Marketplace of Ideas Blog

Q: When was the Packers’ first Monday night football game?

A: If you said Oct. 12, 1970 at San Diego, you are wrong.

The Packers–Chargers game was the Packers’ first Monday Night Football game, but not their first Monday night football game. (Note the capitalization.)

The Packers played at Detroit Sept. 28, 1964, and won 14–10. The game was played six years before the beginning of ABC’s Monday Night Football, which started with Cleveland’s 31–21 win over the New York Jets (quarterbacked by Joe Namath) Sept. 21, 1970. The Packers–Chargers game, a 22–20 Packers win, was the fourth game of the first Monday Night Football season.

Before Monday Night Football, the Packers beat St. Louis (the Cardinals, not the Rams) 31–23 Oct. 30, 1967, and Dallas 28–17 Oct. 28, 1968.

Next Q: What was the Packers’ first home Monday Night Football game?

Next A: That depends on your definition of “home.” The aforementioned three pre-Monday Night Monday night games were all on the road. The first official MNF home game was a month after the Chargers game, a 13–10 loss to Baltimore Nov. 9, 1970. That game wasn’t at Lambeau Field, though; it was at Milwaukee County Stadium, where the Packers played three home games each season from its opening in 1953 until 1994.

Last Q: What was the Packers’ greatest Monday Night Football game?

Last A: There are four choices, chronologically speaking. The highest scoring game in Monday Night Football history remains the 48–47 thriller over Washington in 1983, a game that featured 1,055 yards of offense (The Washington Post headline: “The defense rests”), yet was decided on a missed field goal. Number two would be the Packers’ 1996 overtime win over San Francisco, 23–20 on Chris Jacke’s 53-yard field goal. Choice three would be the 26–20 overtime winner over Minnesota in 2000, ended by Antonio Freeman’s unbelievable (as in grabbing it off his shoulder pads and facemask, then running into the end zone when Vikings defensive back Cris Dishman neglected to touch him as he lay on the turf) catch. And then there’s the one-play overtime win (when the one play is an 82-yard touchdown pass, one play is all you need), 19–13 in Denver in 2007.