Thursday, March 16, 2006
MNF.....20 seasons ago
I recently acquired a copy of the highest rated MNF game of all time. The game pitted the 12-0 Chicago Bears against the 8-4 Miami Dolphins. This was the game where Miami beat the Bears and it was also a historic night as Walter Payton ran for 100 yards for the 8th consecutive game.
So let me give out some thoughts:
- You know you have problems when Frank Gifford is the anchor of the announce crew. OJ Simpson and Joe Namath were HOOOORIBLE! Well let me ammend that a little, Namath actually provided some good analysis but OJ was non-existent in terms of giving good commentary. It's a wonder that he wasn't fired in the middle of the season.
- When was the Delay of Game penalty put in place? I ask this because several times the Bears QB (Steve Fuller subbing for an injured McMahon) had problems getting the snap off. There were a couple times where the refs were practically begging Don Shula to get the crowd to quiet down. It wasn't so bad as the Vikes/Falcons NFC Championship game where the refs verbally told the fans to be quiet but it was very similar.
- I was amazed at Dan Marino. I didn't really pay attention to sports til about 1989 and while Marino was still pretty much in his prime he was starting to slow down. The Young Marino of 1985 however was a revelation to me. In the game he actually used his feet (tho the announcers made mention of the fact that he doesn't usually do so) and was actually quite nimble. Another thing that blew me away was his arm strength. The man chucked a ball 20 yards downfield at one point while back peddling!
- Marino also had an extremely quick release. He'd wait til the last possible second and he'd get the pass off with great efficiency and speed.
- Walter Payton, wow! I always thought he was amazing watching the NFL Films stuff but seeing him at full speed was just something else. He had the greatest footwork of any RB i've ever seen. The other thing I noticed was the fact he held the ball in one hand. It's something that a RB today would never get away with but Walter had great success.
- The game moved by very quickly. It's amazing how few comercials there were. It's a shame that commercialization has dragged sporting events to ungodly amount of time. This problem is most prevelant in college football. I also found the lack of graphical overlays and stats all over the place to be very refreshing. I think one thing that makes sports coverage seem boring at times is that we get distracted by fancy camera angles, overlays, stats, out of town highlights that we lose track of the actual game we're watching.
- This isn't about the game itself but the disc I recieved had an ESPN pregame show. Let's just say that the pregame show 20 years ago is like meat and potatoes compared to the razzle dazzle that we get today. There was actually a lot of analysis of the two teams and how they play. Chris Berman was VERY much muted. He just basically served as a moderator for Allie Sherman and Steve Sabol. Sometimes I wish sports broadcasting could go back to that serious style of presentation.
Overall, while the game wasn't great shakes I still enjoyed watching it. That was an era when football WAS football. At least back then you didn't have to focus a lot of energy on the police blotter or off the field problems with a team.
So let me give out some thoughts:
- You know you have problems when Frank Gifford is the anchor of the announce crew. OJ Simpson and Joe Namath were HOOOORIBLE! Well let me ammend that a little, Namath actually provided some good analysis but OJ was non-existent in terms of giving good commentary. It's a wonder that he wasn't fired in the middle of the season.
- When was the Delay of Game penalty put in place? I ask this because several times the Bears QB (Steve Fuller subbing for an injured McMahon) had problems getting the snap off. There were a couple times where the refs were practically begging Don Shula to get the crowd to quiet down. It wasn't so bad as the Vikes/Falcons NFC Championship game where the refs verbally told the fans to be quiet but it was very similar.
- I was amazed at Dan Marino. I didn't really pay attention to sports til about 1989 and while Marino was still pretty much in his prime he was starting to slow down. The Young Marino of 1985 however was a revelation to me. In the game he actually used his feet (tho the announcers made mention of the fact that he doesn't usually do so) and was actually quite nimble. Another thing that blew me away was his arm strength. The man chucked a ball 20 yards downfield at one point while back peddling!
- Marino also had an extremely quick release. He'd wait til the last possible second and he'd get the pass off with great efficiency and speed.
- Walter Payton, wow! I always thought he was amazing watching the NFL Films stuff but seeing him at full speed was just something else. He had the greatest footwork of any RB i've ever seen. The other thing I noticed was the fact he held the ball in one hand. It's something that a RB today would never get away with but Walter had great success.
- The game moved by very quickly. It's amazing how few comercials there were. It's a shame that commercialization has dragged sporting events to ungodly amount of time. This problem is most prevelant in college football. I also found the lack of graphical overlays and stats all over the place to be very refreshing. I think one thing that makes sports coverage seem boring at times is that we get distracted by fancy camera angles, overlays, stats, out of town highlights that we lose track of the actual game we're watching.
- This isn't about the game itself but the disc I recieved had an ESPN pregame show. Let's just say that the pregame show 20 years ago is like meat and potatoes compared to the razzle dazzle that we get today. There was actually a lot of analysis of the two teams and how they play. Chris Berman was VERY much muted. He just basically served as a moderator for Allie Sherman and Steve Sabol. Sometimes I wish sports broadcasting could go back to that serious style of presentation.
Overall, while the game wasn't great shakes I still enjoyed watching it. That was an era when football WAS football. At least back then you didn't have to focus a lot of energy on the police blotter or off the field problems with a team.
# posted by Chris Fung @ 10:27 AM 
