vikings broncos play by play television steve levy

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An early bid by the league in 1964 to play on Friday nights was soundly defeated, with critics charging that such telecasts would damage the attendance at high school football games, and in any event had been prohibited by the aforementioned Sports Broadcasting Act of 1961 for that very reason alongside Saturday games to protect college football. Monday night National Football League games prior to 1970 ĭuring the early 1960s, NFL Commissioner Pete Rozelle envisioned the possibility of playing at least one game weekly during prime time that could be viewed by a greater television audience (while the NFL had scheduled Saturday night games on the DuMont Television Network in 19, poor ratings and the dissolution of DuMont led to those games being eliminated by the time CBS took over the rights in 1956).

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This became the first ever cooperative television plan for professional football, in which the proceeds of the contract were divided equally among member clubs the National Football League would follow suit in 1961, a move that required Congress to pass the Sports Broadcasting Act of 1961 to accommodate such collective broadcasting contracts. These games were typically broadcast regionally on 15 consecutive Sundays and on Thanksgiving Day.

The deal called for ABC to broadcast approximately 37 regular season games, the AFL Championship Game and the AFL All-Star Game. Less than five years later however, ABC became the initial network television partner for the American Football League.

Vikings broncos play by play television steve levy tv#

This came off the heels of the NFL's previous principal network TV partner, the DuMont Network, suspending its operations. If the 49ers were in Los Angeles to play the Rams (like in Week 7 of the 1955 season), then they used Bob Fouts and Frankie Albert.ĪBC's relationship with the NFL at this point pretty much ended when CBS began carrying regular season games across its network nationwide in 1956. However, on November 13 (Week 8 of the 1955 season), when the Rams traveled to Chicago to face the Bears, ABC employed a split-commentary concept with Bob Kelley and Bill Brundige calling the game for viewers in Pacific areas and Red Grange and Bill Fay calling the game for viewers in the Midwest. In the event that the 49ers were in Chicago to play the Bears (which occurred in Week 3 of the 1955 season on October 8), then ABC would use Red Grange and Bill Fay. Although for the first two weeks of the 1955 season, the roles were reversed. Bob Fouts and Frankie Albert were on the commentary for 49ers games.

Vikings broncos play by play television steve levy plus#

For games featuring the 49ers and the Rams in 1955, ABC used Bob Kelley plus Bill Brundige on the Rams telecast. When ABC added the Redskins to their schedule in 1954, they used Bob Wolff and Dutch Bergman. The articles said that NFL Commissioner Bert Bell was 'fuming' over the incident.įor the Chicago-based games, ABC used Red Grange and Bill Fay on commentary. Wire accounts found in indicated that the Washington- Philadelphia game in Week 2 of the 1953 season, was to have been regionally televised by ABC, but the cables needed for the telecast never arrived. In ABC's final year of their initial go around with the National Football League, they added Los Angeles Rams and San Francisco 49ers games (for the Pacific Time Zone affiliates) to go along with their coverage of the Bears and Cardinals. Beginning in 1954, ABC added Washington Redskins home games, taking those from DuMont, who replaced them with the Philadelphia Eagles despite Philadelphia (unlike Washington with WTTG) not having a DuMont O&O.

While DuMont focused on the New York Giants and Pittsburgh Steelers due to their respective markets having a DuMont O&O ( WABD and WDTV, respectively), ABC focused on Chicago Bears home games and Chicago Cardinals home games. Harry Wismer provided commentary for the game in 1948 and the game in 1950 joined by Red Grange and Joe Hasel.ĪBC first broadcast regular season National Football League games in 1953, supplementing the DuMont Television Network's NFL coverage. In 19, ABC televised the National Football League Championship Game.

The following article details the history of Monday Night Football, the weekly broadcast of National Football League games on U.S.