BY ADAM GREENE<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When Monday Night Football premiered on Sept. 21, 1970, it was the NFL\u2019s showcase game. While it might not have always been the best game on the schedule in a given week, it was easily in the Top Three as the network at the time, ABC, had to contend with the NFL\u2019s rights partners for the AFC (NBC) and NFC (CBS) games each week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
MNF was the crown jewel of the NFL\u2019s broadcast juggernaut. If it wasn\u2019t THE big game, it was A big game. The decadent dessert on an NFL weekend well spent. So what the hell happened? How did we go from a schedule that boasted a potential NFL playoff preview every week in 1989<\/a> to the Pittsburgh Steelers at the New York Giants to open the season?<\/p>\n\n\n\n It\u2019s a precipitous fall in programming. The move to ESPN in 2006 ruined the brand and the league hasn\u2019t made even the slightest effort to fix it in the 14 years since. And that\u2019s in spite of ESPN laying down $15 billion for the rights to show it the last time the contract came up. That deal wraps in 2021 and ESPN might be smart to request a significantly better slate of games before ponying up that price again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But here\u2019s what we\u2019re dealing with for Monday Night Football, legitimately one of the worst games on the Week One docket.<\/p>\n\n\n\n PITTSBURGH STEELERS AT NEW YORK GIANTS (+6, O\/U: 46)<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Location:<\/strong> MetLife Stadium, East Rutherford, N.J.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Kickoff:<\/strong> Sept. 14, 7:15 p.m.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Broadcast:<\/strong> ESPN<\/p>\n\n\n\n PITTSBURGH<\/strong> STEELERS (0-0)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Health has been the concern for the Steelers this offseason and we\u2019re not talking about the global COVID-19 pandemic. Nope, it\u2019s all about quarterback Ben Roethlisberger, who was missed 14 games last season with an elbow injury.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Pittsburgh trotted out two quarterbacks, Mason Rudolph and Delvin \u201cDuck\u201d Hodges on their way to an 8-8 finish in 2019 with Roethlisberger out and, really, there\u2019s no way to quantify what anyone did on the team offensively due to that fact. A healthy Roethlisberger would have easily won three more games last season, which is pretty much why everyone, including me, thinks the Steelers will find their way to the postseason this year. But Ben can\u2019t get hurt. It\u2019ll be interesting to see Big Ben back out there and each game with him should be savored, as this is a career in its last years. The Steelers aren\u2019t the problem with this MNF match up\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n NEW<\/strong> YORK<\/strong> GIANTS (0-0)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2026The Giants are. This is the weakest roster in football. The worst team, on paper, I\u2019ve seen in years. This is an 0-16 roster that won\u2019t go 0-16 simply because that\u2019s such a difficult thing to do in the modern NFL. The fact that two teams (2008 Detroit Lions and 2017 Cleveland Browns) have accomplished it in the last 12 seasons is as incredible an accomplishment as a 16-0 season. It\u2019s that improbable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It\u2019s no secret why only 13.15 percent of bettors at BetOnline.AG<\/a> picked New York to win the NFC East. If the Giants were your Madden team, you would replace every starter on the team with free agents with exception of Saquon Barkley and not think another thing about it. This is the team general manager Dave Gettleman decided to go to war with. And he\u2019s already got his quarterback, Daniel Jones, so he\u2019s not \u201cTanking for Trevor.\u201d He\u2019s just tanking for the hell of it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n THE PICK<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n If this game was featured on NFL Red Zone for more than five minutes, host Scott Hanson would apologize to the viewer with the explanation that everyone else is either at halftime or between quarters. If it\u2019s close at all, it\u2019ll just be because the weird offseason has everyone sloppy. I think that will be part of it, but don\u2019t be surprised to see Pittsburgh trot out its back up QBs in the fourth to finish this one out. Steelers 33, Giants 10<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Follow our BetOnline Twitter accoun<\/a>t for the latest sports news and betting odds, and stay tuned on the Instagram feed<\/a> for more good information too.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" BY ADAM GREENE When Monday Night Football premiered on Sept. 21, 1970, it was the NFL\u2019s showcase game. 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