Monday Night Football was a much bigger deal in the 1980s than it is now. Basically it was the only game broadcast to the entire country every week in prime time, the "showcase" if you will. Sunday Night Football was a cable TV novelty and there was no Thursday Night Football, no Sunday Ticket, no satellite, no internet, no streaming.
If your team was halfway decent, you would probably see them on Monday night at least once per season. If they were a serious contender, you'd probably get them a couple of times. However, if they were bad, you probably wouldn't see them at all.
Fortunately for me, the Broncos were good in the 1980s, and so as a young fan I was able to see them every year on the big stage. And these were rarely "typical" games, which is the reason for this post. Every year had a Monday night game with a story worth retelling.
I was on the cusp of becoming a big football fan in October 1984 when the Broncos played the Green Bay Packers on Monday night in the midst of a driving Colorado snowstorm. I remember the spectacle of the blizzard on our television. Steve Foley and Louis Wright returned fumbles for touchdowns on the first two plays from scrimmage to give the Broncos a 14-0 lead before even a minute of game clock had expired. Those two scores plus a field goal by barefoot kicker Rich Karlis were all the points the Broncos needed to secure a 17-14 win. Although I didn't sit and watch that game, my interest was piqued to some degree and I've seen the replays of those two fumbles dozens of times.
I really got into football over the next year and so I was excited when the Broncos' next Monday night matchup rolled around. On Veteran's Day 1985, the Broncos hosted the defending champion San Francisco 49ers, which pitted young John Elway against Super Bowl MVP Joe Montana. I remember being frustrated that the broadcast team did not seem properly familiar with my Broncos. Joe Namath kept mispronouncing Rich Karlis as "Karlos." The Broncos jumped to a 14-3 lead but the 49ers drove deep into Bronco territory at the end of the first half. When the 49ers were unable to get in the end zone, their field goal unit came onto the field. Remnants of a recent snowstorm were in the stadium, and opportunistic fans in the north end zone had been taking advantage of the situation and firing snowballs onto the field. A perfectly placed snowball landed a few feet in front of holder Matt Cavanaugh a heartbeat after the snap, causing him to bobble the ball. Kicker Ray Wersching hesitated, and Cavanaugh was forced to scoop the ball up and attempt an errant pass towards the goal line to end the first half. At the time I was only allowed to stay up until halftime of the Monday night game, and so I did not get to see the conclusion. However, the Broncos held off the Niners for a narrow 17-16 victory, meaning that a snowball may well have decided the outcome of the game.
The Broncos visited Three Rivers in Week 2 of the 1986 season to face the Steelers on Monday night. I still had my 8:30 bedtime, but our family now had a VCR and I was able to tape the game and watch the second half later. A couple of notable things I remember. After the Steelers scored 5 minutes into the fourth quarter to cut the Broncos' lead to 14-10, the Broncos began their next drive on their own 20. Elway tossed a lateral to Gerald Willhite, who then squared up and launched a pass to a wide-open Steve Watson, who scored on an apparent 80-yard touchdown play. However, the officials called it back, ruling it an illegal forward pass. The television replay showed that Elway's toss to Willhite had not been a forward pass and that Willhite had been 5 yards behind the line of scrimmage when he threw his pass. This was the first year of instant replay in the NFL, and the kinks weren't yet worked out. The Broncos ran another play before communication was established with the replay booth, and so it could not be overturned. Nevertheless, the Broncos went on to win the game after Elway tossed a touchdown pass to Sammy Winder late in the fourth quarter. Before the advent of cell phones and social media, "Hi mom!" moments used to be a thing during football games, and after the clinching touchdown, the cameras went to Elway on the sideline and he shouted, "Hi Mom hi Janet, hi Jessi! Wooo!" and then flashed his index finger and a grin. I thought it was hilarious and replayed it again and again. Al Michaels was like, "What about dad?" because Jack Elway was coach of Stanford at the time, and they had beaten Texas the previous Saturday.
