Monday Night Football’s DUMBEST Political Controversy EVER

[@danmount9462]

Mondale would have been better served spiking the ball into the ground on every single play.

[@matthewdaley746]

Could have been worse, he could have had the worst professional sports arena in North America named after him, as if the fallout from the 1968 Democratic National Convention weren't enough, terrible, it is.

[@fortynights1513]

@@matthewdaley746 I thought the Metrodome looked cool even if it wasn’t the most practical thing in the world. Mariners fan, and I always thought it looked cool on TV in the early 2000’s when we played the Twins in Minnesota. Especially through 03 on the light green turf.

[@matthewdaley746]

​​​@@fortynights1513Awesomeness belied nasty, garishness.

[@CTubeMan]

This unofficial Official Jaguar Gator 9 historian will remind everyone you made videos about the following: 1. How another Channel 5 in New England showed the wrong show instead of a promised football game two weeks in a row in 1999. 2. How viewers weren’t able to watch the end of the Chiefs-Chargers game in 2000 because of the election results from Florida.

[@randytracy1742]

Ouch! You used a very good pun when you said the people were red with anger and some were blue with sadness when they couldn’t watch some of the game! The people of Boston deserved better than to watch a post-debate show that lasted longer than usual! 😂😂😂😂😂😂

[@matthewdaley746]

The people of Boston are really upset that they haven't won a Championship, since, SB 53, (just did), I just hope that they never run into anybody from Cleveland, When Boston Loses, America Wins.

[@americanidol30]

At least today, if a TV station tunes into a game late, you’ll know what the score is because there’s a score bug on the screen at all times.

[@emeraldaly7646]

A Presidential debate once impacted a WWE pay per view, too, in 2016. They didnt reschedule the time for the event, but they did move the world heavyweight title match, planned to be the main event (last on the show) to instead go on first. It had an interesting knock-on effect, because the new main event was a match that had a better story that people were more invested in (a "career threatening match" for a good-guy character people really loved at the time, against a bad guy they really hated. Good stuff)

[@Jason_Maier]

1. Ronald Reagan did appear once on Monday Night Football while Governor of California. 2. The 1984 Cowboys were one of only nine teams in NFL history to finish a season with a point differential of Zero (in this case; they had 308 points both ways). 3. Another political related late start was game 2 of the 1988 NLCS in LA between the Dodgers and Mets (10 pm Eastern). This was the VP debated where Lloyd Bentsen said to Dan Quayle "You sir are no Jack Kennedy!"

[@matthewdaley746]

He was right, Dan Quayle was just dumb, he wasn't in completely over his head like, JFK, this whole absurd myth of Camelot, stems from what people have convinced themselves they were, "denied," because of his murder, the truth is, on his worst day, for all of his faults, LBJ, was the better, POTUS, going back to the 1988 NLCS, it's, The, Mets In A Nutshell, Their Own Worst Enemy, period, simple as that.

[@americangiant1003]

I remember that controversy well with the Mets/Dodgers game #2 NLCS start time of 10pm ET. Was living in the NYC area at the time and then brand radio station WFAN(America’s 1st full 365 a day all sports radio format)both the Callers and Hosts was furious. Only other option was to start the game on a Midday Afternoon with 1st pitch at say 1230pm LA Time. Too bad it was in the early days of cable tv, as now almost 40 years later that Dodgers/Mets or any MLB LCS playoff game would now most likely be on Fox/FS1, TNT/TBS or ESPN. Fox tends on evenings there is a LCS playoff or World Series game that they are broadcasting would instead put on sister channel “Fox News.”

[@matthewdaley746]

​@americangiant1003 In that same vein, Game Four, exposed Davey Johnson, who was too stupid to pull Dwight Gooden, people always say drugs kept him out of the, HOF, ironically, they actually prolonged his career because in the normal course of events, his throwing motion would have completely destroyed his arm by the age of thirty, (if that).

