summary

For its 2006 debut on ESPN, Williams Jr. re-recorded the ''MNF'' opening theme with an all-star jam band that included among others
Brian Setzer Brian Robert Setzer (born April 10, 1959) is an American guitarist, singer, and songwriter. He found widespread success in the early 1980s with the 1950s-style rockabilly group Stray Cats, and returned to the music scene in the early 1990s with ...
,
Little Richard Richard Wayne Penniman (December 5, 1932 – May 9, 2020), known professionally as Little Richard, was an American singer, pianist, and songwriter. He was an influential figure in popular music and culture for seven decades. Described as the "Ar ...
,
Questlove Ahmir K. Thompson (born January 20, 1971), known professionally as Questlove (stylized as ), is an American drummer, record producer, disc jockey, filmmaker, music journalist, and actor. He is the drummer and joint frontman (with Black Thought ...
, Joe Perry,
Clarence Clemons Clarence Anicholas Clemons Jr. (January 11, 1942 – June 18, 2011), also known as The Big Man, was an American saxophonist. From 1972 until his death in 2011, he was the saxophonist for Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band. Clemons rel ...
,
Rick Nielsen Richard Alan Nielsen (born December 22, 1948) is an American musician who is the lead guitarist, primary songwriter, and leader of the rock band Cheap Trick. He is well-known for his numerous custom-made guitars from Hamer Guitars, including hi ...
,
Bootsy Collins William Earl "Bootsy" Collins (born October 26, 1951) is an American bass guitarist, singer, and songwriter. Rising to prominence with James Brown in the early 1970s before joining the Parliament-Funkadelic collective, Collins established himse ...
, Charlie Daniels, and
Steven Van Zandt Steven Van Zandt (né Lento; born November 22, 1950), also known as Little Steven or Miami Steve, is an American musician and actor. He is a member of Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band, in which he plays guitar and mandolin. He has appeared i ...
. The 2006 telecast generally began with a cinematic tease produced by Rico Labbe, Michael Sciallis, and Jason Jobes. It was during one of these teases that
Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II (born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who was the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, he was the first African American president in American history. O ...
spoofed his announcement for the 2008 Presidential candidacy in favor of his hometown
Chicago Bears The Chicago Bears are a professional American football team based in Chicago. The Bears compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) NFC North, North division. They are one of two remaining ...
in their game against the
St. Louis Rams The St. Louis Rams were a professional American football team of the National Football League (NFL). They played in St. Louis, Missouri, from 1995 through the 2015 season, before moving back to Los Angeles, California, where the team had played ...
. That year, the tease was followed by the show open produced by Los Angeles–based The Syndicate called "Transformation". It features
computer-generated imagery Computer-generated imagery (CGI) is a specific-technology or application of computer graphics for creating or improving images in Digital art, art, Publishing, printed media, Training simulation, simulators, videos and video games. These images ...
showing a city being transformed into a football stadium and passers-by on the street turning into players, coaches, fans, and officials set to an updated orchestral treatment of the "Heavy Action" theme song. The sequence began every week with a different celebrity walking down the street, picking up a glowing football helmet with the ESPN logo on the side and saying, "I'm ready for some football! Are you?", thus beginning the transformation process. Celebrities for 2006 included
Arnold Schwarzenegger Arnold Alois Schwarzenegger (born July30, 1947) is an Austrian and American actor, businessman, former politician, and former professional bodybuilder, known for his roles in high-profile action films. Governorship of Arnold Schwarzenegger, ...
,
Matthew Fox Matthew Chandler Fox (born July 14, 1966) is an American actor. He is known for his roles as Charlie Salinger on '' Party of Five'' (1994–2000) and Jack Shephard on the drama series '' Lost'' (2004–2010), the latter of which earned him G ...
,
Hugh Hefner Hugh Marston Hefner (April 9, 1926 – September 27, 2017) was an American magazine publisher. He was the founder and editor-in-chief of ''Playboy'' magazine, a publication with revealing photographs and articles. Hefner extended the ''Playboy ...
,
Paris Hilton Paris Whitney Hilton (born February 17, 1981) is an American media personality, businesswoman, and socialite. Hilton was born in New York City and raised there partially; shuttling between Los Angeles and New York City; she is a great-grandda ...
,
Spike Lee Shelton Jackson "Spike" Lee (born March 20, 1957) is an American film director, producer, screenwriter, actor, and author. His work has continually explored race relations, issues within the black community, the role of media in contemporary ...
, Ashton Kutcher, Samuel L. Jackson,
Ludacris Christopher Brian Bridges (born September 11, 1977), known professionally as Ludacris (, spoken as "ludicrous" in American English), is an American rapper and songwriter. Born in Champaign, Illinois, Ludacris moved to Atlanta, Georgia, at age ...
,
Jack Black Thomas Jacob "Jack" Black (born August 28, 1969) is an American actor, comedian, and musician. He is known for roles in family and comedy films, in addition to his voice work in animated films. His awards include a Children's and Family Emmy ...
,
Kiefer Sutherland Kiefer William Frederick Dempsey George Rufus Sutherland (born 21 December 1966) is a Canadian actor. He is best known for his starring role as Jack Bauer in the Fox Broadcasting Company, Fox drama series ''24 (TV series), 24'' (2001–2010, 20 ...
, James Belushi,
Ben Stiller Benjamin Edward Meara Stiller (born November 30, 1965) is an American actor, comedian, and filmmaker. Known for his blend of slapstick humor and sharp wit, Stiller rose to fame through comedies such as ''There's Something About Mary'' (1998), ' ...
, Tyra Banks,
Carmen Electra Carmen Electra (born Tara Leigh Patrick, April 20, 1972) is an American actress, model, singer, and media personality. She began her career as a singer after moving to Minneapolis where she met Prince (musician), Prince who produced her Carm ...
, and Eva Longoria. In addition, celebrities returned in full force to the booth, though this proved to be the major criticism of ESPN's first ''MNF'' season. On the opening weekend, Arnold Schwarzenegger, another celebrity-turned- California governor, was in the booth at McAfee Coliseum in
Oakland, California Oakland is a city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area in the U.S. state of California. It is the county seat and most populous city in Alameda County, California, Alameda County, with a population of 440,646 in 2020. A major We ...
; before that,
Jamie Foxx Eric Marlon Bishop (born December 13, 1967), known professionally as Jamie Foxx, is an American actor, comedian, and singer. Known for his work in both the screen and music industries, his accolades include an Academy Award, a Grammy Award ...
appeared at FedExField in suburban Washington, D.C. Following them, celebrity appearances included NBA basketball superstar
Dwyane Wade Dwyane Tyrone Wade Jr. ( or , born January 17, 1982) is an American former professional basketball player who is currently the co-owner of the Utah Jazz of the National Basketball Association. He is also currently the host of the American a ...
,
Basketball Hall of Fame The Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame is an American history museum and hall of fame, located at 1000 Hall of Fame Avenue in Springfield, Massachusetts. It serves as basketball's most complete library, in addition to promoting and pres ...
player
Charles Barkley Charles Wade Barkley (born February 20, 1963) is an American former professional basketball player who is a television analyst on NBA on TNT, TNT and CBS Sports. Nicknamed "Sir Charles", "the Bread Truck", and "the Round Mound of Rebound", ...
,
NASCAR Cup Series The NASCAR Cup Series is the top racing series of the NASCAR, National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing (NASCAR), the most prestigious stock car racing series in the United States. The series began in 1949 as the Strictly Stock Division, ...
driver
Jeff Gordon Jeffery Michael Gordon (born August 4, 1971) is an American stock car racing executive and former professional stock car racing driver who currently serves as the vice chairman of Hendrick Motorsports. He raced full-time from 1993 to 2015, d ...
, comedian
Jimmy Kimmel James Christian Kimmel (born November 13, 1967), known professionally as Jimmy Kimmel, is an American television host, comedian, writer, voice actor, and producer. He has been the host and executive producer of '' Jimmy Kimmel Live!'', a late-n ...
(whose opening words to Joe Theismann were "how's the leg?"), actor
Sylvester Stallone Sylvester Gardenzio "Sly" Stallone (; born July 6, 1946) is an American actor and filmmaker. In a Sylvester Stallone filmography, film career spanning more than fifty years, Stallone has received List of awards and nominations received by Syl ...
, film director
Spike Lee Shelton Jackson "Spike" Lee (born March 20, 1957) is an American film director, producer, screenwriter, actor, and author. His work has continually explored race relations, issues within the black community, the role of media in contemporary ...
,
hip-hop Hip-hop or hip hop (originally disco rap) is a popular music genre that emerged in the early 1970s from the African-American community of New York City. The style is characterized by its synthesis of a wide range of musical techniques. Hi ...
artist
Jay-Z Shawn Corey Carter (born December 4, 1969), known professionally as Jay-Z, is an American Rapping, rapper, businessman, and record executive. Rooted in East Coast hip-hop, he was named Billboard and Vibe's 50 Greatest Rappers of All Time, the ...
, and ''MNF'' theme singer Hank Williams Jr.


2007 summary

ESPN scaled back to only one opening tease for the 2007 season. Williams Jr. and the all-star band returned, only this time they played in a "
juke joint Juke joint (also jukejoint, jook house, jook, or juke) is the African-American vernacular term for an informal establishment featuring music, dancing, gambling, and drinking, primarily operated by African Americans in the southeastern United St ...
" set on a country road. The lead singer arrives in a GMC Yukon truck (GMC paid for
product placement Product placement, also known as embedded marketing, is a marketing technique where references to specific brands or products are incorporated into another work, such as a film or television program, with specific promotional intent. Much of t ...
) with the license plate "BOCEPHUS", which is Williams's nickname. The Syndicate's computer-generated tease was dropped and replaced by short pre-taped films focusing on a team or player in the game. Some of them have featured actor Jamie Foxx. Joe Theismann did not return to the ''MNF'' booth after 1 season, and was replaced by Ron Jaworski. The guest visits continued: Barkley returned to the booth on September 17 in
Philadelphia Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...
. Other guests throughout the season included Kimmel (another returnee),
Drew Carey Drew Allison Carey (born May 23, 1958) is an American comedian, actor and game show host. After serving in the United States Marine Corps, U.S. Marine Corps and making a name for himself in stand-up comedy, Carey gained stardom in his own Situa ...
,
Miley Cyrus Miley Ray Cyrus ( , born Destiny Hope Cyrus, November 23, 1992) is an American singer, songwriter, actress and director. Regarded as a contemporary pop icon, Cyrus has been recognized for her evolving artistry and image reinventions. She is ...
,
Russell Crowe Russell Ira Crowe (born 7 April 1964) is an actor and film director. Russell Crowe filmography, His work on screen has earned him List of awards and nominations received by Russell Crowe, various accolades, including an Academy Award, two Gold ...
and Terry Bradshaw. In addition, Gordon was a halftime guest on the game just before the season-ending Ford 400 and was joined by teammate
Jimmie Johnson Jimmie Kenneth Johnson (born September 17, 1975) is an American professional auto racing driver. He currently competes part-time in the NASCAR Cup Series, driving the No. 84 Toyota Camry XSE for Legacy Motor Club. Johnson has won seven Cup ch ...
. At the end of each game, Williams returned to say, "See you in (city that is the site of the next week's game)." Both the open and close contain
helmet A helmet is a form of protective gear worn to protect the head. More specifically, a helmet complements the skull in protecting the human brain. Ceremonial or symbolic helmets (e.g., a policeman's helmet in the United Kingdom) without protecti ...
s of the participating teams, organized in the style of a concert
poster A poster is a large sheet that is placed either on a public space to promote something or on a wall as decoration. Typically, posters include both typography, textual and graphic elements, although a poster may be either wholly graphical or w ...
.


