Before the first year, nobody gave it a chance. Now, 36 years later, everybody knows Monday Night Football.
When cars honk and hoot and drunks squeeze out of car windows and scream, you can be sure that football is in the air.
It was okay for Wayne Gretzky's dad, for instance, to give him a hockey stick, or Joe Montana's dad to give him a football, or Larry Bird's dad to give him a basketball, but it wasn't okay for Gloria Connors to give her son a tennis racquet.
I was always determined to make it as a footballer, but if things hadn't worked out, I'd have maybe followed my dad into the building industry.
The thing is, my dad's always been more of a bookworm; he was interested in more intellectual pursuits, but nobody can escape the passion that football stirs.
Nah, I've always had a great relationship with my two brothers, I have always had their support in my football and in everything. They've been very close to me and we have a great relationship.
Wouldn't it be great if our national news media had standards as high as the National Football League's?
On the weekends, I do the usual parental things, going to the boys' football tournaments or getting out for a hike along the Great Wall.
My private life is perfect. If your private life and your life outside football is good, then it is good on the field for you.
Deeper fulfilment is rather different from the happiness of seeing a good film or watching your team win at football, and it doesn't come at the push of a button.
I play football once or twice a week. I eat pretty healthy. I'm in fairly good shape most of the time.
Football is a violent sport. Somebody's going to get hurt. It's the game. Just hopefully, you're on the good side of it.
Why is it good for football to take the excitement away from fans by overcharging them for tickets to see their team?
When I wasn't famous, I had a lot of friends, almost all of them Italian. The racism only started when I started to play football.
I've never made football my priority. My priorities are my faith and my dependence on God.
We're in a leadership position in sports. People look up to the National Football League.
My workout was running down fly balls, stealing a base, or running for my life on the football field.
Football changed my life and it gave me a platform to get out my aggression and it gave me a sense of value.
In football, like in life, you must learn to play within the rules of the game.
I missed out on my teenage years. I led a sheltered life. I was practicing scales instead of playing football.
I think everyone in their life has some point on their life wanted to be like everybody else or wanted to be like the captain of the football team.