[@CTubeMan]

Reagan also got interviewed during Game 1 of the 1983 World Series when the Baltimore Orioles hosted the Philadelphia Phillies. The game got delayed until his interview was over. I saw that the Orioles gave up a home run to the Phillies in the subsequent half inning. They blamed the interview for the homer.

[@matthewdaley746]

​@CTubeMan Interesting, I wonder who they blamed for blowing, a, 2-0, and, a, 3-1, lead, to Pirates teams that were objectively worse than them, they had, MLB's, best record from, 1966-1983, but, lost to those two teams, and, The, Miracle Mets, the only other team to win as many Championships in that span were the Oakland Athletics, who won theirs in a row, really bad.

[@MrTim2031]

Based on the footage you showed, this was the “I will not use my opponent’s youth and inexperience against him” debate, right?

[@matthewdaley746]

It certainly historically was.

[@jamesk.bishop105]

That was a great debate one liner. Reagan didn't have a good night in their first debate so age questions ran riot in the press. The audience exploded with laughter and both Mondale and the reporter who asked Reagan the question had a good laugh at it, too.

[@matthewdaley746]

​​​@@jamesk.bishop105Finished debate rather expeditiously.

[@runrafarunthebestintheworld]

It's actually nice that Presidential debates have no effect in the present day now they could easily schedule debates for Wednesday or Thursday now.

[@americangiant1003]

Or even better Tuesday Night as well. Plus even though there is now a full season Thursday Night game, I am sure the NFL will not schedule a game with say the Cowboys or Chiefs on Amazon Sports TNF at all during that 6 weeks period between the start of the regular season in mid September until Election Day in early November.

[@LoganNagol]

What an interesting topic. Never even heard of this

[@travismiller4320]

The 1984 election was the Super Bowl 24 of voting.

[@matthewdaley746]

SB 20, SB 24, was really fun to watch as a spectacle of the athletic perfection of, Joe Montana, Jerry Rice, Roger Craig, and, the 49ers, (except, for Broncos fans).

[@americangiant1003]

Or even better SB 20 aka the 1986 Super Bowl with the Bears destroying the Patriots. That Reagan butt kicking off Mondale is something I am 99.9% sure you will never see again in America or anywhere in the world with a “legitimate and honest democracy.”

[@matthewdaley746]

​​​​@americangiant1003 Earlier post description, unquestionably, and, Walter Mondale as much as admitted the race was over before it began by nominating a female running mate, the whole thing reeks of, "fake progressivism," sort of like how after Ringling Brothers got rid of their animals they had their first female ringmaster, three years later, (if that), they shut down, a total disaster.

[@marcus813]

Most viewers in the Greater Boston DMA were probably gonna miss the bulk of the game due to the insanely late kickoff time as it was, so what the station did was asinine. Those who could pick up WMUR-TV (Manchester, N.H.) or WPRI-TV (Providence) would be OK, but those who couldn't were out of luck at 9:45 p.m. ET.

[@cmdrflake]

The arrogance of WCVB is beyond the pale. They did not even want to give up their chance to show off their new toy. There would be other occasions but, they had to poke Reagan voters in the eye. They knew that they would have lots of people watching debate coverage. If the Pats had been playing, different scenarios would have been in play. Allowing WLVI/56 or WSBK/38 to run the game was not satisfactory for WCVB🤦🏻‍♂️

[@WaltGekko]

I'm surprised someone, including the NFL did not take that affiliate in Boston to court to force them to re-show the game even if it pre-empted a night of prime time programming to do it just so people could tape the game if they intended to in order to punish the ABC affiliate for doing that (and air scheduled prime time programming in late night on Saturday).

[@drewzuhosky6826]

The NFL did not allow games to be rerun back then. Until the advent of the league's own network, game telecasts never got rerun.

[@WaltGekko]

@@drewzuhosky6826 Interesting. I used to see NFL Preseason games air live locally in New York (especially Jets preseason games) and again the next morning on tape in its entirety both times. This was actually in the early 1980s a few years before this game took place.