2008 summary

Despite the de-emphasis on entertainment on the overall telecast, ESPN did bring back Hank Williams Jr. for his 20th season as part of the opening. This time, the opening sequence was set in a private residence. At the end of the song, Williams Jr. touched a foot pump, which supposedly contained the helmets of that night's participating teams. The helmets were launched from the home toward the stadium at which the game was held. Through computer-generated imagery, the helmets "land" at midfield during a live shot, and then explode. The "exploding helmets" gimmick was also used at various times in the 1980s and 1990s during the pre-game tease. Williams Jr. then appeared again at the end of the game to promote the next week's matchup. ESPN also continued to promote upcoming albums through its use in bumper music. On September 29 (
Baltimore Ravens The Baltimore Ravens are a professional American football team based in Baltimore. The Ravens compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the American Football Conference (AFC) AFC North, North division. The team plays its home g ...
at
Pittsburgh Steelers The Pittsburgh Steelers are a professional American football team based in Pittsburgh. The Steelers compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the American Football Conference (AFC) AFC North, North division. Founded in 1933 P ...
), ESPN used " Another Way to Die", a
duet A duet (italian language, Italian: ''duo'') is a musical composition for two Performing arts, performers in which the performers have equal importance to the piece, often a composition involving two singers or two pianists. It differs from a har ...
between
Alicia Keys Alicia Augello Cook (born January 25, 1981), known professionally as Alicia Keys, is an American singer and songwriter. A classically trained pianist, Keys began composing songs at the age of 12 and was signed by Columbia Records at 15. After d ...
and
Jack White John Anthony White (; born July 9, 1975) is an American musician who achieved international fame as the guitarist and lead singer of the rock duo the White Stripes. As the White Stripes disbanded, he sought success with his solo career, subse ...
of
the White Stripes The White Stripes were an American Rock music, rock duo formed in Detroit, Michigan, in 1997. The group consisted of Jack White (guitar, keyboards, piano, vocals) and Meg White (drums, percussion, vocals). They were a leading group of 2000s indi ...
– the song was part of the soundtrack for the 2008 film ''
Quantum of Solace ''Quantum of Solace'' is a 2008 spy thriller film and the twenty-second in the List of James Bond films, ''James Bond'' series produced by Eon Productions. Directed by Marc Forster and written by Neal Purvis and Robert Wade, Neal Purvis, Robe ...
'', then the latest in the ''James Bond'' series. ''MNF'' celebrated its 600th game broadcast on October 20, 2008, in a game which the
New England Patriots The New England Patriots are a professional American football team based in the Greater Boston area. The Patriots compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the American Football Conference (AFC) AFC East, East division. The Pa ...
defeated the
Denver Broncos The Denver Broncos are a professional American football team based in Denver. The Broncos compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the American Football Conference (AFC) AFC West, West division. The team is headquartered in E ...
, 41–7. The 39th season of ''MNF'' ended on December 22, 2008, when the
Chicago Bears The Chicago Bears are a professional American football team based in Chicago. The Bears compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) NFC North, North division. They are one of two remaining ...
beat the
Green Bay Packers The Green Bay Packers are a professional American football team based in Green Bay, Wisconsin. The Packers compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) NFC North, North division. They ar ...
, 20–17, in overtime at home at
Soldier Field Soldier Field is a multi-purpose stadium on the Near South Side, Chicago, Near South Side of Chicago, Illinois, United States. Opened in 1924 and reconstructed in 2003, the stadium has served as the home of the Chicago Bears from the National ...
in Chicago.


2009 summary

The title sequence for the 40th season of ''MNF'' featured Hank Williams Jr. seen on the steps of a building (presumably a museum), surrounded by dancers, football fans, and statues/busts – which, along with everyone else in the scene, begin to move and dance – patterned after those at the
Pro Football Hall of Fame The Pro Football Hall of Fame is the hall of fame for professional football (gridiron), professional American football, located in Canton, Ohio. Opened on September 7, 1963, the Hall of Fame enshrines exceptional figures in the sport of profes ...
. The transition to Williams Jr. is a book, with the chapter number (in
Roman numeral Roman numerals are a numeral system that originated in ancient Rome and remained the usual way of writing numbers throughout Europe well into the Late Middle Ages. Numbers are written with combinations of letters from the Latin alphabet, ea ...
s, sequentially with each week) and a tag line about the game to be played that night. At the end of the song, Williams Jr. plugged in the cords, thereby launching animated "helmets" into space, from the building toward the stadium at which the game was held (with the exception of October 5, 2009, when the helmets zoomed towards
Brett Favre Brett Lorenzo Favre ( ; born October 10, 1969) is an American former professional American football, football quarterback who played in the National Football League (NFL) for 20 seasons, primarily with the Green Bay Packers. Favre had 321 cons ...
instead), passing the
International Space Station The International Space Station (ISS) is a large space station that was Assembly of the International Space Station, assembled and is maintained in low Earth orbit by a collaboration of five space agencies and their contractors: NASA (United ...
. As with the previous season (as mentioned above), the helmets "land" at midfield during a live shot and then crashed into each other. Williams Jr. appeared again at the end of the telecast to promote the following week's matchup. After that, the picture was freezeframed and the shot zoomed out to the book, which showed the freezeframed picture as part of a page. As this happened, the NFL end-of-game bumper music was played and the book closed, revealing a golden NFL logo on the back cover and signifying the end of the "chapter", or game. The scene was filmed in the summer of 2009 at the
Parthenon The Parthenon (; ; ) is a former Ancient Greek temple, temple on the Acropolis of Athens, Athenian Acropolis, Greece, that was dedicated to the Greek gods, goddess Athena. Its decorative sculptures are considered some of the high points of c ...
in
Nashville, Tennessee Nashville, often known as Music City, is the capital and List of municipalities in Tennessee, most populous city in the U.S. state of Tennessee. It is the county seat, seat of Davidson County, Tennessee, Davidson County in Middle Tennessee, locat ...
. Before Williams Jr. appears, Frank Gifford gave a short vignette about a memorable moment in the history of ''MNF'' featuring one or both of the teams playing that night's game.
Tony Kornheiser Anthony Irwin Kornheiser (; born July 13, 1948) is an American television sports talk show host and former Sports journalism, sportswriter and columnist. Kornheiser is best known for his endeavors in three forms of media: as a writer for ''The Wa ...
did not return to the booth after 3 seasons and was replaced by former
Oakland Raiders The Oakland Raiders were a professional American football team based in Oakland, California, from its founding in 1960 to 1981, and again from 1995 to 2019 before Oakland Raiders relocation to Las Vegas, relocating to the Las Vegas metropolitan ...
and
Tampa Bay Buccaneers The Tampa Bay Buccaneers (colloquially known as the Bucs) are a professional American football team based in Tampa, Florida. The Buccaneers compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) NFC S ...
head coach Jon Gruden. The 40th season of ''MNF'' ended on December 28, 2009, with the
Minnesota Vikings The Minnesota Vikings are a professional American football team based in Minneapolis. The Vikings compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) NFC North, North division. Founded in 1960 as ...
Chicago Bears The Chicago Bears are a professional American football team based in Chicago. The Bears compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) NFC North, North division. They are one of two remaining ...
game in Chicago, in which the Bears won in overtime, 36–30. The telecast ended with a vignette that featured Gifford taking a look back at highlights from the previous four decades – and the 40th season – of ''MNF'', after which the book closed, signifying the end of the season. The 40th season had the highest season viewership for ''MNF'' since ESPN acquired the rights to the broadcast. This was primarily due to the buffo ratings ESPN received for airing the October 5, 2009, game which featured Favre taking on his former team, the
Green Bay Packers The Green Bay Packers are a professional American football team based in Green Bay, Wisconsin. The Packers compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) NFC North, North division. They ar ...
.


2010s


2010 summary

The opening for the 2010 season was identical to that used in 2009, except for the final scenes. This time, Williams Jr. turns a wheel filled with paint, with CGI colors blasting into the air, revealing the helmets containing logos of the participating teams – which stay on top of the building. In one other minor difference, the chapter numbers in the "book" were changed from Roman to
Arabic numeral The ten Arabic numerals (0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9) are the most commonly used symbols for writing numbers. The term often also implies a positional notation number with a decimal base, in particular when contrasted with Roman numerals. ...
s. Gifford provided new vignettes and the Parthenon scenes were repeated from the year before. The 2010 season marked Williams' 22nd as part of the telecast's open. In an unusual coincidence, both games which had the
New York Jets The New York Jets are a professional American football team based in the New York metropolitan area. The Jets compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the American Football Conference (AFC) AFC East, East division. The team p ...
as a home team at New Meadowlands Stadium (now
MetLife Stadium MetLife Stadium is a multi-purpose stadium at the Meadowlands Sports Complex in East Rutherford, New Jersey, United States, 5 mi (8 km) west of New York City. It opened in 2010, replacing Giants Stadium, and serves as the home for the ...
) were delayed because of heavy rain and
lightning Lightning is a natural phenomenon consisting of electrostatic discharges occurring through the atmosphere between two electrically charged regions. One or both regions are within the atmosphere, with the second region sometimes occurring on ...
in the area. In the first instance, the September 13 game against the
Baltimore Ravens The Baltimore Ravens are a professional American football team based in Baltimore. The Ravens compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the American Football Conference (AFC) AFC North, North division. The team plays its home g ...
, it was delayed 25 minutes; the second delay, prior to the October 11 contest against the
Minnesota Vikings The Minnesota Vikings are a professional American football team based in Minneapolis. The Vikings compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) NFC North, North division. Founded in 1960 as ...
, lasted for 40 minutes. Prior to the September 13 game, the last ESPN telecast to encounter weather problems was on October 4, 1998 (a Sunday night) when lightning halted a game between the
Seattle Seahawks The Seattle Seahawks are a professional American football team based in Seattle. The Seahawks compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) NFC West, West division. The club entered the NFL a ...
and
Kansas City Chiefs The Kansas City Chiefs are a professional American football team based in Kansas City, Missouri. The Chiefs compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the American Football Conference (AFC) West division. Established in 1959 ...
during the second quarter. The first delay forced ESPN to use
ESPN2 ESPN2 is an American multinational pay television network owned by ESPN Inc., a joint venture between the Walt Disney Company (which owns a controlling 80% stake) and Hearst Communications (which owns the remaining 20%). ESPN2 was initially ...
for a game telecast, this time for the Chiefs' home opener against the
San Diego Chargers The San Diego Chargers were a professional American football team in the National Football League (NFL). The Chargers played in San Diego, California from 1961 until 2016, before relocating back to the Greater Los Angeles area, where the franch ...
. As in 2007, the broadcast was shifted to ESPN once the first game was over. The game between the Jets and the Vikings was both
Brett Favre Brett Lorenzo Favre ( ; born October 10, 1969) is an American former professional American football, football quarterback who played in the National Football League (NFL) for 20 seasons, primarily with the Green Bay Packers. Favre had 321 cons ...
's first game in East Rutherford since his only season there in 2008 and marked Randy Moss's return to the Vikings. Moss played only four games for Minnesota until he was waived on November 2.


