Seahawks cornerback Richard Sherman this week greeted the prospect of another Monday night game with a dismissive shrug. “It’s never really been a big deal for me, honestly,’’ he said.
Given their history with it, there’s no team in the NFL that should be more eager to play on Monday night than the Seahawks.
They became a “Monday Night Football” darling within minutes of their initial appearance in 1979, a 31-28 win over Atlanta remembered forever for Howard Cosell’s bombastic enthusiasm for a Seahawks fake-field-goal attempt that resulted in a pass from quarterback/holder Jim Zorn to kicker Efren Herrera for a first down.
The Seahawks gained so much momentum from the win they were held to minus-7 yards by the Los Angeles Rams six days later, an NFL record for futility that still exists and is maybe the most vivid example of the dreaded MNF hangover. But we digress.
The MNF love affair always has been decidedly mutual, as the Seahawks won five of their first six appearances and have won their past nine to stand at 21-8 all-time, a 72.4 winning percentage that is the best in the NFL.
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Seahawks cornerback Richard Sherman, though, this week greeted the prospect of another Monday night game with a dismissive shrug.
“It’s never really been a big deal for me, honestly,’’ Sherman said. “I mean, it’s just another football game where you lose a lot of the day and you have to play at night for some apparent reason. I wish we could play early.”
He later added, “I hate playing at night. I feel like it’s a day wasted.”
That’s far from a universal opinion in the Seahawks’ locker room, though.
Told of Sherman’s comments, linebacker K.J. Wright shook his head.
“Nah, it’s a big deal,’’ Wright said. “When you grew up, ‘Monday Night Football’ was a big-time thing. Only two teams played on that day.
“You want to shine on ‘Monday Night Football.’ You know everybody is going to be watching.’’
That it’s even a debate, though, says something about how the world has changed since MNF made its debut in 1970.
It quickly emerged as the highlight of the NFL weekend, with Cosell, Frank Gifford and Don Meredith being welcomed to each town like a touring rock band.
Now there are games on Sunday nights and Thursday nights as well, both on national networks.
And though any NFL game draws audiences that most shows can only dream of, it’s Monday night that, over the years, became almost a relative afterthought, particularly after being shuttled from ABC to ESPN in 2006.
On the list of the top 50 most-watched NFL games of the 2014 season, you had to get to 43 before you found one played on Monday night. The biggest time slots now are Sunday afternoon and Sunday night, with even Thursday night usually a bigger draw.
Still, it’s not quite time to totally turn out the lights on Monday night.
“I know there are lots of games on other nights, but Monday night is still the biggest game,’’ Seahawks linebacker Bobby Wagner insisted. Wagner laughed and said, “I mean, you know the whole world is watching. The president could be watching. So you’ve really got to be on your game.’’
In another corner of the locker room siding with Sherman was Seahawks defensive end Cliff Avril.
In particular, Avril agreed with Sherman that the lure of the prime-time slot is pretty much canceled out by a lot of wasted hours during that day waiting to get to kickoff.
“It does tend to be a long day and makes it kind of miserable, I guess, during the day,’’ Avril said.
What there’s no argument about among the Seahawks is that playing on Monday night — however much you like it — is better than Thursday night, something the Seahawks will do in three weeks when they travel to San Francisco on Oct. 22.
Players are almost unanimous in their dislike of playing another game with just three days’ rest from the previous Sunday, saying the short recovery time is largely to blame for what has been a slew of lackluster performances on Thursday nights.
“That’s what they need to do is take away Thursday night football,’’ Wright said. “That’s absolutely terrible.’’
Wright said those games are hard to play “physically and mentally.
“My body doesn’t feel good after a game again until probably Wednesday or Thursday, and you’ve got people playing a game on Thursday?
“That’s absolutely insane.’’