Monday Night musings

I'm having mixed emotions about saying goodbye to Monday Night Football (the final game was last night, for non-fans).

On the one hand, MNF gave every game some of the pizazz and pageantry of a playoff game. It was like a mini-Super Bowl once a week -- and not a bad way to ease into the work week. On the other hand, in its quest to provide spectacle and entertainment even when the game was a stinker, MNF had a lot to answer for: Dennis Miller, Eric Dickerson, Boomer Esiason, OJ Simpson, Terrell Owens and Nicolette Sheridan and the ever-more ludicrous opening graphics.

Still, when John Madden joined Al Michaels in the MNF booth in 2002, it was a terrific pairing and a return to letting the game do the talking. Madden's headed to NBC [edited], Michaels will follow MNF to ESPN next year.

In the end, I guess it's another sign of that era of event television -- television that the whole family will gather around the tube to watch -- is dead as the dodo. Sure, there's the Super Bowl itself (which Madden and Michaels will call), maybe the Oscars, and, to some extent, the Olympics, but now the list is more exceptions than rules.