Something which would never happen today, and fuck Football Nation America for it...

35 years ago tonight...

The Patriots are playing the Dolphins in a close game on Monday Night Football.  But something going on in the booth is even more urgent, at least to a close friend of a victim of an unfolding tragedy.

(That piece was done for Outside the Lines five years ago today.)

Starting at about 8:00 of the clip, it shows the decision-making process in the booth.  There are 40 seconds left and the game is tied.  It is going to be an NFL Cliffhanger, and Cosell does not know whether the game situation will allow him to get the news in, knowing that he has just lost a friend he idolized (and had on Monday Night Football a number of years earlier).

As Cosell said, he would let the next play be called by his partner Frank Gifford, and then get the news in.

Imagine, in the Cliffhanger-driven NFL, this unfolding on your television sets in the closing seconds of our National Religion:

As the Dolphins are lined up after that play in the hurry-up offense, Cosell attempts to get it in and cannot...

Cosell:  "But it's suddenly been placed in total perspective for us...  I'll finish this -- they're in the hurry-up offense."

Gifford:  "Third down -- four [yards to go]."

[The play is then run, an off-tackle run to center the ball for the upcoming field goal.]

Gifford:  "[Chuck] Foreman [the former Viking]...  It'll be fourth down."

Gifford then sets the play situation, as New England calls a timeout with few seconds left to allow a last-second field-goal attempt to be the game-winner, or so New England hopes.

The timeout allows Gifford to throw it to Cosell for the tragic news...

Gifford:  "Three seconds remaining.  John Smith is on the line, and I don't care what's on the line [emphasis mine], Howard, you have got to say what we know in the booth."

Cosell:  "Yes, we have to say it.  Remember, THIS IS JUST A FOOTBALL GAME. [emphases mine], no matter who wins or loses.   An unspeakable tragedy, confirmed to us by ABC News in New York City.  John Lennon, outside of his apartment building on the West Side of New York City -- the most famous, perhaps, of all of the Beatles...  shot twice in the back, rushed to Roosevelt Hospital...

Dead -- on -- arrival.

Hard to go to the game after that news flash."

Can you imagine any death subsuming that kind of a situation on the field in today's NFL?

No?

Then fuck Football Nation America for that truth!  Howard Cosell had a goddamned conscience and knew the world needed to know.