ABC says Final Farewell at Super Bowl

Televisionpoint.com Correspondent
This time, it really is time to turn out the lights at ABC. Al Michaels and John Madden hope the game they call is so great, there won't be much time to say goodbye.

Six weeks after ABC's much ballyhooed final broadcast of "Monday Night Football," the network will telecast its final NFL game at least for the foreseeable future at the Super Bowl on Sunday.

"It really is the end of an era," Michaels said Tuesday at Ford Field. "John's always saying, `Let's go out and make some memories.' That's what we try to do. We know it's over. Let's just try to make one more memory."

What he's hoping for is the kind of goodbye NBC was afforded in 1998, when Dick Enberg, Phil Simms and Paul Maguire called the Green Bay-Denver Super Bowl in what was, at the time, that network's final broadcast after three-decade-plus history with the NFL and AFL.

Denver's 31-24 win and John Elway's first Super Bowl title was such good viewing, there was hardly any need to mention the game's place in TV history. Enberg ended it with a poignant, understated farewell.

"NBC has been there from the start. From Joe Namath to John Elway, from Curt Gowdy to those of us honored to call tonight's game," he said. "On behalf of our crew, I'd like to thank everyone who has helped bring you NFL games since 1960 and thank you for watching."

Oddly enough, it was NBC's return to the NFL that played into ABC's departure. NBC is taking the Sunday night package that used to belong to ESPN, while ESPN is taking over "Monday Night Football," the sport- and society-changing series conceived in 1970 by ABC.

"It changed TV, how people dealt with sports in their lives," Michaels said. "It brought a lot of non-sports enthusiasts into sports."

Michaels will follow "Monday Night Football" to ESPN. Madden, meanwhile, is heading to NBC for the Sunday night games.

For the former Raiders coach and longtime analyst, Sunday's game will mark the end of an emotional weekend. On Saturday, he'll be up for a spot in the Hall of Fame. Then, he's the color guy for the Super Bowl.

"I know it's overused, but it doesn't get any better than that," Madden said. "I would say I don't think about it, but to say that, it just makes me laugh. Of course, I think about it."

The NFL recently announced it would televise games on its own cable network on Thursdays and Saturdays, starting late next season. Both Madden and Michaels have expressed concerns that the league might oversaturate the market with its product.

But before they start worrying about that, there is the matter of the game Sunday ... an end of an era for the network that propelled football into a new place in the American conscience.

"This is the way of the world," Michaels said. "Nothing lasts forever. It was a hell of a ride."