This Day in Sports Business History September 21

On September 21, 1970, the NFL launched Monday Night Football on ABC with a matchup between the New York Jets and the Cleveland Browns at Cleveland Municipal Stadium. The Browns won 31–21, but the bigger story was the television experiment itself. ABC paid $8.5 million per year for the rights, a groundbreaking deal at the time because it moved pro football into a primetime weeknight slot — a risk the other major networks (CBS and NBC) had declined.

The gamble paid off: the broadcast drew 33% of American TV households, making it one of the most-watched sports telecasts ever to that point. The success reshaped the NFL’s business model by proving that football could dominate outside of Sunday afternoons. It also set the stage for massive growth in advertising revenue, media rights fees, and the league’s primetime presence, influencing how networks scheduled sports programming for decades.