Can you sense it? The start of a new gridiron season is just around the corner? We’ve moved from months to weeks now on our “die-hard countdown calendar.”
Perhaps that’s why I dipped into my vast collection of games this past Saturday afternoon and cued up the 1979 Monday Night Football contest between my Atlanta Falcons and the Seattle Seahawks. Quite frankly, I didn’t realize VCRs were even around then (my better half Pam told me they were) but someone had made a copy of this game as it aired on a Seattle station back in the dying days of the 70s, complete with every commercial as well as the entire halftime show. What a treat it turned out to be.
Chris Bridges
COLUMN: Football from days past fuels fire for present
First, the game was special because it was a Monday Night Football broadcast. This was in the time when pro games airing a day other than Sunday were special. Monday Night Football has pretty much lost its luster now but back in the 70s it was huge. Teams had the national stage to themselves and it put a team and city on display for all to see.
The Falcons were coming off their first playoff season in franchise history in 1978 which no doubt led to them being selected for a couple of Monday Night Football games for the following year.
The Seahawks, by comparison, were still a relatively young franchise but were making progress through the tandem of Jim Zorn and Steve Largeant and the two had a big night against the Birds more than 30 years ago.
When I posted on my Facebook page I was watching the game, a couple of friends began throwing out names from those years gone by. Pridemore. Bartkowski. Andrews. Cain. Miller. Van Note. For me, that’s what made the NFL so great in the past. Players stayed with one franchise for multiple years. As a fan, you felt like you knew them. They became not only a part of the team, but also a part of the city in which they played. All of that is gone now.
Adding to the viewing enjoyment of the contest was seeing the vintage commercials. Vehicles set for debut in 1980 tagged as new. Seeing what the new item was at McDonald’s in 1979 was interesting as was the commercial for Skoal. It’s funny how commercials tell you as much as about a time as anything. From fashion to the products being sold, vintage commercials are also fun to watch.
In the end, the Falcons lost the game 31-28 despite (a familiar story here) having a chance to win it in the final minute.
And while one friend told me Sunday, “I just don’t get watching an old game you already know the outcome of,” for me it was a trip back in time. A trip back to my childhood when NFL players could be viewed as role models, when Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium on a Monday night in October was the place to be, when I truly had no cares in the world. Yes, that was a good time.
And as my better half and I watched the final seconds tick away, Pam summed it up best when she said, “That was a heartbreaker.”
“The life of a Falcon fan,” I thought. “Some things never change, whether it’s 1979 or 2010.”
Chris Bridges is the sports editor of the Barrow Journal. Send comments about this column to cbridges@barrowjournal.com.
The Falcons were coming off their first playoff season in franchise history in 1978 which no doubt led to them being selected for a couple of Monday Night Football games for the following year.
The Seahawks, by comparison, were still a relatively young franchise but were making progress through the tandem of Jim Zorn and Steve Largeant and the two had a big night against the Birds more than 30 years ago.
When I posted on my Facebook page I was watching the game, a couple of friends began throwing out names from those years gone by. Pridemore. Bartkowski. Andrews. Cain. Miller. Van Note. For me, that’s what made the NFL so great in the past. Players stayed with one franchise for multiple years. As a fan, you felt like you knew them. They became not only a part of the team, but also a part of the city in which they played. All of that is gone now.
Adding to the viewing enjoyment of the contest was seeing the vintage commercials. Vehicles set for debut in 1980 tagged as new. Seeing what the new item was at McDonald’s in 1979 was interesting as was the commercial for Skoal. It’s funny how commercials tell you as much as about a time as anything. From fashion to the products being sold, vintage commercials are also fun to watch.
In the end, the Falcons lost the game 31-28 despite (a familiar story here) having a chance to win it in the final minute.
And while one friend told me Sunday, “I just don’t get watching an old game you already know the outcome of,” for me it was a trip back in time. A trip back to my childhood when NFL players could be viewed as role models, when Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium on a Monday night in October was the place to be, when I truly had no cares in the world. Yes, that was a good time.
And as my better half and I watched the final seconds tick away, Pam summed it up best when she said, “That was a heartbreaker.”
“The life of a Falcon fan,” I thought. “Some things never change, whether it’s 1979 or 2010.”
Chris Bridges is the sports editor of the Barrow Journal. Send comments about this column to cbridges@barrowjournal.com.
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