2011 summary

The opening sequence for the 2011 season was set in a closed-studio setting, with Hank Williams Jr. (in his 23rd year) performing with a band with members such as Jimi K Bones from KIX and Blondie, The House Jacks, and Jenny Morrison (
bass guitar The bass guitar (), also known as the electric bass guitar, electric bass, or simply the bass, is the lowest-pitched member of the guitar family. It is similar in appearance and construction to an Electric guitar, electric but with a longer nec ...
), Chris King (
trumpet The trumpet is a brass instrument commonly used in classical and jazz musical ensemble, ensembles. The trumpet group ranges from the piccolo trumpet—with the highest Register (music), register in the brass family—to the bass trumpet, pitche ...
), Clay Lucovich (
trombone The trombone (, Italian, French: ''trombone'') is a musical instrument in the Brass instrument, brass family. As with all brass instruments, sound is produced when the player's lips vibrate inside a mouthpiece, causing the Standing wave, air c ...
), and Florizel Dennis (
baritone saxophone The baritone saxophone (sometimes abbreviated to "bari sax") is a member of the saxophone family of instruments, larger (and lower-pitched) than the tenor saxophone, but smaller (and higher-pitched) than the bass saxophone, bass. It is the lowe ...
) from
Orlando, Florida Orlando ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Orange County, Florida, United States. The city proper had a population of 307,573 at the 2020 census, making it the fourth-most populous city in Florida behind Jacksonville, Florida, Jacksonville ...
ska band Tef London, in front of a live audience with large video screens in the background. The end of the opening sequence featured the team logos of that night's participants transitioning into the new ''ESPN Monday Night Football'' logo before going to a live shot. On October 3, 2011, ESPN pulled the theme song after Williams appeared on the
Fox News Channel The Fox News Channel (FNC), commonly known as Fox News, is an American multinational conservative news and political commentary television channel and website based in New York City, U.S. It is owned by Fox News Media, which itself is ow ...
program, '' Fox & Friends'', where he compared a golf outing involving
Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II (born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who was the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, he was the first African American president in American history. O ...
,
John Boehner John Andrew Boehner ( ; born , 1949) is an American politician who served as the 53rd speaker of the United States House of Representatives from 2011 to 2015. A member of the Republican Party, he served 13 terms as the U.S. representative ...
,
Joe Biden Joseph Robinette Biden Jr. (born November 20, 1942) is an American politician who was the 46th president of the United States from 2021 to 2025. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, he served as the 47th vice p ...
and
John Kasich John Richard Kasich Jr. ( ; born May 13, 1952) is an American politician and author who was the 69th governor of Ohio from 2011 to 2019, a member of the U.S. House of Representatives from 1983 to 2001, and a Republican candidate for the pre ...
to "
Hitler Adolf Hitler (20 April 1889 – 30 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was the dictator of Nazi Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his suicide in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the lea ...
playing golf with Netanyahu." On October 6, 2011, it was announced that Williams would no longer be singing the theme song, and that "All My Rowdy Friends" would no longer be used as its theme, as Williams still owns the song. A statement from ESPN said that the network has "decided to part ways with Hank Williams Jr. We appreciate his contributions over the past years. The success of ''MNF'' has always been about the games and that will continue." Williams commented on the matter: "After reading hundreds of e-mails, I have made my decision... By pulling my opening October 3, SPNstepped on the toes of the First Amendment Freedom of Speech, so therefore me, my song, and ''All My Rowdy Friends'' are out of here. It's been a great run." ''MNF'' did not have an opening sequence at all from Week 4 through the end of that season. With Suzy Kolber reassigned to the new studio show ''NFL32'', and
Michele Tafoya Michele Tafoya (born 1964/1965) is an American reporter and retired sports broadcaster for CBS and NBC. Most notably, from 2011 to 2022, she worked primarily as a sideline reporter for ''NBC Sunday Night Football''. Over the course of her career ...
having left ESPN for ''
NBC Sunday Night Football ''NBC Sunday Night Football'' (abbreviated as ''SNF'') is an American weekly television broadcast of National Football League (NFL) games on NBC and Peacock (streaming service), Peacock in the United States. It began airing on August 6, 2006, w ...
'', the sideline reporter position rotated between various reporters for the season. For the second year in a row, and the third time overall, the beginning of the 10:15 p.m.
Eastern Time The Eastern Time Zone (ET) is a time zone encompassing part or all of 23 states in the eastern part of the United States, parts of eastern Canada, and the state of Quintana Roo in Mexico. * Eastern Standard Time (EST) is five hours behi ...
game (
Oakland Raiders The Oakland Raiders were a professional American football team based in Oakland, California, from its founding in 1960 to 1981, and again from 1995 to 2019 before Oakland Raiders relocation to Las Vegas, relocating to the Las Vegas metropolitan ...
at
Denver Broncos The Denver Broncos are a professional American football team based in Denver. The Broncos compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the American Football Conference (AFC) AFC West, West division. The team is headquartered in E ...
) was shown on ESPN2 as the game that began at 7:00 pm. Eastern Time (
New England Patriots The New England Patriots are a professional American football team based in the Greater Boston area. The Patriots compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the American Football Conference (AFC) AFC East, East division. The Pa ...
at
Miami Dolphins The Miami Dolphins are a professional American football team based in the Miami metropolitan area. The Dolphins compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the American Football Conference (AFC) AFC East, East division. The team ...
) ran past the scheduled time period.


2012 summary

Lisa Salters Alisia "Lisa" Salters (born March 6, 1966) is an American journalist and former college basketball player. She has been a reporter for ESPN and ESPN on ABC since 2000. Salters previously covered the O. J. Simpson murder case for American Broadc ...
was named the permanent solo sideline reporter for the 2012 season. In addition,
color commentator A color commentator or expert commentator is a sports commentator who assists the main (play-by-play) commentator, typically by filling in when play is not in progress. The person may also be referred to as a summariser (outside North America) ...
Ron Jaworski did not return to the booth after 5 seasons. As a result, Jon Gruden became the solo color commentator, with ''MNF'' going back to a two-man booth for the first time since its final season on ABC (2005). ''MNF''s opening graphic sequence, which showed the helmet logos of the game's two participating NFL teams and then the program's logo, was seen before the ''Monday Night Football Launch'' segment.


2013–14 summary

The opening animation sequence begins with an image of a 2014 GMC Sierra ( GMC paid for product placement) and then goes into a timeline of historical events that occurred during the ''Monday Night Football'' era, including some highlights of ''MNF'' games from the previous 43 seasons up to 2012. At the end of the sequence, helmets featuring logos of that night's two participating teams are shown, followed by the various ''Monday Night Football'' logos used since the program's debut in 1970. The 80-second opening animation sequence, which also featured
Pac-Man ''Pac-Man,'' originally called in Japan, is a 1980 maze video game developed and published by Namco for arcades. In North America, the game was released by Midway Manufacturing as part of its licensing agreement with Namco America. The pla ...
,
Darth Vader Darth Vader () is a fictional character in the ''Star Wars'' franchise. He was first introduced in the original film trilogy as the primary antagonist and one of the leaders of the Galactic Empire. He has become one of the most iconic villain ...
and President
Ronald Reagan Ronald Wilson Reagan (February 6, 1911 – June 5, 2004) was an American politician and actor who served as the 40th president of the United States from 1981 to 1989. He was a member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party a ...
, was created by actor/filmmaker
Peter Berg Peter Berg (born March 11, 1964) is an American director, producer, writer, and actor. His directorial film works include the black comedy '' Very Bad Things'' (1998), the action comedy '' The Rundown'' (2003), the sports drama '' Friday Night ...
. A revision of the opening sequence was used for the 2014 season. Among the few changes, GMC's product placement promoted the automaker's line of
Denali Denali (), federally designated as Mount McKinley, is the highest mountain peak in North America, with a summit elevation of above sea level. It is the tallest mountain in the world from base to peak on land, measuring . On p. 20 of Helm ...
vehicles, while the sequence itself included some additional highlights of ''MNF'' games from the previous 44 seasons up to 2013.


2015 summary

A 3D opening animation sequence is used for the 2015 season (46th season overall and tenth on ESPN). GMC's product placement once again promoted the automaker's line of Denali vehicles, including the Yukon Denali that is seen at the beginning. Also among the many changes is the highlights of ''MNF'' games – this time, they are set inside a computer-generated stadium using 3D imagery – from the previous 45 seasons up to 2014. This was
Mike Tirico Michael Todd Tirico (; born December 13, 1966) is an American sportscaster. He is currently the lead play-by-play announcer for ''NBC Sunday Night Football'', having replaced Al Michaels in 2022, and is set to become the lead play-by-play anno ...
's final season as the play-by-play announcer for ''MNF'', as he would join
NBC Sports NBC Sports is an American programming division for NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast, that is responsible for sports broadcasts on their broadcast network NBC, the Cable television, cable channels NBC owns, and on Peacock (streaming service) ...
in June 2016.


2016 summary

After three years of using the timeline-themed open, ''MNF'' debuted a new 75-second, Hollywood-themed open on September 12, 2016, featuring ESPN's new ''MNF'' broadcast team –
Sean McDonough Sean McDonough (born May 13, 1962) is an American sportscaster, currently employed by ESPN and the WEEI Boston Red Sox Radio Network. McDonough has play-by-play experience for all four major professional sports leagues in the United States an ...
(play-by-play), Jon Gruden (color) and
Lisa Salters Alisia "Lisa" Salters (born March 6, 1966) is an American journalist and former college basketball player. She has been a reporter for ESPN and ESPN on ABC since 2000. Salters previously covered the O. J. Simpson murder case for American Broadc ...
(sideline reporter) – and more than 20 active NFL stars and Pro Football Hall of Famers walking along a
red carpet A red carpet is traditionally used to mark the route taken by heads of state on ceremonial and formal occasions, and has in recent decades been extended to use by Very Important Person, VIPs and celebrity, celebrities at formal events. History ...
entrance lined by cheering fans and photographers taking pictures. It began with a shot of a downtown stadium surrounded by skyscrapers, with a 2017 GMC Acadia (product placement again provided by GMC) displaying the location for that week's ''MNF'' game on its
navigation system A navigation system is a computing system that aids in navigation. Navigation systems may be entirely on board the vehicle or vessel that the system is controlling (for example, on the ship's bridge) or located elsewhere, making use of radio or oth ...
. The Acadia then headed to a glitzy red carpet at the stadium's entrance, where McDonough, Gruden and Salters exit the car, followed on the carpet by a flood of NFL players representing the past and present of ''MNF''. Players then posed for pictures and wave to the crowd as they reach the stadium entrance. Josh Norman (Redskins), Larry Fitzgerald (Cardinals) and
Rob Gronkowski Robert James Gronkowski (born May 14, 1989) is an American former professional American football, football tight end who played in the National Football League (NFL) for 11 seasons. Nicknamed "Gronk", Gronkowski played nine seasons for the Ne ...
(Patriots) were among the current players being represented in the open, with Franco Harris (Steelers), Jerry Rice (49ers), Barry Sanders (Lions) and Bruce Smith (Bills) among the past players being represented. For the
Spanish-language Spanish () or Castilian () is a Romance languages, Romance language of the Indo-European languages, Indo-European language family that evolved from the Vulgar Latin spoken on the Iberian Peninsula of Europe. Today, it is a world language, gl ...
version of the Hollywood-themed open, it featured ESPN's Spanish-language ''MNF'' broadcast team – Álvaro Martín (play-by-play), Raúl Allegre (color) and John Sutcliffe (sideline reporter) as well as the current Hispanic NFL players and the team of the Latin American version of ''NFL Live'' led by Ciro Procuna.


2017 summary

''MNF'' returned to two teases for the first time since its first season on ESPN (2006). The Hollywood-themed open was repeated from the previous season, this time with the 2018 GMC Terrain being used as the automaker's product placement. Also, Hank Williams Jr. returned to ''MNF'' on September 11, 2017, with an all-new version of the iconic opening theme song, "All My Rowdy Friends Are Here on Monday Night" (used from
1989 1989 was a turning point in political history with the "Revolutions of 1989" which ended communism in Eastern Bloc of Europe, starting in Poland and Hungary, with experiments in power-sharing coming to a head with the opening of the Berlin W ...
to Week 3 of the 2011 season) and it appeared just before that night's
New Orleans Saints The New Orleans Saints are a professional American football team based in New Orleans. The Saints compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) NFC South, South division. Since 1975, the team ...
Minnesota Vikings The Minnesota Vikings are a professional American football team based in Minneapolis. The Vikings compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) NFC North, North division. Founded in 1960 as ...
game. The new version, which is seen just before the kickoff of each game, is a collaboration of Williams Jr., country duo
Florida Georgia Line Florida Georgia Line was an American country music duo founded in 2010 by vocalists and songwriters Tyler Hubbard of Georgia and Brian Kelley of Florida. Their 2012 debut single " Cruise" broke two major sales records: it was downloaded over ...
, and R&B singer
Jason Derulo Jason Joel Desrouleaux (born September 21, 1989), known professionally as Jason Derulo (; formerly stylized as Derülo), is an American singer, songwriter and dancer. Since the start of his solo recording career in 2009, he has sold over 250 m ...
. The second game of the Week 1 ''MNF'' doubleheader between the
Los Angeles Chargers The Los Angeles Chargers are a professional American football team based in the Greater Los Angeles, Greater Los Angeles area. The Chargers compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the American Football Conference (AFC) AFC W ...
and the
Denver Broncos The Denver Broncos are a professional American football team based in Denver. The Broncos compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the American Football Conference (AFC) AFC West, West division. The team is headquartered in E ...
saw Beth Mowins become the first woman to call a nationally televised NFL game.