[@mrmoose6619]

@@WaltGekko I remember Giants pre-season games being condensed and shown on one of the unaffiliated networks in the mid-80s on Sundays.

[@WaltGekko]

@@mrmoose6619 WPIX-TV (Channel 11) had rights to Giants pre-season games for many years. I believe they also would when showing a game live on Saturday night they would re-air it Sunday morning.

[@WaltGekko]

This thread reminded of when in 1992 the reverse happened, when CBS had Game 4 of the American League Championship Series that started at 4:30 ET after the NFL game on a Sunday and there was a Presidential Debate that I believe began at 7:00 or 7:30 PM ET (between GW Bush and Bill Clinton) and because the ALCS game ran long, CBS either joined the debate in progress, did not show it at all or aired it on a delay, but stayed with baseball to its conclusion.

[@mgb4692]

I think they just passed on it altogether since it was followed by Braves/Pirates Game 5

[@Nasamike]

Today, head to head, I think the NFL would have more viewers.

[@americangiant1003]

NASA Mike if that evening match up was say involving the Cowboys or other popular teams such as the 2020’s era Championship Dynasty Chiefs clubs you are probably right. With that said, with the popularity of the NFL I doubt here in 2024, the powers that by, will now schedule a POTUS debate especially on a Sunday or Monday night. Instead, Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday nights (Friday and Saturday are out of the question)is when a debate would now be scheduled.

[@matthewdaley746]

Seriously, totally, not, close-period.

[@matthewdaley746]

​​​@@americangiant1003Speaking of which, I can absolutely understand why the Chiefs had to bring back Chris Jones, however, I think the contract will ultimately prove ruinous, because the only way it remotely justifies its existence is the, three-peat, and, as great as they are, skills only get you so far, and, luck always runs out.

[@drewzuhosky6826]

The 2008 cycle had a debate slated for a Friday night for whatever reason. @@americangiant1003

[@matthewdaley746]

​​​​​@@drewzuhosky6826Everybody's out partying, unquestionably.

[@lorenzobeckmann3736]

50+ yrs of 41

[@benjaminrealy5661]

You're missing the most important part The numbers. What rating did the post debate get? And how did it compare to other stations post debate coverage? Plus they got a new satellite van. They are commonplace now, but back then, like you said it was the only one on the east coast. The presidential debate was huge, so it was a great opportunity to utilize it and showcase it. Knowing the ratings would tell if their plan succeeded or not.

[@drewzuhosky6826]

Reminds me of a 1998 preseason game on _MNF_ that had its entire third quarter shafted to ESPN2 due to a Clinton address on the Lewinsky scandal.

[@matthewdaley746]

There was a film that he unsuccessfully tried to bury called, The, Path To 9/11, which shows an incident in an unnamed Middle Eastern country where locals are being killed, and, an American reporter claimed the, POTUS, was ignoring it because he was, "far too busy," defending himself from political fallout from said scandal.

[@drewzuhosky6826]

It's interesting that they shafted the third quarter of that game to ESPN2, since at the time, the network wasn't accessible on a number of cablers. @@matthewdaley746

[@matthewdaley746]

​@drewzuhosky6826 In that same vein, Cartoon Network, wasn't available to everybody when it first came out, and, like all networks, that was truly the best time, because it consisted mostly of older programming, The, Poster Child, for, Network Decay, is a tie between, Nickelodeon, and, The, USA Network, today, both are completely unrecognizable, and, became, The, Artifact.

[@mgb4692]

BTW this would be a good time to point out the first presidential debate this year is scheduled for Monday Sept 16. Absolutely no problems there

[@matthewdaley746]

There's plenty of problems related to the debate, though, none of them are, date-related, and, seeing as I'm feeling good after watching, The, Oscars, that's truly all that needs to be said about that.

