Monday Night Football Moves to ESPN

This is a little bit surprising (from Drudge):

The NFL's "Monday Night Football," a hallmark of television sports programming since the days of Howard Cosell, is leaving ABC after 35 years for ESPN starting with the 2006 season.

The NFL's new broadcast deal also brings football back to NBC for the first time in six years. NBC will take over the Sunday night games previously broadcast on ESPN, and plans to use a flexible scheduling model that ensures meaningful games will played in that slot late in the season.

The Monday night move to basic cable, which includes an earlier start time of 8:40 p.m. eastern, is expected to cost ESPN $1.1 billion over eight years, two sources familiar with the deals told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.

Our scripture for the day:
"There was great wailing and gnashing of teeth in the land of the rooftop antennaes and rabbit ears, and the cry for cable was heard throughout the land." 1st HolyCoast 2:12. (But not me, I have DirecTV.)