The 4-3-1 Broncos hosted the 7-1 Chicago Bears for a Monday night clash in November 1987. I remembered the game but not a lot of specific details. Fortunately, I was able to rewatch the whole thing thanks to the magic of YouTube. I had forgotten what a great game it was. The Bears got out in front early and were about to go up 21-7 when Refrigerator Perry fumbled on the goal line. The momentum shifted and the Broncos turned around and scored two touchdowns to take a 21-14 halftime lead. The Bears owned the third quarter but botched two extra-point tries, which allowed the Broncos to rally in the fourth and claim a narrow 31-29 victory. Elway was fantastic in this game - 341 yards and 3 touchdown passes, one to each of the Three Amigos. Steve Sewell scored the winning touchdown on a leaping four-yard run, and the Broncos defense held off the Bears in the final minutes. The broadcast team clearly thought the Broncos were really holding onto narrow playoff hopes at this point of the season and the AFC West was out of reach because the San Diego Chargers were 8-1. This big win over an NFC power on Monday Night was the turning point of the season for the Broncos. They won five of their last six, including two wins over the Chargers, who went 0-6 down the stretch. The Broncos went on to not only win the division but to represent the AFC in the Super Bowl, and John Elway won his first and only league MVP. Speaking of Super Bowl XXIII, during the broadcast there was a rather ominous mention of Doug Williams subbing in for Jay Schroeder the previous day and leading the Redskins to victory...
By Halloween 1988, I was in junior high and bedtime restrictions were relaxed. I elected to spend the evening at my grandpa's house passing out candy. I was too old for trick-or-treating and I wanted to watch the Broncos play the Colts on Monday Night Football. However, it was not a game that I wanted to watch past halftime. In a rowdy Hoosier Dome filled with costumed fans celebrating the first-ever Monday Night game in Indy, the Colts scored the first 31 points of the game, 24 of them coming on four touchdowns by Eric Dickerson. A couple of long touchdown passes followed, and the Colts led 45-10 at halftime. It was a barrage of points reminiscent of the Super Bowl nine months earlier in which the Redskins put up 35 points on the Broncos in the second quarter. Truly a nightmare for a young fan like myself, yet the "Halloween Massacre" was only one of multiple blowouts the Broncos suffered on the road in 1988 - they also lost big at Pittsburgh, New Orleans, and Seattle. The Broncos missed the playoffs, and longtime defensive coordinator Joe Collier was fired at the end of the season.
The Broncos went to Washington in November 1989 to play the Redskins on Monday Night. However, John Elway came down with the stomach flu the morning of the game, and so backup Gary Kubiak got the start at quarterback. The Broncos turned the ball over on their first possession and the Redskins turned it into a touchdown. The night at RFK stadium was cold and windy, but the Broncos scored two touchdowns to take a halftime lead. The Redskins cut the lead to three following another turnover, and then the Broncos clung to a four-point lead as they played the field position game. Kubiak pooch punted a couple of times and neither team moved the ball much until the Broncos managed to run out the last 6:45 of the game clock. Even though it was low scoring, I remember it being great drama to watch the Broncos manage to pull out a win on the road against an NFC opponent with their backup QB in prime time.
The Kansas City Chiefs came to Mile High in week 2 of the 1990 season for a Monday night battle. They featured Christian Okoye, aka the Nigerian Nightmare, a 260 pound running back with 4.4 speed who had rushed for 1,480 yards the previous season and seemed somewhat unstoppable. Early in the game, Okoye took a handoff and went up the middle only to be met head-on by Steve Atwater. Okoye landed on his backside and suddenly the entire country knew about Steve Atwater, who was only in his second year. The legendary hit probably overshadowed what was a pretty entertaining game. The Broncos were trailing by two points and had a 4th-and-10 from their own 17 yard line with a minute remaining when Elway hooked up with Vance Johnson on a 49-yard completion, which put the Broncos in position to kick the game winning field goal as time expired.
However, the Broncos finished the 1990 season 5-11, which led to them not being invited to Monday Night Football in 1991, which kind of broke the streak of my Broncos Monday night memories.
