Sid Hartman: Cosell responsible for making 'MNF' into spectacle it is

There's no doubt that "Monday Night Football" would not have become as big as it did without the popularity of Howard Cosell, Frank Gifford and Don Meredith in the TV booth.

It was the vision of NFL Commissioner Pete Rozelle and great ABC producer Roone Arledge to give Monday night games a chance in 1970.

Most of the league's owners were against it. But Rozelle was the boss, and he usually was right. And when Arledge hired the controversial Cosell, he was second-guessed pretty good by his bosses.

Cosell was a real character. He liked to have a drink or two quite often, and he showed up at old Met Stadium feeling no pain one Sunday night, the night before he was to broadcast a Vikings game. Cosell tried to get coach Bud Grant to allow him to spend some time being filmed while playing quarterback during the workout after Cosell had thrown some passes to one of his cohorts on the sidelines.

Grant and Cosell got into a real heated discussion, and Grant asked the entire ABC crew to leave, which they did reluctantly.

Not long after, I happened to be in Miami and was attending the Dolphins workout the night before they were to appear on ABC. Well, Cosell was on me pretty good, knowing Grant and I were pretty good friends, because coach Don Shula was permitting Cosell to act as the Dolphins quarterback for part of the workout. There he was throwing passes to the Dolphins receivers. "Tell your man Grant that he doesn't have any class!" Cosell yelled at me.

Yes, they don't make them like Cosell anymore. Cosell died in 1995 at age 77, after making "Monday Night Football" what it was. Some of the great times I have had in this business was in his company.

Chicago was 1-for-14 on third down, an indication how well the Vikings defense played.

This was not a night for the Vikings' young players, such as rookies Sidney Rice, Aundrae Allison and even Adrian Peterson -- at least until the fourth quarter, when Peterson got a big 8-yard touchdown run on third down and then broke off a 28-yard run to get the Vikings out of the shadow of their own end zone.

As former Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Ron Jaworski pointed out on the ESPN telecast, December is a different time in the National Football League, when the pressure is on and young players have a hard time producing like they did earlier in the season.

You don't win many games when you turn the ball over four times. And if you're looking for heroes in this victory, one certainly was Bobby Wade, who caught six passes for 70 yards.

Then you have two former Packers, Robert Ferguson and Ryan Longwell, who came through despite some mistakes. Longwell missed his first extra point after 57 in a row, the last miss coming at Detroit Oct. 8, 2006. But he also hit field goals of 42 and 48 yards.

Jackson will have to play much better than he played Monday if the Vikings are to qualify for the postseason.

Vikings had streaks Under Grant, the Vikings never went 17-0 in a season as Miami did in 1972, nor did they ever start 14-0 like New England this year. But they did start 10-0 in 1973 and 9-0 in 1975. And in 1969, the Vikings ran off a 12-game winning streak.

That year, the Vikings lost their season opener at the New York Giants 24-23 and then won 12 in a row before ending the season with a 10-3 loss at Atlanta in a meaningless game, ending the season 12-2.

The 1973 team also saw its win streak end at Atlanta, losing 20-14 to former Vikings coach Norm Van Brocklin on a homecoming for quarterback Fran Tarkenton. They finished the season 12-2 again.

The 1975 team, maybe the Vikings' best team ever, won 10 in a row to start the year before losing 31-30 at Washington. They, too, finished 12-2 but lost in the playoffs to Dallas on the Hail Mary pass to Drew Pearson.

True, Lovie Smith took the Bears to the Super Bowl last year, but he is 5-9 this season. And with a number of free agents on the Bears, some prime defensive players with injuries that won't heal and no top-line quarterback, the future for Chicago does not appear bright.

Herman Edwards was Dungy's assistant head coach at Tampa Bay. Edwards was 9-7 last year with Kansas City. But this year the Chiefs are 4-10.

Rod Marinelli, the former Bucs defensive line coach, is in his second year coaching Detroit. The Lions went 3-13 last season and were 6-2 this year but have since lost six in a row.

The only former Dungy assistant who currently has a winning record this season as an NFL head coach is Mike Tomlin, the ex-Bucs defensive backs coach who was Vikings defensive coordinator last season. Tomlin is 9-5 with Pittsburgh.

Special interest Dan Berezowitz, the recruiting coodinator for the Gophers, spent his previous six seasons at the University of Arizona, and two former Wildcats players were on the field Monday night at the Metrodome.

"Wade was without a doubt the best punt returner in the conference," Berezowitz said. "And as a receiver, he caught close to 100 balls one year.

"Briggs has proved with the Bears how good he is."

Both Briggs and Wade were drafted by the Bears in 2003.

Trestman to Montreal? Marc Trestman, a St. Louis Park native who spent some time as a player with the Gophers, is expected to be named coach of the Montreal Alouettes of the Canadian Football League.

Trestman, an assistant with the Vikings as well as several other NFL teams, was unemployed the past year after the staff at North Carolina State was replaced.