2018 summary

2018 brought in a shakeup of the booth. Jon Gruden left ''MNF'' after 9 seasons and returned to coaching with the
Oakland Raiders The Oakland Raiders were a professional American football team based in Oakland, California, from its founding in 1960 to 1981, and again from 1995 to 2019 before Oakland Raiders relocation to Las Vegas, relocating to the Las Vegas metropolitan ...
and was replaced by Jason Witten, formerly a tight end for the
Dallas Cowboys The Dallas Cowboys are a professional American football team based in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex. The Cowboys compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) NFC East, East division. T ...
.
Sean McDonough Sean McDonough (born May 13, 1962) is an American sportscaster, currently employed by ESPN and the WEEI Boston Red Sox Radio Network. McDonough has play-by-play experience for all four major professional sports leagues in the United States an ...
and Joe Tessitore traded places, with McDonough taking Tessitore's place in the college booth, and Tessitore taking McDonough's place in the ''MNF'' booth. In addition, Booger McFarland, who has been a college football analyst for the network since 2014, joined the ''MNF'' team as field analyst and consultant. Finally,
rules analyst A color commentator or expert commentator is a sports commentator who assists the main (play-by-play) commentator, typically by filling in when play is not in progress. The person may also be referred to as a summariser (outside North America) ...
Gerald Austin left ''MNF'' to work as an adviser to Gruden and the Raiders and was replaced by recently retired referee Jeff Triplette.
Lisa Salters Alisia "Lisa" Salters (born March 6, 1966) is an American journalist and former college basketball player. She has been a reporter for ESPN and ESPN on ABC since 2000. Salters previously covered the O. J. Simpson murder case for American Broadc ...
remained the sideline reporter. Also, ESPN once again scaled back to only one opening tease for the 2018 season, as the Hollywood-themed open was dropped after two seasons. "All My Rowdy Friends Are Here on Monday Night" featuring country music legend Hank Williams Jr., country music duo Florida Georgia Line and R&B singer Jason Derulo returned from the previous season and is once again seen just before the opening kickoff. Due to the
Thousand Oaks shooting On November 7, 2018, a mass shooting occurred in Thousand Oaks, California, United States, at the Borderline Bar and Grill, a country-western bar frequented by college students. Thirteen people were killed, including the perpetrator, who died of ...
, and the then-ongoing Northern California wildfires, the opening intro was not shown during the November 12 broadcast between Pro Bowl wide receiver
Odell Beckham Jr. Odell Cornelious Beckham Jr. (born November 5, 1992), commonly known by his initials OBJ, is an American professional American football, football wide receiver. He played college football for the LSU Tigers football, LSU Tigers and was selected ...
and the
New York Giants The New York Giants are a professional American football team based in the New York metropolitan area. The Giants compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) NFC East, East division. The ...
and Super Bowl-winning cornerback Richard Sherman and the
San Francisco 49ers The San Francisco 49ers (also written as the San Francisco Forty-Niners and nicknamed the Niners) are a professional American football team based in the San Francisco Bay Area. The 49ers compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member ...
and also, the historic
Kansas City Chiefs The Kansas City Chiefs are a professional American football team based in Kansas City, Missouri. The Chiefs compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the American Football Conference (AFC) West division. Established in 1959 ...
Los Angeles Rams The Los Angeles Rams are a professional American football team based in the Greater Los Angeles, Greater Los Angeles area. The Rams compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) NFC West, West ...
game A game is a structured type of play usually undertaken for entertainment or fun, and sometimes used as an educational tool. Many games are also considered to be work (such as professional players of spectator sports or video games) or art ...
the following week (November 19). In the case of the latter, it was originally scheduled to be played at
Estadio Azteca Estadio Azteca () (officially known as Estadio Banorte for sponsorship reasons) is a football stadium located in Coyoacán, Mexico City. It is the official home of football team Club América, as well as the Mexico national team. The stadium ...
in Mexico City, but was moved to the
Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum The Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum (also known as the Los Angeles Coliseum or L.A. Coliseum) is a multi-purpose stadium in the Exposition Park, Los Angeles, Exposition Park neighborhood of Los Angeles, California, United States. Conceived as a hal ...
(the Rams' home stadium at the time, which itself last hosted a ''Monday Night Football'' game in 1985) due to the poor field conditions at the former. The game would be the highest scoring game in ''MNF'' history, with the Rams defeating the Chiefs by a score of 54–51. In addition, ESPN also added musical performances during the halftime segment, branded as the '' Genesis Halftime Show'' as part of a sponsorship deal. These performances typically aired at the end of the commercial-free halftime segments and, with the expectation of the Chiefs–Rams game in which there was a live performance, were typically prerecorded in various locations, usually around the city where that week's ''MNF'' game took place.


2019 summary

ESPN underwent another broadcast booth shakeup, as Jason Witten left to return to the
Dallas Cowboys The Dallas Cowboys are a professional American football team based in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex. The Cowboys compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) NFC East, East division. T ...
, and rules analyst Jeff Triplette left after one season. Triplette was replaced with John Parry, who retired after Super Bowl LIII. Witten was not replaced, therefore making the 2019 broadcast team consist of Joe Tessitore (play-by-play), Booger McFarland (color commentator) and Lisa Salters (sideline reporter). The network also brought back Hank Williams Jr. to perform "All My Rowdy Friends Are Here on Monday Night", which for the first time since 2011, he performed solo, as
Florida Georgia Line Florida Georgia Line was an American country music duo founded in 2010 by vocalists and songwriters Tyler Hubbard of Georgia and Brian Kelley of Florida. Their 2012 debut single " Cruise" broke two major sales records: it was downloaded over ...
and
Jason Derulo Jason Joel Desrouleaux (born September 21, 1989), known professionally as Jason Derulo (; formerly stylized as Derülo), is an American singer, songwriter and dancer. Since the start of his solo recording career in 2009, he has sold over 250 m ...
all departed after two seasons. The intro to ''Monday Night Football'' also celebrated the 50th season of the program with NFL Legends and Hall of Famers or current NFL players (Texans' J. J. Watt for the Playoffs) saying "Are you ready for some football?" before Williams Jr. begins playing. The ''Genesis Halftime Show'' returned for another season and continued to feature prerecorded musical performances; however they were later dropped on October 28 due to poor reception from viewers and was replaced with additional game analysis although Genesis continued to sponsor the halftime show for the remainder of the season.


2020s


2020 summary

After poor reviews and major criticism, the 2020 season saw another major revamp to ESPN's booth, with Steve Levy, Brian Griese, and Louis Riddick, who called one of ESPN's opening week doubleheader games the year before, replacing Joe Tessitore and Booger McFarland. McFarland, however, would switch places with Riddick, taking over in the studio. ESPN/ABC's lead college football commentary team of Chris Fowler,
Kirk Herbstreit Kirk Edward Herbstreit (; born August 19, 1969) is an American sportscaster and former college football player. He serves as an analyst for ESPN's ''College GameDay (football TV program), College GameDay'', a television program covering college f ...
, and Maria Taylor called the first game of the Week 1 doubleheader (as Fowler and Taylor were already in the New York area handling the US Open (Fowler) and the
NBA Playoffs The NBA playoffs is the annual Playoffs, postseason Tournament#Knockout tournaments, tournament of the National Basketball Association (NBA) held to determine the league champion. Since 1949, the four-round, best-of-seven tournament is held afte ...
(Taylor) respectively). Fowler and Herbstreit were considered as the new MNF booth, if the 2020 college football season were to be canceled due to the
COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...
. To formally celebrate the 50th anniversary of ''Monday Night Football'', the Las Vegas Raiders' Week 2 home opener (their first after relocating from Oakland) was simulcast by ABC. The game also featured a special Monday Night Megacast, hosted by
Rece Davis William Laurece Davis (born ) is an American sports television journalist for ESPN/ESPN on ABC, ABC. Davis works as an anchor on ''SportsCenter'' and serves as host of various other programs on the network, including ''College GameDay (football ...
and Herbstreit. This alternate broadcast aired on
ESPN2 ESPN2 is an American multinational pay television network owned by ESPN Inc., a joint venture between the Walt Disney Company (which owns a controlling 80% stake) and Hearst Communications (which owns the remaining 20%). ESPN2 was initially ...
, the first time it had aired an NFL game in its entirety. The Hank Williams Jr. ''MNF'' theme was once again dropped, being replaced by a cover of
Little Richard Richard Wayne Penniman (December 5, 1932 – May 9, 2020), known professionally as Little Richard, was an American singer, pianist, and songwriter. He was an influential figure in popular music and culture for seven decades. Described as the "Ar ...
's " Rip It Up" by Virginia-based band Butcher Brown. As the game was postponed to October 12 due to a player testing positive for
COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2. In January 2020, the disease spread worldwide, resulting in the COVID-19 pandemic. The symptoms of COVID‑19 can vary but often include fever ...
, the Week 5 game between the
Denver Broncos The Denver Broncos are a professional American football team based in Denver. The Broncos compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the American Football Conference (AFC) AFC West, West division. The team is headquartered in E ...
and
New England Patriots The New England Patriots are a professional American football team based in the Greater Boston area. The Patriots compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the American Football Conference (AFC) AFC East, East division. The Pa ...
was reassigned to ESPN as the first half of a rare in-season ''MNF'' doubleheader, with the game scheduled for a 5:00 p.m. ET kickoff. Fowler and Herbstreit were slated to return and call the game. This time, they would have been joined by Laura Rutledge, host of '' NFL Live'' and '' SEC Nation'' on
SEC Network SEC Network (SECN) is an American multinational sports network owned by ESPN Inc., a joint venture between The Walt Disney Company (which operates the network, through its 80% controlling ownership interest) and Hearst Communications (which hold ...
. However, the game was ultimately postponed to the following Sunday as a Week 6 game due to further positive tests. Rutledge would eventually fill in for Lisa Salters during the Week 16 ''MNF'' game in Foxborough, as Salters had been following ESPN's COVID-19 protocols. ESPN announced on November 30 that two December Monday night games, both involving the
Buffalo Bills The Buffalo Bills are a professional American football team based in the Buffalo–Niagara Falls metropolitan area. The Bills compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the American Football Conference (AFC) AFC East, East div ...
, would be simulcast on ABC. Also announced on November 30 was the debut of the NFL Playoff Megacast, which featured alternate feeds of the
Baltimore Ravens The Baltimore Ravens are a professional American football team based in Baltimore. The Ravens compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the American Football Conference (AFC) AFC North, North division. The team plays its home g ...
Tennessee Titans The Tennessee Titans are a professional American football team based in Nashville, Tennessee. The Titans compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the American Football Conference (AFC) AFC South, South division. They play the ...
matchup on ESPN2,
ESPN+ ESPN+ is an American over-the-top subscription video streaming service available in the United States, owned by ESPN Inc., which is a joint venture between the Walt Disney Company (which owns a controlling 80% stake) and Hearst Communicati ...
, and Freeform. The December 21 matchup between the
Pittsburgh Steelers The Pittsburgh Steelers are a professional American football team based in Pittsburgh. The Steelers compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the American Football Conference (AFC) AFC North, North division. Founded in 1933 P ...
and
Cincinnati Bengals The Cincinnati Bengals are a professional American football team based in Cincinnati. The Bengals compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the American Football Conference (AFC) AFC North, North division. The team plays its h ...
featured the Muppets and was themed as "Muppet Night Football." In the opening broadcast of the game,
Kermit the Frog Kermit the Frog is a Muppet character created in 1955 and originally performed by Jim Henson. An anthropomorphic green frog, Kermit is the pragmatic everyman protagonist of numerous Muppet productions, most notably as the showrunner and host o ...
and
Miss Piggy Miss Piggy is a The Muppets, Muppet character known for her Breakthrough role, breakout role in the sketch comedy television series ''The Muppet Show''. She is notable for her temperamental diva superstar personality, her tendency to use French l ...
served as announcers from the booth while Fozzie Bear reported from the sidelines. After their appearance in the opening broadcast, the Muppets soon re-appeared with Rowlf the Dog, Scooter,
Gonzo Gonzo may refer to: People * Gonzo (nickname), a list of people with the nickname * Radislav Jovanov Gonzo (born 1964), Croatian music video director Radislav Jovanov, also known as Gonzo * Matthias Röhr (born 1962), German musician whose stage ...
,
Animal Animals are multicellular, eukaryotic organisms in the Biology, biological Kingdom (biology), kingdom Animalia (). With few exceptions, animals heterotroph, consume organic material, Cellular respiration#Aerobic respiration, breathe oxygen, ...
, Beaker, the Swedish Chef and others singing a football-themed rendition " Carol of the Bells". As a result of the
COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...
, the segments involving the Muppets were shot with
puppeteers A puppeteer is a person who manipulates an inanimate object called a puppet to create the illusion that the puppet is alive. The puppet is often shaped like a human, animal, or legendary creature. The puppeteer may be visible to or hidden from the ...
in front of a green screen at home.


