The Time John Lennon Made a Surprise Appearance on Monday Night Football
The Beatles and American football are two things that are often never mentioned in the same sentence. Many NFL fans were surprised when they tuned in to Monday Night Football on ABC and John Lennon graced their screens. It was a brief appearance but one that many viewers remembered.
John Lennon attended a ‘Monday Night Football’ game in 1974
On Dec. 9, 1974, millions of viewers tuned in to watch the Los Angeles Rams play the Washington Redskins at the Los Angeles Coliseum. The broadcast had little surprises until host Howard Cosell welcomed John Lennon into the broadcast booth for a quick interview. Lennon admitted he didn’t fully understand the game’s rules but found it similar to rugby rather than European football, also known as soccer.
“It’s nothing like soccer, but I can see a very close relationship to Rugby football which has the same shape ball, and they move 15 yards down the line at a time. But I can see the game here is changed completely from that. But it’s very similar in its aspects, the goals are the same, they have points the same, they have to get a touchdown the same, but they don’t have to scrum here where both teams really punch each other.”
However, Lennon was still a fan of American football, saying it made “rock concerts look like tea parties.”
Lennon teased a possible reunion between The Beatles
During the Monday Night Football interview, Cosell took advantage of the situation by asking John Lennon if The Beatles would reunite. The answer to that question would be no, as the band never did have a reunion, but Lennon wasn’t adamantly denying the idea.
“You never know, you never know,” Lennon teased. “I mean, it’s always in the wind. If it looked like this, it might be worth doing.”
Cosell mentioned that Lennon had recently visited drummer Ringo Starr, and he confirmed it by promoting Ringo’s new album, along with his own.
“Yeah, and I promised him I’d mention his out now, and I said I wouldn’t mention my own, which is out now too,” Lennon joked.
Howard Cosell broke the news of Lennon’s death during ‘Monday Night Football’
On Dec. 8, 1980, almost six years after his appearance on Monday Night Football, John Lennon was assassinated outside his New York City apartment. His death stunned the world, along with Cosell, who shared the news on the broadcast of a matchup between the Miami Dolphins and the New England Patriots. Here is how Cosell shared the news with viewers.
“We have to say it. Remember, this is just a football game, no matter who wins or loses,” Cosell said during the broadcast. “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 back to the game after that newsflash.”
