Monday Night Football appeared on the American pop-cultural landscape at a time when professional football was becoming the nation's preeminent televised sport. As conceived by National Football League commissioner Pete Rozelle, Monday Night Football was to be a weekly prime-time showcase for the fast-growing game. ABC Sports, itself an aggressive innovator in the production and marketing of televised athletics under the stewardship of Roone Arledge, was the NFL's partner in this bold endeavor. Together, the NFL and ABC created a ratings behemoth.

Monday Night Football debuted September 21, 1970, with a game matching Joe Namath's New York Jets against the Cleveland Browns. Keith Jackson provided the play-by-play that first season, with color commentary from the unlikely duo of Don Meredith and Howard Cosell. Meredith, a folksy former quarterback, was soon nicknamed "Dandy Don" by the acerbic Cosell, a one-time lawyer whose pomposity was matched only by...