2021 summary

For the first time since 2005, there was no season-opening doubleheader as the opening game of ''Monday Night Football''s 52nd season consisted only of the
Baltimore Ravens The Baltimore Ravens are a professional American football team based in Baltimore. The Ravens compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the American Football Conference (AFC) AFC North, North division. The team plays its home g ...
Las Vegas Raiders The Las Vegas Raiders are a professional American football team based in the Las Vegas Valley, Las Vegas metropolitan area. The Raiders compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the American Football Conference (AFC) AFC West ...
matchup, which was aired on ESPN and simulcast on ABC,
ESPN2 ESPN2 is an American multinational pay television network owned by ESPN Inc., a joint venture between the Walt Disney Company (which owns a controlling 80% stake) and Hearst Communications (which owns the remaining 20%). ESPN2 was initially ...
, and
ESPN+ ESPN+ is an American over-the-top subscription video streaming service available in the United States, owned by ESPN Inc., which is a joint venture between the Walt Disney Company (which owns a controlling 80% stake) and Hearst Communicati ...
, as part of the network's Megacast series. Also, Butcher Brown's cover of Little Richard's "Rip it Up" returned for the second consecutive year as the intro theme for ''MNF''. Like last season, two late-season games, both being NFC rivalries, were simulcast on ABC, as well as ESPN+. ABC and ESPN+ also simulcast the first ever Week 18 Saturday Doubleheader, a new addition to ESPN's schedule, which was part of the NFL expanding their regular season from 16 to 17 games, and to accommodate ESPN's new NFL media rights deal, which includes the Saturday Doubleheader, a Sunday International game for ESPN+ subscribers, more games on ABC, a Divisional playoff game, and Super Bowls LXI and LXV on ABC, along with rights for ESPN+ to simulcast every ESPN/ABC game, accommodate select games with alternate broadcasts, and flex scheduling beginning in 2023. On July 19, ESPN announced an agreement with Omaha Productions, the production company of
Peyton Manning Peyton Williams Manning (born March 24, 1976) is an American former professional American football, football quarterback who played in the National Football League (NFL) for 18 seasons. Nicknamed "the Sheriff", he spent 14 seasons with the In ...
, to produce alternate telecasts of ''Monday Night Football'' with Manning, his brother
Eli Eli most commonly refers to: * Eli (name), a given name, nickname and surname * Eli (biblical figure) Eli or ELI may also refer to: Film * ''Eli'' (2015 film), a Tamil film * ''Eli'' (2019 film), an American horror film Music * ''Eli'' (Jan ...
, and guest celebrities for ten games each season on
ESPN2 ESPN2 is an American multinational pay television network owned by ESPN Inc., a joint venture between the Walt Disney Company (which owns a controlling 80% stake) and Hearst Communications (which owns the remaining 20%). ESPN2 was initially ...
and
ESPN+ ESPN+ is an American over-the-top subscription video streaming service available in the United States, owned by ESPN Inc., which is a joint venture between the Walt Disney Company (which owns a controlling 80% stake) and Hearst Communicati ...
, from 2021 through 2023. The Manningcast would also be a part of ESPN's first ever Monday Night Super Wild Card Megacast, which had alternate broadcasts of the game on ESPN2 and ESPN+, to accommodate the main broadcast on ESPN, ABC, and ESPN+. The success of the Manningcast's first season would lead to ESPN adding an extra year to their deal with Omaha Productions in the offseason.


2022 summary

This season, ESPN will be working under a new bridge deal to transition themselves into the next television contract. The 2022 season will see ESPN+ add a Sunday International game, an exclusive ''MNF'' game on ABC, and the continuation of the Week 18 Saturday Doubleheader. ESPN made a colossal change to the ''MNF'' booth, the fourth change since 2015, when the network hired
Joe Buck Joseph Francis Buck (born April 25, 1969) is an American sportscaster for ESPN. The son of sportscaster Jack Buck, he worked for Fox Sports from its 1994 inception through 2022, including roles as lead play-by-play announcer for Fox's Nati ...
and Troy Aikman, who were Fox's lead commentary team for the past 20 seasons, as the new announcers for ''MNF'', replacing Levy, Griese (who eventually left ESPN to become the new quarterbacks coach of the
San Francisco 49ers The San Francisco 49ers (also written as the San Francisco Forty-Niners and nicknamed the Niners) are a professional American football team based in the San Francisco Bay Area. The 49ers compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member ...
), and Riddick. Levy and Riddick will continue to call doubleheaders as the #2 team, with
Dan Orlovsky Dan Orlovsky (born August 18, 1983) is an American American football, football analyst for ESPN and former professional football player. He played as a quarterback for 12 seasons in the National Football League (NFL), primarily as a backup. Or ...
replacing Griese and Laura Rutledge serving as that team's sideline reporter. Butcher Brown's cover of "Rip it Up" did not return as the intro theme for MNF. Instead, a remix of "Heavy Action" was used, produced by EDM producer and DJ
Marshmello Christopher Comstock (born May 19, 1992), known professionally as Marshmello, is an American DJ and record producer. His songs "Silence (Marshmello song), Silence" (featuring Khalid (American singer), Khalid), "Wolves (Selena Gomez and Mar ...
.


2023 summary

For the 2023 season, ESPN aired four exclusive ''MNF'' games on ABC (Cleveland Browns vs Pittsburgh Steelers in Week 2, Philadelphia Eagles vs Tampa Bay Buccaneers in Week 3, Green Bay Packers vs. New York Giants in Week 14, and Baltimore Ravens vs. San Francisco 49ers in Week 16). On September 18, 2023, as previously mentioned, ABC did simulcast 10 additional ''MNF'' games that were originally slated to air only on ESPN, starting with the Week 4 game between the Seattle Seahawks and the New York Giants, making this the first time since 2005 in which ABC will air ''Monday Night Football'' games all season long. During this season, Joe Buck and Troy Aikman became the NFL's longest-tenured broadcasting team surpassing Pat Summerall and John Madden. The #2 booth saw ESPN's lead college football play-by-play announcer Chris Fowler take over for Levy with Riddick and Orlovsky. The trio called all three ESPN-exclusive games, as well as the London game (Atlanta Falcons vs. Jacksonville Jaguars) in Week 4 and one of the two Week 18 Saturday doubleheader games. The London game also featured a youth-oriented alternate broadcast on ESPN+ and
Disney+ The Walt Disney Company, commonly referred to as simply Disney, is an American multinational mass media and entertainment industry, entertainment conglomerate (company), conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios (Burbank), Walt Di ...
, using the league's player tracking data to render a live animated version of the game portrayed by characters from the ''Toy Story'' franchise. This was the first year in which flex scheduling would now apply to ''MNF'' games between Weeks 12 and 17, enabling ESPN to select more viable matchups in later weeks of the season. On November 30, 2023, the Week 15 matchup between the
Kansas City Chiefs The Kansas City Chiefs are a professional American football team based in Kansas City, Missouri. The Chiefs compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the American Football Conference (AFC) West division. Established in 1959 ...
at the
New England Patriots The New England Patriots are a professional American football team based in the Greater Boston area. The Patriots compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the American Football Conference (AFC) AFC East, East division. The Pa ...
was flexed out of Monday Night Football in favor of the
Philadelphia Eagles The Philadelphia Eagles are a professional American football team based in Philadelphia. The Eagles compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) NFC East, East division. The team plays its ...
at the
Seattle Seahawks The Seattle Seahawks are a professional American football team based in Seattle. The Seahawks compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) NFC West, West division. The club entered the NFL a ...
.


2024 summary

For the 2024 season, ESPN originally reduced the amount of ABC simulcasts to four, but maintained the three exclusive ''MNF'' games on ABC (Washington Commanders vs Cincinnati Bengals in Week 3, Seattle Seahawks vs Detroit Lions in Week 4, and Chicago Bears vs. Minnesota Vikings in Week 15). In addition, in lieu of a London game, ESPN+'s exclusive game will air on a Monday night in Week 7, with the Los Angeles Chargers facing the Arizona Cardinals. It will be the first MNF game that ESPN+ exclusively streams. On October 11, ESPN announced that four more ABC simulcasts were added to the schedule. ESPN further announced on October 28 that ESPN+,
Disney+ The Walt Disney Company, commonly referred to as simply Disney, is an American multinational mass media and entertainment industry, entertainment conglomerate (company), conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios (Burbank), Walt Di ...
and NFL+ will stream an alternate broadcast Cincinnati Bengals vs. Dallas Cowboys called '' The Simpsons Funday Football'' in Week 14 that will use the league's player tracking data to render a live animated version of the game portrayed by characters from '' ''The Simpsons'' franchise''. This is the second year in which flex scheduling applies to ''MNF'' games. Games between Weeks 12 and 17 enable ESPN to select more viable matchups in later weeks of the season, though ESPN waived Week 12 due to the lead time involving pre-production elements for ''The Simpsons Funday Football'' broadcast.


Anthems

Hank Williams Jr. reworked his country music hit " All My Rowdy Friends Are Coming Over Tonight" to be included in the telecast's introduction as "All My Rowdy Friends Are Here on Monday Night" (the original introduction music was an organ-based piece called "Score", written by Charles Fox and recorded by Bob's Band). In addition, Edd Kalehoff modernized the classic " Heavy Action" theme in 1989. For ABC's last ''MNF'' game in 2005, Williams Jr.'s rendition of " Turn Out the Lights, The Party's Over", closed the broadcast. In 2018, ESPN brought back the classic "Heavy Action" theme as the main theme song for ''Monday Night Football''. In 2020, ESPN replaced Hank Williams Jr.'s ''MNF'' theme with a cover of
Little Richard Richard Wayne Penniman (December 5, 1932 – May 9, 2020), known professionally as Little Richard, was an American singer, pianist, and songwriter. He was an influential figure in popular music and culture for seven decades. Described as the "Ar ...
's " Rip It Up" by Virginia-based band Butcher Brown for the 2020 and 2021 seasons. For the 2021–22 season, the theme sometimes played in reverse. In 2022, ESPN added the remixed version of "Heavy Action" done by American DJ
Marshmello Christopher Comstock (born May 19, 1992), known professionally as Marshmello, is an American DJ and record producer. His songs "Silence (Marshmello song), Silence" (featuring Khalid (American singer), Khalid), "Wolves (Selena Gomez and Mar ...
as the intro theme for ''MNF'' as a replacement for Butcher Brown's ''Rip It Up''; the aforementioned original version of "Heavy Action" is still being used in the broadcast. In 2023, ESPN debuted the official new opening song, "In the Air Tonight," a cover of the 1981
Phil Collins Philip David Charles Collins (born 30 January 1951) is an English musician, songwriter, record producer and actor. He was the drummer and later became the lead singer of the rock band Genesis (band), Genesis and had a successful solo career, ac ...
classic, featuring Chris Stapleton, Cindy Blackman Santana, and
Snoop Dogg Calvin Cordozar Broadus Jr. ( ; born October 20, 1971), better known by his stage name Snoop Dogg (previously Snoop Doggy Dogg), is an American rapper, record producer, and actor. Rooted in West Coast hip-hop, he is widely regarded as one of t ...
. The new opening song is co-produced by ESPN's Creative Content Unit and Grammy-winning musician David Cobb, with lyrics written by
MK Asante M. K. Asante (born November 3, 1982) is an American author, filmmaker, songwriter, recording artist, and professor. He is the author of the 2013 best-selling memoir ''Buck: A Memoir'' and the 2024 memoir ''Nephew: A Memoir in Four-Part Harmony'' ...
. The song aired before all Monday Night Football games as well as ESPN's week 18 Saturday doubleheader, super wild card and first divisional playoff game. This theme was retained for the 2024 season.


Digital on-screen graphics

Prior to 1997, ''Monday Night Football'' had a limited graphics package. A CGI-based intro began being used in 1984, with on-screen graphics still limited to basic text. In 1988, the entire graphics package was updated significantly to be more in line with the rest of
ABC Sports ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script. ABC or abc may also refer to: Arts, entertainment and media Broadcasting * Aliw Broadcasting Corporation, Philippine broadcast company * American Broadcasting Company, a commercial America ...
' presentations. That year, it introduced the "clashing helmets" intro, with on-screen graphics consisting of italicized text underlined in red. It was updated in
1994 The year 1994 was designated as the " International Year of the Family" and the "International Year of Sport and the Olympic Ideal" by the United Nations. In the Line Islands and Phoenix Islands of Kiribati, 1994 had only 364 days, omitti ...
, the year the network hosted
Super Bowl XXIX Super Bowl XXIX was an American football game between the American Football Conference (AFC) champion San Diego Chargers and the National Football Conference (NFC) champion San Francisco 49ers to decide the National Football League (NFL) champ ...
, with a more box-like design. A permanent score bug would not be introduced until
1997 Events January * January 1 – The Emergency Alert System is introduced in the United States. * January 11 – Turkey threatens Cyprus on account of a deal to buy Russian S-300 missiles, prompting the Cypriot Missile Crisis. * January 1 ...
.


