Those Guys Have All the Fun - James Andrew Miller [304]
George had always been straight with me, so I think he got bamboozled, because here’s how the schedule turned out: in 2006, the first year of ESPN football on Monday nights, the Super Bowl champion Steelers did not appear three times, they didn’t appear two times, they appeared just once—week three on the road at Jacksonville.
HOWARD KATZ:
We had the deal, and were getting ready to negotiate the long-form agreement. We sat there with a bunch of lawyers and said tactically, how should we approach this meeting since the fundamental issue was them [ESPN] understanding what they bought? And we started the meeting by saying to Mark, you understand what you bought now, right? It’s the Sunday night cable package moved to Monday night. Mark said, “I know.”
SANDY MONTAG, Agent, IMG:
So Madden is at Monday Night Football and has a great run there with Al Michaels. He loved working with Al. For him, as a coach, having Howard Cosell broadcast your game was the best. When John became a broadcaster, he probably didn’t say it at the time, but in his heart, his career would not have been complete if he’d never gone to Monday Night Football. So he was thrilled. So then the world changes and NBC gets back in, and Monday Night Football goes to ESPN. And we’re thinking, “Well, same company.” Really we’re thinking he’d just move over to ESPN and do Monday Night there.
I’m on vacation at Hilton Head in April, and I get a call from George Bodenheimer and Mark Shapiro. In addition to representing John Madden, I also represented Joe Theismann at the time, along with Fred Gaudelli and Drew Esocoff. They said to me, “Well, we have a decision to make. Which team do we pick for Monday Night Football? Do we take Mike Patrick, Joe Theismann, [Jay] Rothman, and [Chip] Dean, or do we take Al, John, Fred, and Drew?” And with all due respect to my friend Joe Theismann, I thought they were joking. Mark being one of my best friends, I just thought they were pulling my leg. Because look, Al and John? They’re legendary. Then I quickly realized, these guys aren’t joking. They really think that they have a decision to make.
So my next call was to John. In his mind he was somewhat surprised they hadn’t already re-signed him, because at the time you knew that Monday Night Football would stay on ABC or go to ESPN. But they hadn’t done that. So John asked me, “Did you talk to George?” “Yeah, I talked to George.” “So, what’s the timing here?” For a second there I thought maybe I shouldn’t tell him, because maybe these guys will go to sleep, wake up, and say, “What were we thinking?! Forget about what we said yesterday.” But I told him what I knew. I said, “I’ve got to tell ya, John, they told me they have a decision to make.” And John says right away, “Well, that’s the end of them.”
You don’t do that with John Madden. It’s over. Done. When you stumble at the line with John Madden—when you show an ounce of weakness—the game is over.
JOHN MADDEN, Announcer:
George called me when I was in my truck driving with my son after a lunch. He told me ESPN had got Monday Night Football, and that I should hold tight, because they weren’t sure what they were going to do about the booth. He said, “I’ll get back to you.” That’s a call I remember.
It definitely shocked me. First, because when you look at the growth of pro football, there are three or four things that jump out at you: One was the Giants–Baltimore Colts game, the second was the AFL–NFL merger, and the third was Monday Night Football bumping it up to another level. To me, ABC was such a big part of NFL football. It was the only game on that day, and there wouldn’t be another game until the next Sunday. It was just something that ABC started and I thought it would always be there.
Then I found out the schedules were going to be reversed, that Monday night would be Sunday night and Sunday night