by Amaury Pi Gonzalez

OAKLAND–One more thought on the late Frank Gifford who passed this week at the age of 84 he was most likely part of the best talented broadcast teams in the history of netowrk TV. You have to remember that Monday Night Football revolutionized sports with the Dandy Don Meridith, Howard Cosell, and Gifford may he rest in peace.

Those three are inseparable in the success of the football broadcasting booth although Cosell didn’t get along with the jocks in the booth, he didn’t get along with Frank but the Giff was a class act. Gifford was one of those guys who played for the New York Giants and in the 60s in New York the biggest star was Mickey Mantle and then Gifford. Remember the NFL wasn’t big yet in the 60s.

The NFL became big because of TV and because of these three guys in the MNF booth Cosell, Meridith, and Gifford who worked together from 1971-1977. These three revolutionized MNF and later you got guys like Al Michaels, Tony Kornheiser, Jon Gruden, Dennis Miller and many more and Michaels you might remember was the voice of the San Francisco Giants in 1974-75.

These three guys revolutionized national television on Monday Nights and MNF became more than a game MNF became an event and now we see what happens the NFL is the leading league in all of sports and is the number one league. Every single game is on TV with Sunday night, Thursday night and on Monday night.

So those three revolutionized the national TV spotlight, Gifford came from humble beginnings born in 1930 grew up in California during the depression, moved 47 times before high school, his family was so poor they ate dog food during the great depression to survive, Gifford went to Bakersfield City College and got enough credit to go to USC and was a fast runner on the football team there and got noticed and was drafted to the NFL and after his playing days went onto work in acting and television broadcasting.

Listen to Amaury Pi Gonzalez on the podcast below as he also discusses more on Gifford and MLB headlines, Amaury is the Spanish radio voice for the A’s, the Spanish TV voice for the Angels, and does News and Commentary each week at http://www.sportsradioservice.com