1997–2005

''Monday Night Football'' began using a score bug in 1997, the second network to do so after Fox introduced the first regular on-screen scoring bug when it began airing NFL games in 1994. Prior to this, the graphics package was limited, but followed a basic "ketchup and mustard" color scheme of red and yellow. The first scorebug included team names, scores, time remaining, and displayed which quarter the game was in. This design was used through the 1998 season. ABC hosted
Super Bowl XXXIV Super Bowl XXXIV was an American football game played at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta, Georgia, on January 30, 2000, to determine the National Football League (NFL) champion for the 1999 season. The National Football Conference (NFC) champion ...
for 1999, and updated its graphics package to more closely resemble those of sister cable network ESPN. ABC began using extended abbreviations for team names (for example, " TENN", " VIKES", "
PACK Pack or packs may refer to: Music * Packs (band), a Canadian indie rock band * ''Packs'' (album), by Your Old Droog * ''Packs'', a Berner album Places * Pack, Styria, defunct Austrian municipality * Pack, Missouri, United States (US) * ...
", and "
FINS A fin is a thin component or appendage attached to a larger body or structure. Fins typically function as foil (fluid mechanics), foils that produce lift (force), lift or thrust, or provide the ability to steer or stabilize motion while travelin ...
" instead of "TEN", "MIN", "GB", and "MIA"), as four-letter and five-letter abbreviations were used on ESPN coverage. The result was a larger scorebug with a more conventional font. It was slightly modified in
2000 2000 was designated as the International Year for the Culture of Peace and the World Mathematics, Mathematical Year. Popular culture holds the year 2000 as the first year of the 21st century and the 3rd millennium, because of a tende ...
to have a border that was more in line with the red and yellow color scheme. The graphics for ''Monday Night Football'' were changed in the 2002 season, the year the network hosted Super Bowl XXXVII. The scorebug was a solid color, with a more rounded shape, and a horizontally compressed font. ESPN's graphics were no longer similar to those of ABC's (with ESPN instead using a gray and black design with rounded corners). In
2005 2005 was designated as the International Year for Sport and Physical Education and the International Year of Microcredit. The beginning of 2005 also marked the end of the International Decade of the World's Indigenous Peoples, Internationa ...
, the broadcast's final year on ABC, ''Monday Night Football'' began using a horizontal bar on the bottom of the screen rather than a scorebug, with all information being contained on a single line.


2006–present

After ''MNF'' moved to ESPN in 2006, ESPN adopted new red and black graphics with heavier use of 3D elements and animations; this package would be adopted by other major ESPN properties, including
college football College football is gridiron football that is played by teams of amateur Student athlete, student-athletes at universities and colleges. It was through collegiate competition that gridiron football American football in the United States, firs ...
, the
NBA The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball league in North America composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada). The NBA is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United States and Ca ...
,
Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball league composed of 30 teams, divided equally between the National League (baseball), National League (NL) and the American League (AL), with 29 in the United States and 1 in Canada. MLB i ...
, and NASCAR on ESPN, NASCAR among others. For ''MNF'', a "pod" scoreboard at the bottom-center of the screen was used. For the 2008 season, a new graphics scheme was introduced, in which the scorebar and all lower thirds were confined to a dedicated "dashboard" area spanning across the bottom of the screen. Lower third graphics replaced the scorebar when in use. For 2009, an updated metallic silver design was introduced, dropping the "dashboard". The scheme would, again, be adopted by other major ESPN properties. In the 2011 season, ''MNF'' introduced a dedicated graphics package with a red and black metallic design and larger scoreboard, as well as a redesigned ''MNF'' shield logo. For the 2015 season, ESPN introduced another overhaul of its ''MNF'' graphics, with a new scoreboard spanning the bottom of the screen; the scoreboard was also sometimes hidden when plays were in progress. This design persisted through 2018, although with amendments in its final season (including a different, italicized font for the scoreboard and downs indicator, and the downs indicator now resembling an arrow, and alternating sides of the screen with the ESPN logo depending on the direction of play). In 2019, ESPN introduced a new graphics scheme for its NFL programming (modeled upon branding it debuted during the NFL Draft in 2018), incorporating refreshed logos, new visual motifs such as monochrome photography, smoke, liquid metal, and a black, white, and Lime (color), lime color scheme (the last of which being referred to internally as "venom"). The ''MNF'' scoreboard retained a similar layout to before, but with new fonts and only showing team logos. During the first half of ESPN's opening game, the downs indicator was initially an arrow in the aforementioned "Venom" color, attracting criticism from viewers who felt that it could be confused for the penalty indicator (typically colored in yellow to match the penalty flag, flag; the flag graphic used a black rectangle with a venom-colored border and text). ESPN producers quickly modified the graphic over halftime, changing it to a black arrow with a white outline and text. ''Chicago Tribune'' media writer Phil Rosenthal described the briefly-used graphic as a "fluorescent-highlighter fever dream", and felt that "the quickness with which ESPN abandoned this unnecessary bit of flash probably speaks more to how misguided this latest supposed 'innovation' was than any increased sensitivity to the twitterati." Despite the previous incident, ESPN faced similar criticism in January 2021 during the
College Football Playoff The College Football Playoff (CFP) is an annual single-elimination tournament, knockout invitational tournament to determine a national champion for the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision, D ...
semi-finals, where the same indicator used a Gold leaf, gold-texture to match the event's branding. Starting with the 2023 NFL season, ESPN debuted new on-air presentation for its NFL broadcasts, updating the 2019 graphics with a glossier, neon theme. For the Toy Story (franchise), Toy Story Funday Football broadcast on
Disney+ The Walt Disney Company, commonly referred to as simply Disney, is an American multinational mass media and entertainment industry, entertainment conglomerate (company), conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios (Burbank), Walt Di ...
and
ESPN+ ESPN+ is an American over-the-top subscription video streaming service available in the United States, owned by ESPN Inc., which is a joint venture between the Walt Disney Company (which owns a controlling 80% stake) and Hearst Communicati ...
, the graphics have been modified to match the film's visuals, such as sky wallpaper in Andy's Room. Similarly, for '' The Simpsons Funday Football'' broadcast on Disney+ and ESPN+, the graphics have been modified to match the show's visuals, like Springfield's sky background.


Scoring records

* Most points ** 59 – 2010 Philadelphia Eagles season, Philadelphia Eagles, November 15, vs. 2010 Washington Redskins season, Washington Redskins ** 55 – 1988 Indianapolis Colts season, Indianapolis Colts, October 31, vs. 1988 Denver Broncos season, Denver Broncos ** 54 –
Los Angeles Rams The Los Angeles Rams are a professional American football team based in the Greater Los Angeles, Greater Los Angeles area. The Rams compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) NFC West, West ...
, 2018 Kansas City Chiefs–Los Angeles Rams game, November 19, 2018 vs.
Kansas City Chiefs The Kansas City Chiefs are a professional American football team based in Kansas City, Missouri. The Chiefs compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the American Football Conference (AFC) West division. Established in 1959 ...
** 52 – 1991 San Francisco 49ers season, San Francisco 49ers, December 23, vs. 1991 Chicago Bears season, Chicago Bears ** 51 – 2008 New Orleans Saints season, New Orleans Saints, November 24, vs.
Green Bay Packers The Green Bay Packers are a professional American football team based in Green Bay, Wisconsin. The Packers compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) NFC North, North division. They ar ...
** 51 –
Kansas City Chiefs The Kansas City Chiefs are a professional American football team based in Kansas City, Missouri. The Chiefs compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the American Football Conference (AFC) West division. Established in 1959 ...
, 2018 Kansas City Chiefs–Los Angeles Rams game, November 19, 2018 vs.
Los Angeles Rams The Los Angeles Rams are a professional American football team based in the Greater Los Angeles, Greater Los Angeles area. The Rams compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) NFC West, West ...
(most points scored by a losing team in NFL history) ** 50 – 1982 San Diego Chargers season, San Diego Chargers, December 20, vs. 1982 Cincinnati Bengals season, Cincinnati Bengals ** 49 – 2004 Philadelphia Eagles season, Philadelphia Eagles, November 15, vs. 2004 Dallas Cowboys season, Dallas Cowboys ** 49 – 2004 Kansas City Chiefs season, Kansas City Chiefs, December 13, vs. 2004 Tennessee Titans season, Tennessee Titans ** 48 – 1981 Detroit Lions season, Detroit Lions, October 19, vs. 1981 Chicago Bears season, Chicago Bears ** 48 – 1983 Green Bay Packers season, Green Bay Packers, October 17, vs. 1983 Washington Redskins season, Washington Redskins ** 48 – 2004 Tennessee Titans season, Tennessee Titans, October 11, vs. 2004 Green Bay Packers season, Green Bay Packers ** 48 – 2005 Baltimore Ravens season, Baltimore Ravens, December 19, vs. 2005 Green Bay Packers season, Green Bay Packers ** 48 – 2018 New York Jets season, New York Jets, September 10, vs. 2018 Detroit Lions season, Detroit Lions * Most one-sided games ** 45 points – 2005 Baltimore Ravens season, Baltimore 48, 2005 Green Bay Packers season, Green Bay 3 – December 19, ** 42 points – 1986 Miami Dolphins season, Miami 45, 1986 New York Jets season, N.Y. Jets 3 – November 24, ** 42 points – 2005 Seattle Seahawks season, Seattle 42, 2005 Philadelphia Eagles season, Philadelphia 0 – December 5, (largest margin of victory by an MNF road team) ** 42 points – 2010 New England Patriots season, New England 45, 2010 New York Jets season, N.Y. Jets 3 – December 6, ** 41 points – 1987 San Francisco 49ers season, San Francisco 41, 1987 Chicago Bears season, Chicago 0 – December 14, ** 39 points – 1975 Los Angeles Rams season, Los Angeles 42, 1975 Philadelphia Eagles season, Philadelphia 3 – November 3, ** 39 points – 2019 Baltimore Ravens season, Baltimore 45, 2019 Los Angeles Rams season, L.A. Rams 6 – November 25, ** 38 points – 2011 Green Bay Packers season, Green Bay 45, 2011 Minnesota Vikings season, Minnesota 7 – November 14, ** 38 points – 1991 San Francisco 49ers season, San Francisco 52, 1991 Chicago Bears season, Chicago 14 – December 23, ** 38 points – 1992 San Francisco 49ers season, San Francisco 41, 1992 Atlanta Falcons season, Atlanta 3 – November 9, ** 38 points – 1970 St. Louis Cardinals (NFL) season, St. Louis 38, 1970 Dallas Cowboys season, Dallas 0 – November 16, * Highest scoring games ** 2018 Kansas City Chiefs–Los Angeles Rams game, 105 points – 2018 Los Angeles Rams season, L.A. Rams 54, 2018 Kansas City Chiefs season, Kansas City 51 – 2018 Kansas City Chiefs–Los Angeles Rams game, November 19, 2018 ** 95 points – 1983 Green Bay Packers season, Green Bay 48, 1983 Washington Redskins season, Washington 47 – October 17, ** 89 points – 2020 Baltimore Ravens season, Baltimore 47, 2020 Cleveland Browns season, Cleveland 42 – December 14, ** 87 points – 2004 Kansas City Chiefs season, Kansas City 49, 2004 Tennessee Titans season, Tennessee 38 – December 13, ** 87 points – 2010 Philadelphia Eagles season, Philadelphia 59, 2010 Washington Redskins season, Washington 28 – November 15, ** 84 points – 1982 San Diego Chargers season, San Diego 50, 1982 Cincinnati Bengals season, Cincinnati 34 – December 20, ** 82 points – 2004 Dallas Cowboys season, Dallas 43, 2004 Seattle Seahawks season, Seattle 39 – December 6, ** 80 points – 2008 New Orleans Saints season, New Orleans 51, 2008 Green Bay Packers season, Green Bay 29 – November 24, ** 80 points – 2014 Green Bay Packers season, Green Bay 43, 2014 Atlanta Falcons season, Atlanta 37 – December 8, ** 79 points – 1980 Oakland Raiders season, Oakland 45, 1980 Pittsburgh Steelers season, Pittsburgh 34 – October 20, ** 78 points – 1983 Los Angeles Raiders season, L.A. Raiders 40, 1983 Dallas Cowboys season, Dallas 38 – October 23, ** 78 points – 1988 Indianapolis Colts season, Indianapolis 55, 1988 Denver Broncos season, Denver 23 – October 31, ** 78 points – 2008 Dallas Cowboys season, Dallas 41, 2008 Philadelphia Eagles season, Philadelphia 37 – September 15, * Lowest scoring games ** 3 points – 2007 Pittsburgh Steelers season, Pittsburgh 3, 2007 Miami Dolphins season, Miami 0 – November 26, ** 9 points – 2006 Jacksonville Jaguars season, Jacksonville 9, 2006 Pittsburgh Steelers season, Pittsburgh 0 – September 18, ** 10 points – 1990 San Francisco 49ers season, San Francisco 7, 1990 New York Giants season, N.Y. Giants 3 – December 3, ** 12 points – 1980 Oakland Raiders season, Oakland 9, 1980 Denver Broncos season, Denver 3 – December 1, ** 13 points – 1975 Los Angeles Rams season, Los Angeles 10, 1975 Pittsburgh Steelers season, Pittsburgh 3 – December 20, ** 13 points – 1977 Baltimore Colts season, Baltimore 10, 1977 Washington Redskins season, Washington 3 – November 7, ** 14 points – 1978 Washington Redskins season, Washington 9, 1978 Dallas Cowboys season, Dallas 5 – October 2, ** 15 points – 1979 Houston Oilers season, Houston 9, 1979 Miami Dolphins season, Miami 6 – November 5, ** 15 points – 1983 Detroit Lions season, Detroit 13, 1983 Minnesota Vikings season, Minnesota 2 – December 5, ** 15 points – 1997 Buffalo Bills season, Buffalo 9, 1997 Indianapolis Colts season, Indianapolis 6 – October 20, * Ties ** 1971 Detroit Lions season, Detroit 14, 1971 Green Bay Packers season, Green Bay 14 – November 1, ** 1973 Oakland Raiders season, Oakland 23, 1973 Denver Broncos season, Denver 23 – October 22, ** 1983 New York Giants season, N.Y. Giants 20, 1983 St. Louis Cardinals (NFL) season, St. Louis 20 (OT) – October 24,


