The calendar still said Monday, and Hank Williams Jr. still kicked things off by wondering if you were ready.
That - and the game itself, of course - was about all that was familiar for the first telecast of ``Monday Night Football'' on ESPN, the cable network where the NFL moved its weeknight prime-time game after 3 1/2 decades on ABC.
The new broadcast-booth trio of Mike Tirico, Joe Theismann and Tony Kornheiser has been working together through the preseason, but Monday was their first crack at a game that counted in the standings.
It also fell on the five-year anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, a fact likely not lost on the schedule makers who slotted the Minnesota Vikings to play the Washington Redskins at FedEx Field, about 15 miles away from the Pentagon.
And ESPN got straight to that theme after guest artists from Little Richard to Stevie Van Zandt assisted Williams with the opening song.
Some 90,000 fans waved handheld flags distributed before the game. Shortly after kickoff, the cameras trained on a fan in the front row who held up a Pat Tillman jersey, honoring the former Arizona Cardinals defensive back who joined the military after the attacks and was killed in Afghanistan.
And before one commercial break, the network showed a shot of 184 beams of light that streaked skyward at the Pentagon as Tirico explained that they were in remembrance of those who died when American Airlines flight 77 crashed into the building during the attacks.
As planned, Tirico held down the role of straightforward, play-by-play man, Theismann was the color analyst and Kornheiser - sports columnist for The Washington Post and quick-witted co-host of the ESPN show ``Pardon the Interruption'' - is on for his eye-rolling attitude and comic relief.
Kornheiser's sandy voice cracked wise on several occasions, at one point rising an octave or two as Vikings tight end Jermaine Wiggins leaped to meet an airborne defender in a spectacular collision that ended with the ball squirting out of bounds.
``Why is he hurtling?'' Kornheiser said. ``Does he thing this is a steeplechase? He's lucky that wasn't his head that came out!''
Not all of Kornheiser's one-liners hit the mark. When a Vikings defender just missed a circus interception late in the game, he offered this: ``If he's got Krazy Glue on his hand, that's a game-ender - he's taking that all the way in.''
Other light moments in the broadcast included repeated shots of Tom Cruise, who was visiting new business partner and Washington Redskins owner Daniel Snyder in his luxury box, girlfriend Katie Holmes by his side.
But it was Theismann - not exactly famous for his comic skills - who drew perhaps the heartiest laugh from his colleagues when commenting after notoriously aggressive Redskins safety Sean Taylor, going up to defend a Brad Johnson pass, missed the Vikings receiver and crashed hard into a teammate.
``Sean Taylor really doesn't care who he hits,'' Theismann said without missing a beat, sending Kornheiser and Tirico into a fit of giggles.
At halftime, ESPN returned to Sept. 11 tributes, opening with images of ceremonies at the sites of each of the plane crashes and playing emotional interviews with NFL players past and present.
But after the first halftime break, it was back to what ESPN and ``MNF'' do best: football.
``We sure love presenting (Monday Night Football) to you, and we're very proud to do so,'' longtime ESPN broadcaster Chris Berman said, before going through the week's highlights on the field.Copyright © 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. The information contained in the AP News report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press.
