Monday Night Football

Monday Night Football has enjoyed success throughout its 39-year run. The weekly game is popular not only with fans, but with players, as it guarantees a full national telecast of the game and puts both teams in the spotlight. Teams are selected for Monday Night Football games based partially on their success during the previous season, rewarding the best teams and biggest stars. Teams with large national fan bases such as the Dallas Cowboys, Green Bay Packers, New England Patriots, Oakland Raiders, and Pittsburgh Steelers, among others, usually appear on Monday Night Football as well regardless of their previous season’s record. Teams can make a maximum of three Monday night appearances per season.

Since 2003, to avoid any scheduling unfairness where a team may have five days between games and others six (or seven) before the first playoff game, there is no Monday night game during the final week of the regular season. From 2003 until 2005, one game was played on Thursday and another Monday under the Monday Night Football banner. Starting in 2006 when the series moved to cable, two games are played on the opening Monday night to capitalize on fan interest during “Kickoff Weekend”. The necessity of advance scheduling sometimes results in late-season contests between lesser teams, and teams which do better than expected may not get to play on Monday Night Football until the next year.

Really, who’s ever watched or not watched a sporting event based on the announcer? Especially a telecast as ritualistic as Monday Night Football. Seems obvious, right? The only people who seem not to understand this are the network execs tasked with wringing one more dollar from their broadcasts. They’re doomed to a quixotic quest to recapture the 1970s ratings juggernaut when Howard Cosell and Don Meredith routinely jousted in the press box. But those days of (three-network) television are long gone.

When Monday Night Football premiered on September 21, 1970, there was no competition from cable. Three television geniuses, if that’s not an oxymoron, created the show. All are now dead.

Roone Arledge was the brilliant and innovative showman who brought his gift for storytelling to sports television as the longtime president of ABC Sports.

Cosell was the brainy, bombastic Brooklyn-born lawyer with the grating voice, a face made for radio and the fearlessness that enabled him to take on the sports establishment.

Monday Night Football betting is extremely popular among NFL gamblers, mostly because Monday Night Football is such an important part of the NFL regular season. However, some analysts would argue that Monday Night Football should be handicapped differently from other regular season games because of the unique environment provided by Monday Night Football. Also, NFL gamblers must be very cautious about forcing wagers in their Monday Night Football betting and carefully managing their bankroll when making such wagers.

Monday Night Football betting

Monday Night Football is hugely popular with NFL fans, and for this same reason it is a unique type of NFL regular season game. Monday Night Football involves exciting match ups played on national prime time television, and this environment means that there is more pressure on players to perform well. Some teams thrive on this pressure and enter Monday Night Football match ups with a passion unrivalled in other regular season games. This increase in focus and energy can sway the momentum of a game and must be factored into your Monday Night Football betting. Similarly, some individual players tend to shine in such high-pressure situations, while others tend to perform poorly and do not live up to expectations. Therefore, an evaluation of key players based upon their past performances in Monday Night Football games and other important games can also help you with your Monday Night Football handicapping. Furthermore, the popularity of Monday Night Football and its attraction of large amounts of public action mean that Monday Night Football betting lines may sometimes be placed differently than they normally would. Consequently, there may sometimes be extra value in Monday Night Football betting against the public, typically by wagering on the underdog or the under.
Because Monday Night Football betting is so important to many football bettors, these bettors sometimes find themselves placing bets that have little value, simply to place action on the game. This type of Monday Night Football betting must be done with careful bankroll management, because there is no reason to place a large wager on a Monday Night Football line with little value. Also, rather than forcing a bet on a Monday Night Football side that offers limited value, it is recommended to always consider the Monday Night Football betting odds for the total and money line, where better value may exist. Consequently, you may find an opportunity to place an excellent Monday Night Football wager that is far better than the side bet you were previously considering.