Most frequent matchups


Monday Night Football scheduling

From to , ABC's ''Monday Night Football'' coverage began at 9 p.m. Eastern Time, with game kickoff typically occurring at seven minutes past the hour. Coverage was moved one hour earlier to 8 p.m. Eastern Time in , with a pre-game show titled ''Monday Night Blast'', hosted by Chris Berman from the ESPN Zone restaurant in Baltimore preceding the start of the game at 8:20 p.m. This was done mainly to address ABC's inability to find a suitable 8 p.m. lead-in program for ''MNF'' since ''MacGyver (1985 TV series), MacGyver'' ended its run in 1992 (not even two other series from ''MacGyver''s production company Paramount Television – ''The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles'' and ''The Marshal'' – saw success, despite the former's ties to Paramount Pictures, Paramount's ''Indiana Jones'' film series), and to allow stations to start their late local newscasts nearer to their regular times. Poor ratings caused this experiment to be dropped after one season, with ''MNF'' once again moving to 9 p.m. in , though in many NFL markets, the 8 p.m. (Eastern Time) hour from 1999 to 2006 was replaced by affiliates with locally produced and programmed sports discussion and coaches shows, with ABC programming in that hour moved to late night or weekend slots; by the end of the ABC run, the 8 p.m. time-slot was filled with either news magazines and short-lived reality television programs which failed to make any ratings headways due to affiliate pre-emptions. From to , Fisher Communications, Fisher Broadcasting's ABC affiliates in Seattle (KOMO-TV) and Portland, Oregon, Portland (KATU) aired ''MNF'' games on a one-hour broadcast delay, tape delay starting at 7 p.m. Pacific Time Zone, Pacific Time (games normally started in the Pacific Time Zone at 6 p.m., corresponding to 9 p.m. Eastern) in order to accommodate local newscasts (unless the Seattle Seahawks were playing, in which case the game was shown Live television, live). The practice, long opposed by viewers and ABC, ended in . KOMO then tried to accommodate having to air its local newscasts earlier than its local station competitors by marketing it as ''KOMO 4 News Primetime'', touting it as a way to watch the news at a more convenient time than during evening rush hour. Additionally, this practice was done in Hawaii, where Honolulu ABC affiliate KITV delayed the game until 7 p.m. Hawaii–Aleutian Time Zone, Hawaii–Aleutian Time. Thus, the game, which was broadcast live on local radio starting at 3 or 4 p.m., was almost over before it aired on television. In the case of Guam, KTGM, the ABC affiliate in that U.S. territory, aired ''MNF'' live on Tuesdays at 11 am-2:30 pm as Guam is a day ahead of the United States due to being located on the other side of International Date Line. The demand to broadcast ''Monday Night Football'' games live across the United States over ABC was difficult to reconcile with other prime-time programming, which is usually set to begin at a certain local time regardless of time zone. On the East Coast, with ''MNF'' beginning at 9 p.m.
Eastern Time The Eastern Time Zone (ET) is a time zone encompassing part or all of 23 states in the eastern part of the United States, parts of eastern Canada, and the state of Quintana Roo in Mexico. * Eastern Standard Time (EST) is five hours behi ...
, there was an hour of primetime in which to schedule regular programming. However, on the West Coast, the games lasted from 6 to 9:30 p.m. Pacific Time (or in the case of Seattle and Portland from 1970 to 1995, 7 to 10:30 p.m.), leaving little or no time for additional network programming on Monday. As a result, network programs scheduled for prime time on the East Coast were broadcast at various hours on the West Coast. Most affiliates pushed the network shows to immediately after the game; however, Los Angeles owned-and-operated station KABC-TV postponed them until 10 p.m. from at least the mid-1990s until 2005 to show trivia contests and other sports shows produced locally (the longest-tenured such show was ''Monday Night Live'', hosted by sports anchor Todd Donoho). Meanwhile, KOMO, one of the stations that tape delayed ''MNF'' in most cases, broadcast new episodes of the sitcom ''Coach (TV series), Coach'' on Saturday afternoons (usually reserved, coincidentally enough, for College Football on ABC, college football telecasts; much of the series took place on a fictional college campus). Except for Seattle and Portland from 1970 to 1995, ''ABC World News Tonight'' was routinely preempted on most West Coast affiliates, though the ABC network-owned stations (e.g. Los Angeles) aired the program earlier in the afternoon. Since ESPN took over the coverage in 2006, games normally had a kickoff time of 8:30 p.m. Eastern, which was later changed to 8:15 p.m. Eastern in 2018. However, when ESPN aired a doubleheader (television), doubleheader during the first week of the season until 2021, the games respectively started at 7 p.m. and 10:15 p.m. Eastern. When ESPN took over ''MNF'' in 2006, the NFL mandated that games needed to be simulcast on a local station in each team's home market. Although they were officially determined via a Broadcast syndication, syndication-like process, in most cases these local stations were ABC affiliates. This became a problem when ABC aired ''
Dancing with the Stars ''Strictly Come Dancing (widely known as Dancing with the Stars)'' is an international television franchise based on the format of the British TV series '' Strictly Come Dancing,'' itself a successor to the show ''Come Dancing'' (1950–1998) ...
'' on Monday nights. Whenever an ABC affiliate pre-empted the show to air the NFL, these stations would then broadcast ''Dancing with the Stars'' on tape delay immediately after their late-evening local newscasts, ''Jimmy Kimmel Live!'', and ''Nightline''. This resulted in the program's telephone and Internet voting coordinators keeping a late-night voting window open for the market(s) where ''Dancing with the Stars'' was pre-empted. In some cases, the ''Dancing with the Stars'' was moved to a sister station of the ABC affiliate to air live instead (for example, until 2011 in the Minneapolis–St. Paul, Minnesota, St. Paul market, when
NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast. It is one of NBCUniversal's ...
affiliate KARE (TV), KARE took over as the local broadcaster of ''MNF'' games if the Minnesota Vikings were playing a game being simulcast on local ABC affiliate KSTP-TV, sister independent station KSTC-TV aired ''DWTS'' live). In 2016, for the opening week Monday night game (the second in a doubleheader) between the Los Angeles Rams and San Francisco 49ers, the ABC-owned stations in both markets (KABC-TV and KGO-TV) would broadcast ''World News Tonight'' and ''DWTS'' in their live Eastern Time Zone slots, thus airing at 3:30 p.m. and 5 p.m. PT respectively (the ''WNT'' simulcast was later made permanent on both stations every weekday for ratings purposes). In 2022, when ABC began airing select exclusive ''MNF'' telecasts, ''Dancing with the Stars'' was moved to
Disney+ The Walt Disney Company, commonly referred to as simply Disney, is an American multinational mass media and entertainment industry, entertainment conglomerate (company), conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios (Burbank), Walt Di ...
for at least that season. ABC then scheduled ''Bachelor in Paradise (American TV series), Bachelor in Paradise'' and other programming on Monday nights instead, which were then preempted nationally during those weeks when the network aired its exclusive ''MNF'' games. In May 2023, ABC announced that ''Dancing with the Stars'' would be moved back to ABC on Monday nights, and would thus again cause the same local market conflict during those weeks when ''MNF'' is nationally only on ESPN, in August, as a result of the
2023 Hollywood labor disputes From May 2 to November 9, 2023, a series of long labor disputes within the Cinema of the United States, film and Television in the United States, television industries of the United States took place, mainly focused on the strikes of the 2023 W ...
, ABC announced that its Monday and Tuesday schedules were getting revised, with ''Dancing With the Stars'' scheduled to air on Tuesdays, once again, therefore resolving the conflict for this season. Eventually, because of the strikes, ABC picked up the entire season of MNF, in addition to their four exclusive games, to fill their Monday schedule in the fall. This wound up being the first full season of MNF to air on ABC in any capacity since 2005.


Commentators


Foreign-language versions


Spanish version

Since , a
Spanish-language Spanish () or Castilian () is a Romance languages, Romance language of the Indo-European languages, Indo-European language family that evolved from the Vulgar Latin spoken on the Iberian Peninsula of Europe. Today, it is a world language, gl ...
telecast is also broadcast on
ESPN Deportes ESPN Deportes (, ) is an American multinational Spanish-language pay television sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., a joint venture between The Walt Disney Company (which owns a controlling 80% stake) and Hearst Communications (which owns the ...
, the Spanish version of ESPN and on ESPN Latin America, featuring NBA and NFL play-by-play announcer Álvaro Martín, Super Bowl winner Raul Allegre as color commentator and John Sutcliffe as the field reporter. This is the same crew of La NFL Dominical, the Spanish version of ESPN Sunday Night Football, until . The announcers of the second game of the 2006 doubleheader were Eduardo Varela (play-by-play), Robert Abramowitz (color) and Georgina Ruiz Sandoval (field reporter). Preceding the game ''NFL Esta Noche'' (''NFL Tonight''), the 30-minute pre-game show, can be seen on both networks. The four booth announcers called the 2007 season opening games from ESPN's Bristol, Connecticut headquarters while watching games on television set, monitors. None of them traveled to the game sites and there were no sideline reporters in the early weeks. Sutcliffe would later report from the game sites. Allegre did not work the season finale between the Broncos and Chargers; he was replaced by Abramovitz. In 2008, Martin and Allegre only travelled to the Cowboys–Eagles game, during the NFL's celebrations of Hispanic Heritage Month. As part of ESPN's agreement to simulcast their Wild Card game on ABC, Martin and Allegre's Spanish-language commentary is carried over the second audio program, SAP channel on ABC, equivalent to the rest of the NFL's over-the-air broadcast partners. When NFL on CBS, CBS televised Super Bowl 50, Super Bowls 50, Super Bowl LIII, LIII, and Super Bowl LV, LV, ESPN sub-licensed the rights to air dedicated Spanish-language telecasts on ESPN Deportes, using the ''Monday Night Football'' commentary team and with surrounding coverage in the language. CBS did not have any sister Spanish-language cable or broadcast network like Fox and NBC, who have used Fox Deportes and Universo (TV network), Universo/Telemundo Deportes, Telemundo, respectively. For Super Bowl LVIII, CBS sold its sub-license rights to TelevisaUnivision instead. In 2017 and 2018,
ESPN2 ESPN2 is an American multinational pay television network owned by ESPN Inc., a joint venture between the Walt Disney Company (which owns a controlling 80% stake) and Hearst Communications (which owns the remaining 20%). ESPN2 was initially ...
simulcast ESPN Deportes' telecast, ''NFL Esta Noche'', and the ESPN Latin America ''SportsCenter'' after the game, during the first nine weeks of the season (prior to the start of its Monday-night ESPN College Basketball, college basketball broadcasts). ESPN2 had previously scheduled lesser-viewed filler programming during the period. In the 2020-21 playoffs, ESPN Deportes also aired an AFC Divisional Playoff game and the AFC Championship Game. For the 2023 season, ESPN Deportes introduced the new Monday Night Football team of Rebeca Landa on the play-by-play, with Sergio Dipp as analyst, and Katia Castorena as sideline reporter. John Sutcliffe will continue to be part of the team, providing reports from site. On October 16, 2023,
ESPN2 ESPN2 is an American multinational pay television network owned by ESPN Inc., a joint venture between the Walt Disney Company (which owns a controlling 80% stake) and Hearst Communications (which owns the remaining 20%). ESPN2 was initially ...
did simulcast ESPN Deportes’ Spanish-Language Presentation of Monday Night Football, featuring the Dallas Cowboys and the L.A. Chargers. For the 2024 season, MJ Acosta, MJ Acosta-Ruiz joined Monday Night Football on ESPN Deportes as sideline reporter.


Portuguese version

Since the 1990s, ESPN Latin America has a Portuguese language feed targeted to their viewers in Brazil. Ivan Zimmermann (play-by-play), André José Adler (play-by-play), Roberto Figueroa (color), and Marco Alfaro (color), among others, were the announcers broadcasting from ESPN's headquarters. Since , the structure of the Brazilian feed has been merged with
ESPN Brasil ESPN is the Brazilian division of ESPN Inc. Launched in March 1989 as Canal+, it was the first country-specific version of ESPN outside the United States, launched in June 1995. The channel has covered major sporting events, like the 1996 Summer ...
and the broadcasting is done from São Paulo. The current announcers are Fernando Nardini (play-by-play) and Paulo Antunes (color). Ari Aguiar (play-by-play) and Antony Curti (color) occasionally fill in.


