A TNT telemovie which chronicles the behind-the-scenes drama of the early years of Monday Night Football until Howard Cosell's departure from the series.

The opening credits of the very first ever Monday Night telecast (which in real life took place in September 1970) as presented in the movie contain a number of anachronisms. First, the "DAH-DAH-DAH-DAHHHH" opening theme was not present for the shows first years and would not be adopted for several seasons to come. Also, in the opening graphics is footage of Minnesota Vikings running back Chuck Foreman. The only problem was, in 1970 Foreman was still at the University of Miami and would not be drafted for the Vikings for three more years.

In that first year, Dandy Don Meredith was chagrined when the first time the show covered his former team the Dallas Cowboys in a game, the Cowboys were blown out badly. In the movie, the team which shellacks the Cowboys is the Pittsburgh Steelers. In real life, it was the St. Louis Cardinals. The Cowboys and the Steelers, although being rivals throughout much of the seventies, would not meet on Monday Night until the 1982 season opener.

Also in the faux Pittsburgh-Dallas game, Steeler linebacker Jam Ham is shown intercepting a Dallas pass and running it in for a touchdown. Ham would not be drafted in real life until the following Spring.

In the opening of the following 1971 season, the movie has the MNF guys covering a season opener between the Vikings and the LA Rams. In real life, the Vikings played the Lions in the '71 MNF opener.

A scene from the movie has new MNF announcer Frank Gifford struggling to remember that Chuck Foreman is the name of the Vikings' running back. In real life, Frank didn't need to worry about this, as, once again, Foreman is still not a member of the Vikings.

At one point during the telecast of the Viking game, the movie has a scene where Howard Cosell looks like a football genius after he successfully predicts the next Viking play will be a pass to "tight end Carroll Dale". The information was actually fed to him through his headset before the play.

Three things wrong here:

Like Foreman, Dale should not yet be a member of the Viking roster. Although he later played with Minnesota, he spent the 1971 season in Green Bay.

Dale was a flanker, who never played the position of tight end in his entire career.

The incident the movie alludes to actually took place several years later and involved the Washington Redskins. The tight end that Cosell said would figure in the play and who would be the target of the pass was the Skins' Jean Fuggett.

Later in the movie, Gifford incurs Cosell's ridicule when he accidentally refers to Dallas Cowboys player Dennis Thurman as "Thurman Munson". Munson was the name of a baseball player who had died in a plane crash a few months before the telecast in question. This causes Cosell (in the movie) to make a sarcastic joke with an intern in the booth about Munson looking pretty good for a dead man. Gifford reacts in anger and tries to defend himself.
In real life, Cosell did joke with the intern about Gifford's flub, but did it behind Gifford's back and not in front of him.