When "Monday Night Football" began on ABC in 1970, former Dallas Cowboys quarterback Don Meredith was brought in by Roone Arledge as part of the first three-man announcing team on TV. Keith Jackson (later Frank Gifford) did play-by-play, Howard Cosell was the opinionated analyst, and Meredith was his country-boy foil.
Meredith did his best to enliven "MNF" for twelve seasons, especially when the games got boring. When he wasn't needling Cosell, he would point out fans who stuck their middle fingers at the TV cameras, telling viewers that it meant their team was Number One. Or when the game was all but wrapped up, he would serenade the nation to bed with the Willie Nelson tune "The Party's Over".
Meredith parlayed his success on "MNF" into an acting career, appearing on episodes of "Police Story" and in some made for TV movies.
None of this would have been possible if Meredith hadn't had an All-Pro career with the Cowboys, with whom he played from their expansion year in 1960 to his retirement in 1969. He took them to the NFL championship game twice, and losing twice to the Green Bay Packers in the era of Vince Lombardi and Bart Starr.
As the song goes, they say that all good things must end. For Don Meredith, it came at the age of 72 due to a brain hemorrhage. He died on Sunday, but it was not announced until Monday. Which happened to be the day when a nationally-televised football game would be played.
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