Radio broadcasts

''Monday Night Football'' has also been carried on national radio networks over the years. The Mutual Broadcasting System aired the games initially, with Van Patrick (–), Lindsey Nelson (–) and Al Wester announcing. NFL on CBS Radio, CBS Radio took over the rights in with Jack Buck and Hank Stram commentating. After a two-year stint (–) with Don Criqui and Bob Trumpy calling the games on NFL on NBC Radio, NBC Radio, Buck and Stram resumed with CBS Radio in . In , Howard David and Matt Millen replaced Buck and Stram. Marv Albert and Boomer Esiason were the ''MNF'' radio voices from to , with Kevin Harlan replacing Albert in . Kurt Warner joined the crew in for games when Esiason was unavailable, taking over full-time in . In the 1990s, CBS Radio purchased a controlling stake in Westwood One (1976–2011), Westwood One, which in turn had bought out both the NBC and Mutual networks. As of 2008, Westwood One was no longer controlled by CBS, but the network retained its NFL broadcast rights. In , Westwood One was purchased by Dial Global. Then in , Dial Global, including Westwood One (current), Westwood One, was acquired by Cumulus Media. The Spanish-language broadcast is carried on ESPN Deportes Radio. As with other regular-season NFL games, Monday night games are also broadcast locally by the featured teams' own radio networks and announcers.


Nielsen ratings


Top-rated recent regular season games since 2014


Additional NFL game rights


Playoff games and Super Bowls

When ABC first acquired the rights to air ''MNF'' in 1970, it did not include any playoff games. The network was eventually allowed into the rotation of airing the
Super Bowl The Super Bowl is the annual History of the NFL championship, league championship game of the National Football League (NFL) of the United States. It has served as the final game of every NFL season since 1966 NFL season, 1966 (with the excep ...
, starting with Super Bowl XIX in January 1985. When the league expanded the playoffs from a 10-team to a 12-team tournament in 1990, ABC was then given the rights to air the first two Wild Card Playoff games. Originally, ABC's college football crews would call the first Wild Card Game. Following
The Walt Disney Company The Walt Disney Company, commonly referred to as simply Disney, is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was founded on October 16 ...
's purchase of both ESPN and ABC, the two network's sports departments merged in 1997. Beginning with the 1997 season, the ''ESPN Sunday Night Football'' crew called the first game, with the ABC ''MNF'' crew calling the second game. ESPN provided wraparound studio programming, with part of the pre and postgame airing on ABC, and ESPN's Ron Jaworski often appeared from the studio for extra analysis during the first game. This arrangement lasted from 1997 through 2005, except for 2002 when ESPN/ABC's college football crew did the early game. Super Bowls on ABC in this period were treated as ESPN events. After ''MNF'' was awarded to ESPN and ''Sunday Night Football'' was acquired by NBC in 2006, the Wild Card doubleheader that had aired on ABC, as well as a share of the rotating rights to the Super Bowl, was also given to NBC. On April 22, 2014, the NFL announced that it had exercised an option in ESPN's recent contract extension for ''Monday Night Football'' rights to air a first-round Wild Card
playoff The playoffs, play-offs, postseason or finals of a sports league are a competition played after the regular season by the top competitors to determine the league champion or a similar accolade. Depending on the league, the playoffs may be eithe ...
game on the channel after the conclusion of the 2014 NFL season, 2014 season. This was the first time that an NFL playoff game was ever broadcast exclusively on cable television in the United States, in lieu of any of the league's broadcast network partners. The ''MNF'' broadcast team of Mike Tirico, Jon Gruden and sideline reporter Lisa Salters called the game, the first of the 2014–15 NFL playoffs. The NFC South Champion 2014 Carolina Panthers season, Carolina Panthers defeated the 2014 Arizona Cardinals season, Arizona Cardinals 27–16. As with all ''MNF'' games, the matchup was simulcast on local affiliates WJZY (a Fox affiliate) in Charlotte and KASW (a CW affiliate) in Phoenix. This was because of the NFL's rule that requires local affiliates to allow viewers over-the-air access to the game. However, the cable-only playoff game experiment would only last one season, as on May 11, 2015, it was announced that ABC would simulcast ESPN's Wild Card playoff game for the 2015 NFL season, 2015 season. This was the first NFL game broadcast nationally on ABC since ''MNF'' left the network at the end of the 2005 season. The game, announced by the broadcast team of Tirico, Gruden and Salters, was the first of the 2015–16 NFL playoffs. The 2015 Kansas City Chiefs season, Kansas City Chiefs defeated the 2015 Houston Texans season, Houston Texans 30–0. The ESPN/ABC simulcast has continued ever since. Additionally,
ESPN Deportes ESPN Deportes (, ) is an American multinational Spanish-language pay television sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., a joint venture between The Walt Disney Company (which owns a controlling 80% stake) and Hearst Communications (which owns the ...
picked up the rights to air Super Bowl 50, Super Bowl LIII and Super Bowl LV in Spanish (from Super Bowl LVIII on Univision picked up those rights), as CBS, who aired the game in English, does not have a Spanish language sports network. It will also air additional CBS playoff games in the 2020-21 NFL playoffs, 2021 playoffs and 2022 NFL playoffs, 2022 playoffs. Starting with Super Bowl LIII,
ESPN International ESPN International is a family of Broadcasting of sports events, sportscasting and production networks around the world. It was begun in 1983, is operated by ESPN Inc. and owned by The Walt Disney Company. Current operations Canada ESPN Int ...
has produced an English-language broadcast of the Super Bowl for ESPN Australia (as an alternative to the main world feed produced by NFL Network and the domestic U.S. feed), using the domestic broadcasters' camera feeds and the ''Monday Night Football'' commentary team. It also features additional pre-game coverage, augmenting ESPN's U.S. NFL studio programming. The video is also used by the Super Bowl telecast for
ESPN Brasil ESPN is the Brazilian division of ESPN Inc. Launched in March 1989 as Canal+, it was the first country-specific version of ESPN outside the United States, launched in June 1995. The channel has covered major sporting events, like the 1996 Summer ...
, dubbed with Portuguese commentary. During the
Baltimore Ravens The Baltimore Ravens are a professional American football team based in Baltimore. The Ravens compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the American Football Conference (AFC) AFC North, North division. The team plays its home g ...
Tennessee Titans The Tennessee Titans are a professional American football team based in Nashville, Tennessee. The Titans compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the American Football Conference (AFC) AFC South, South division. They play the ...
Wild Card game during the 2020-21 NFL playoffs, 2021 playoffs, not only did ESPN and ABC simulcast the game, but other ESPN and Disney-ABC Domestic Television, Disney-owned networks helped to broadcast the game for the first ever NFL Playoff Megacast.
ESPN2 ESPN2 is an American multinational pay television network owned by ESPN Inc., a joint venture between the Walt Disney Company (which owns a controlling 80% stake) and Hearst Communications (which owns the remaining 20%). ESPN2 was initially ...
,
ESPN+ ESPN+ is an American over-the-top subscription video streaming service available in the United States, owned by ESPN Inc., which is a joint venture between the Walt Disney Company (which owns a controlling 80% stake) and Hearst Communicati ...
, and Freeform all pitched in alternate feeds of the game. This was the first NFL Playoff game to get a Megacast treatment. The announcement of the Playoff Megacast went along with the announcement of ABC simulcasting two late-season MNF games that aired on ESPN (both games involving the
Buffalo Bills The Buffalo Bills are a professional American football team based in the Buffalo–Niagara Falls metropolitan area. The Bills compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the American Football Conference (AFC) AFC East, East div ...
). With the new NFL TV contracts that begin during the 2023 season, ESPN/ABC's playoff coverage expands to include a game in the Divisional Round, to go along with the Wild Card Game. Both games will air on ESPN and ABC. The new contracts also see both networks re-enter the Super Bowl rotation, beginning with Super Bowl, Super Bowl LXI in 2027. Beginning with the 2022 playoffs, ESPN will begin a new 5-year deal that will see the ESPN networks and ABC Megacast the brand new "Monday Night Wild Card Game", as part of the NFL expanding Wild Card Weekend (branded by the league as "Super Wild Card Weekend" until the 2024 playoffs) from two days to three days. ESPN and ABC will simulcast the main feed, with ESPN2, ESPN+, and other ESPN and Disney networks providing alternative options. The final game always features a matchup between a No. 4 and No. 5 seed to ensure that it is known which opponent the winner will play before kickoff. This arrangement allows the NFL to release the divisional round schedule upon the completion of the other five wild card games, and the winner of the Monday game always plays the following Sunday to ensure they receive six days' rest.


Non-Monday games

From 1974 NFL season, 1974 to 1977 NFL season, 1977, ''MNF'' aired on Saturday during the final week of the regular season instead of Monday. From 1978 NFL season, 1978 to 1986 NFL season, 1986, it broadcast selected Thursday and Sunday night games. And from 1983 NFL season, 1983 to 1986 NFL season, 1986, ''MNF'' also aired a Friday night game in the final week of the regular season, in addition to the normal Monday night game. From
2003 2003 was designated by the United Nations as the International Year of Fresh water, Freshwater. In 2003, a Multi-National Force – Iraq, United States-led coalition 2003 invasion of Iraq, invaded Iraq, starting the Iraq War. Demographic ...
to
2005 2005 was designated as the International Year for Sport and Physical Education and the International Year of Microcredit. The beginning of 2005 also marked the end of the International Decade of the World's Indigenous Peoples, Internationa ...
, ''MNF'' also aired the NFL Kickoff, Thursday night NFL Kickoff game during the first week of the regular season. As part of ESPN's new contract signed in
2021 Like the year 2020, 2021 was also heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, due to the emergence of multiple Variants of SARS-CoV-2, COVID-19 variants. The major global rollout of COVID-19 vaccines, which began at the end of 2020, continued ...
, ESPN/ABC/ESPN+ began simulcasting a Saturday NFL doubleheader during the final week of the regular season, and ESPN+ was given the rights to exclusively stream one game per season starting in
2022 The year began with another wave in the COVID-19 pandemic, with SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant, Omicron spreading rapidly and becoming the dominant variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus worldwide. Tracking a decrease in cases and deaths, 2022 saw ...
. ESPN+'s exclusive games are not tied to a specific day: they could either be Sunday morning NFL International Series games like in 2022 and
2023 Catastrophic natural disasters in 2023 included the Lists of 21st-century earthquakes, 5th-deadliest earthquake of the 21st century 2023 Turkey–Syria earthquakes, striking Turkey and Syria, leaving up to 62,000 people dead; Cyclone Freddy ...
, or part of an ''MNF'' doubleheader like in 2024 NFL season, 2024 and 2025 NFL season, 2025. In
2023 Catastrophic natural disasters in 2023 included the Lists of 21st-century earthquakes, 5th-deadliest earthquake of the 21st century 2023 Turkey–Syria earthquakes, striking Turkey and Syria, leaving up to 62,000 people dead; Cyclone Freddy ...
, ''MNF'' aired a game on Saturday, December 30, to accommodate New Year's Day falling on a Monday. The game featured the 2023 Detroit Lions season, Detroit Lions at the 2023 Dallas Cowboys season, Dallas Cowboys.


Pro Bowl

ABC televised the Pro Bowl from 1975 to 1987, and again from 1995 to 2003. As part of their 2011 rights agreement, ESPN was given the exclusive rights to the Pro Bowl from 2015 Pro Bowl, 2015 through 2022. from 2018 on the game was simulcast on ABC.


See also

* ''NFL on CBS'' * ''NFL on Fox'' * ''
NBC Sunday Night Football ''NBC Sunday Night Football'' (abbreviated as ''SNF'') is an American weekly television broadcast of National Football League (NFL) games on NBC and Peacock (streaming service), Peacock in the United States. It began airing on August 6, 2006, w ...
'' * ''Monday Night Mayhem'', a 2002 television film about the origin of ''Monday Night Football''


Notes


References


Further reading

*Gunther, Marc, and Bill Carter. (1988). ''Monday Night Mayhem: The Inside Story of ABC's Monday Night Football''. New York: Beech Tree Books. *Hyatt, Wesley. (2007). ''Kicking Off the Week: A History of Monday Night Football on ABC Television, 1970–2005''. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Co. .


External links

*
NFL Monday Night Football 2022 Schedule on ESPN
{{Authority control Monday Night Football, 1970 American television series debuts 1970s American sports television series 1980s American sports television series 1990s American sports television series 2000s American sports television series 2010s American sports television series 2020s American sports television series American Broadcasting Company original programming ABC Sports American English-language television shows ESPN original programming Monday Television shows adapted into video games