[@AdamJ617]

I’m not going to say that WCVB was That moronic. Growing up in Massachusetts, we had Three options for ABC, with WPRI from Providence and WMUR from Manchester being the other two, even though they didn’t come in nearly as clearly as WCVB, unless you had either or both of the other two on cable.

[@CTubeMan]

Gonna create a JG538 channel?

[@JayTemple]

5:50 every American that can vote, as well of millions of others who can't!

[@jamesdulany2176]

It would've been cool if they showed it off by doing a live report from a Patriots game away from home.

[@afbocc]

Georgia 63-3 win over Florida State is = to Raegans win over Mondale.

[@matthewdaley746]

FSU kept Bobby Bowden way past his expiration date because he'd, "earned," it, not, to mention, that Barry Switzer made people forget just how corrupt he really was, nothing's too good for that university, period.

[@KingTrump-25]

Sadly today-ppl would choose a game,award show,etc over a presidential debate…our society has regressed on grand scale

[@MikeyKaos716]

Considering Presidential debates now are nothing more than a Republican jack wagon and a Democrat jack wagon that are disconnected from an average person's problems and needs yelling at each other, sounding like a pair of three-year-olds going back and forth, with the emotional intelligence of said three-year-olds, yes, I'd rather watch anything than that debate. And political burnout is a thing, and can lead to political apathy of you stay tuned in for too long.

[@matthewdaley746]

Regression's ultimately inevitable, unfortunately.

[@matthewdaley746]

​@MikeyKaos716 Voters proved that in 2016, and, Hillary Clinton was just complacent enough to complete, The, Self-Fulfilling, Prophecy, first, she thought it was, "her turn," to be, POTUS, and, second, she had, already, won that election in her mind, and, thus, her campaign was laughably deficient, there's, Putting, The, Cart, Before, The, Horse, and, there's, Burning, The, Reins, simple as that, terribly bad.

[@chadwickwhite6107]

REAGAN RULES

[@matthewhenningervonada9914]

Sorry, but one of the greatest games? It was predictable. The saints before 2000 were literally trash. Bigger chokers than the falcons.

[@matthewdaley746]

Yeah, Mike Ditka truly cemented his position as one of the most overrated coaches ever by winning a grand total of two Playoff Games following SB 20, the first was, "The, Fog Bowl," the second was against the Saints, (before coaching them himself), The, People Rest.

[@petercena9497]

Correct, take away 2009 and the Saints are the choke artists of all time.

[@matthewdaley746]

​@petercena9497 It gets better, they have a SB, (and, Tampa Bay, has two), meanwhile, the Vikings, who have never even had three straight losing seasons, are, 0-4, in the SB, oh, but, wait, there's more, the Eagles are one defensive play from matching the Vikings' record, good thing Tom Brady was somehow more concerned about finishing the SB without being sacked than winning, (not, that I'm complaining).

[@marcus813]

The Saints weren't trash in the late '80s. They finally got their act together in '87.

[@matthewhenningervonada9914]

@@marcus813 They were less trash. They still didn't win one playoff game though.

[@ThoughtsofMyles]

I hate Ronald Reagan

[@morthedgebuckle227]

Sounds like a woke tv station frantically trying to annoy every day people.

[@BuccaneerBruce]

Trash can lid IQ type of comment right there.

[@americangiant1003]

Shut up Buckle. 👎As Jag said let us try to avoid turning this into a partisan argument. The Fox News and Newsmax YT comment section is to your left. A bad decision by Channel 5 ABC Boston in this stupid additional “post debate show” no doubt. This has nothing to do with “woke” which was not even a campaign issue in 1984. Expand your vocabulary Buckle.👎 Back to topic. I know the NFL was not as popular in 1984(also only 2 seasons after the strike)as it is here in the mid 2020s. With that said, could not the NFL Schedule Makers and ABC not schedule a SNF that night? Especially knowing full well that a strong possibility of a POTUS General Election debate on that week in October of ‘84? Just saying.