But Gifford, who replaced Keith Jackson on MNF, isn't completely thrilled with how that concept has evolved.

When it comes to announcers, he says, "it's hard for me to be critical of people doing what I used to do. … But I think they're being pushed too far to do too much. One thing we didn't do, we never hyped a game. Howard would rip it, Don might go to sleep. Now, they have to try to turn it into an exciting event. One problem now is producers trying to make things better than they really are."

Although that's understandable, given how much more networks pay today to carry NFL games and how much more competition they face from the ever-growing mobs of cable channels.

Long before MNF on ESPN figured NFL game coverage should include cameos by entertainers such as Jimmy Kimmel and Christian Slater, MNF on ABC puts lots of celebrities on-air, including having Ronald Reagan and John Lennon (separately) dropping in.

But what's changed on TV games generally, suggests Gifford, is the tone. "Today, there's so much screaming, talking over each other. I don't think we did that. People always tell me, 'I can't believe how many times Don put Howard down.' But it wasn't that way. It was just the contrast between the two of them. … We were not competing."

Gifford, 79, recently taped historical MNF vignettes that ESPN will sprinkle in this season's, uh, shows. Watching those old games reminded Gifford, retired in Connecticut, of the concurrent chapters in his own life. Which, he suggests, left him amused: "In 27 (MNF) years I never missed a game even though, God almighty, I had all kinds of things going on in my life."

Gifford says the technology deployed on today's TV sports doesn't "intrigue" him — "I just want a good game" — and in some ways suggests more-sophisticated coverage makes things harder for today's announcers: "We were teaching people how to watch TV. Now they're all critics." Even though, alarmingly, they haven't been officially licensed.