Monday Night Football is back (on Sundays)

Ah, it’s nice to have football season back. Even if it’s just the pre-season. Even if the biggest topic of discussion so far this pre-season is whether there should be a pre-season. And even if Monday Night Football is now on Sundays. Huh?

I guess the best way to put it is that the Sunday night game and the Monday night game switched places. That of course leads to the question of what defines each of the two games anyway. Despite what the networks would have you believe, neither game has ever been defined by which station carries which game (I suppose a few folks out there who still don’t have cable are miffed about the move to ESPN, but those same folks are probably also miffed that new music no longer comes on vinyl). And since the teams change from week to week, the two games are only truly defined by their announcers. Even their impact is far less than they wish it were (and too many of them try to actively force that wish upon us with their performances), but Monday Night Football has come to be defined more by Michaels and Madden than anything else over the past few years, so now that that particular pair has moved to Sundays, I consider the game on Sunday night to be the Monday Night Football game.

Of course some folks would argue just the opposite, that the day of the week is what defines these two games. And back when I had a Monday to Friday job, I might’ve agreed with their assessment. Sunday Night Football was how I ended my weekend, and Monday Night Football was my opportunity to re-live the weekend a day after it was definitively over. But now that my workweek is fluid (I generally work seven days a week, but the cool part is that I get to choose which seven days I work each week), it doesn’t much matter to me which game is on which day.

Anyway, the pre-season is what it always is: a series of games that are interesting for a good fifteen minutes before the starters begin leaving the game and the reality sets in that this particular game doesn’t count for anything. It’s then that the announcers attempt to save the sinking ship, and the inevitably end up interviewing some retired equipment manager on a split-screen. Meanwhile, in the game, the fourth-string quarterback is scrambling for his life and throws up a no-look pass, and the split screen is so small that you can’t tell whether or not the pass was intercepted. You figure the game producers must own stock in the big screen TV companies, because they’re working hard on trying to get me to invest in one.

One unique thing about the preseason comes at the end of the game (if you can stand to watch all the way until the end, when the waterboy is lined up at wide receiver next to the concession stand cashier). Players from both teams head toward midfield in order to greet their friends on the other team, with the winners typically consoling the losers. But after a preseason game, all the players on both teams are smiling. What’s there to be upset about? The game doesn’t count anyway.

Night before last, on a Saturday night of all non-traditional things, I got to take in a Miami Dolphins pre-season game (or had to, more accurately, as they force you to buy preseason tickets as part of the season ticket package), and I got to see the team’s new franchise quarterback throw two passes for two yards before calling it a night. By the fourth quarter, I’m pretty sure the guy playing quarterback was the same guy who had been sitting next to me during the first half. Such is the pre-season.

But hey, football’s back. Just don’t ask me what day of the week it is.