Long time NFL fans and/or fans of classic Monday Night Football have heard the legandary tale of MNF’s first visit ever to Denver to broadcast a Monday Night Game against the Oakland Raiders and their new QB making his second start Ken Stabler!
But what the game is most known for is the Monday Night Lore which says Dan Meredith was out at a pregame party and came to the game semi-smashed! He proceeded to say when introducing the game …
“Welcome to Mile High, and I am” !! amidst large criticism obviously. One problem; it never happened.
Try to find the youtube.com video for it. You won.
Fortunately Bucstop.com is a football Video Vault site and we have a small collection of classic Monday Night games from the Howard Cosell era, and as you can hear, he doesnt make mention of “and I am” or anything, other than saying “HI!” first when que’d from Cosell.
Our recent quiz of Bucs fans on their 1970s Bucs knowledge showed a lot of fans have some facts mixed up facts from different eras. Bucs fans from that time will swear Doug Williams broke his jaw in the NFC Championship game vs the Rams, when truth is he broke his jaw vs Rams in 1978 regular season game! In the playoff game of 1979 he tore a bicep, and could not make it back to finish the game, a 9-0 loss.
How many more urban legends are untrue based on incorrect memories? To be fair Meredith was definitely a little tipsy and fellow commentator Frank Gifford took the Mic with a “I’d better” comment acknowledging the fact! This crew had the most fun and was the epitome of what Monday Night Football was in that era. Meredith would leave MNF from 74-76 and return in 1977. He was best known for his “Turn out the lights….the party’s over” line from a Willy Nelson song.
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