Just taking a minute to remember "Dandy" Don Meredith, former Dallas Cowboys quarterback and member of the classic Monday Night Football broadcast team for 12 seasons, along with Frank Gifford and Howard Cosell. Keith Jackson was MNF's play by play man during it's first season.
Don Meredith was 72.
"Turn off the lights.....the party's over".
Update 12/7/10 This morning I read a great column by Steve Politi of the Star-Ledger with some comments on Meredith and Monday Night Football's impact on American culture and media back in the day. Included in the column were some classic "Dandy Don-isms".
There was the time that Spiro Agnew, then the country’s vice president, visited the Monday Night booth. “I didn’t vote for you,” Meredith told him, “but you do have a nice suit on.”
or.....
....the time when, discussing what it was like to play for Dallas legend Tom Landry, he said, “He’s such a perfectionist that if he were married to Dolly Parton, he’d expect her to cook.”
and
....his assessment of teammate Walt Garrison: “If you needed 4 yards, you’d give the ball to Garrison and he’d get you 4 yards. If you needed 20 yards, you’d give the ball to Garrison and he’d get you 4 yards.”
He was one of a kind. MNF has been trying replicate the magic of Gifford, Meredith, and Cosell for a quarter of a century now. Tirico, Chuckie and Jaws are good, so were Michaels and Madden, and Michaels, Gifford and Dierdorf.
But the MNF crew of the 1970's and early 1980's was the gold standard, as iconic in sports broadcasting in their way as ALL IN THE FAMILY and HAPPY DAYS were to TV comedy in that era.
As Howard Cosell might have said it...."Rest in peace, Dan-DAH Roooo."
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