Record Rating Indicates Gifford Is Right--Game Is What’s Important

Who the hell made ‘Monday Night Football’ unlike any other sports program on the air? If you want the plain truth, I did. --HOWARD COSELL

We are as good as the game. If the game remains strong, then you can have Attila the Hun in the booth. --FRANK GIFFORD

Howard Cosell, wrong again. Monday night’s Chicago-Miami game drew a record national Nielsen rating of 29.6 because the game had appeal. It smashed the previous Monday night record of 26.8, set in 1978 for a Dallas-Washington game.

ABC has another good one this Monday, the Rams (9-4) vs. the 49ers (8-5) at Candlestick Park. Another record rating? Highly unlikely, although it will do well in Los Angeles and San Francisco.

Cosell is right about one thing. ABC should use only two announcers on “Monday Night Football.” In his book, Cosell writes: “You don’t need three people in the damn booth. It’s sometimes confusing and often cluttering. It’s restrictive. It’s absurd.”

One--and possibly the only--good thing about Joe Namath is that, unlike other ex-jocks-turned-announcers, he isn’t afraid to criticize.

But neither is O.J. Simpson, so having Namath in the booth usually doesn’t add much. After a fairly good performance the previous Monday, Namath had another mediocre showing this week.

In saying that the Bears shouldn’t play quarterback Jim McMahon, Namath made a good point about not hurting Steve Fuller’s confidence or the confidence his teammates have in him, but then Namath said the Bears should save McMahon because “the Bears have Indianapolis coming up next week.” Of course, everyone knows how tough Indianapolis is.

When Nat Moore scored Miami’s first touchdown on a 33-yard pass play, Namath noticed that Chicago safety Gary Fencik had been clipped on the play.

“I’m glad they didn’t call it,” he said. Was he rooting for the Dolphins? Probably not. He was just speaking before thinking, making another rookie mistake.

Add Namath: Where Simpson has Namath beat is in their personalities. Simpson is one of the nicest, most cordial people in sports. That side of him comes across on the air and helps compensate for his shortcomings as a communicator.

Namath, meanwhile, comes across as aloof and arrogant. Such personality flaws may eventually turn the public off, if they haven’t been already. Cosell, a solid communicator, became unpopular mainly because of his personality.

Another strike against Namath is that he recently has been turning down interview requests, which doesn’t endear him to reporters or help his public image.

Romance beat: NBC sportscaster Ahmad Rashad’s marriage proposal to actress Phylicia Ayers-Allen on “NFL ‘85” Thanksgiving Day may have appeared a bit hokey, but Rashad said the idea was solely his and not intended as a gimmick.

“I asked Flip (producer John Filippelli) for 40 seconds of air time,” Rashad said. “I think he thought I was going to make an announcement, not actually propose on the air.

“I wasn’t sure I’d go through with it, but once I started, there was no turning back.”

Rashad said he met Ayers-Allen, who plays Bill Cosby’s wife on “The Cosby Show,” about a year ago. “I went to a taping of the show, and Bill Cosby introduced us,” Rashad said.

“Our first date was to the ‘People’s Choice Awards’ in Los Angeles. We dated casually until about a month ago, when things began to heat up. We talked a little about marriage, but only hypothetically. She had no idea that I was going to propose on the air.”

Rashad said they plan to marry in early January. It will be the second marriage for both. Rashad said he was married briefly in 1975.

Add romances: Channel 4 sportscaster Stu Nahan and his fiance, Sandy Kartun, are featured in the cover story of the November issue of Beverly Hills 213. Kartun, 34, is Channel 4’s manager of program administration.

They had been casual acquaintances for years, then fell in love during lunch one Friday. “Major electricity,” Kartun says in the magazine article. “By the end of lunch, we were gazing into each other’s eyes.”

Over lunch the next Monday, Nahan, 59, offered her the keys to his house. “I don’t know what prompted me because I’m usually shy with women,” he is quoted as saying. “But she was there when I got home that night, and she’s never left. We knew each other for two lunches before we moved in together.”

Recommended viewing: “The Heisman Trophy Award” on Channel 4 at 2 p.m. Saturday, preceding the live announcement of the winner, is the fifth straight pre-Heisman show produced by Bud Greenspan. This may be his best.

Greenspan, who excels as a storyteller, has put together a perfect blend of stories about former winners and current candidates.

There is also a piece on Ohio State’s Keith Byars, who was eliminated from serious consideration when he broke his foot before the start of the season, and another piece on Kenneth Davis, who was among seven TCU players suspended for accepting money from alumni.

Among the former winners profiled are Paul Hornung of Notre Dame, the 1956 winner; Pat Sullivan of Auburn, 1971, and Billy Sims of Oklahoma, 1978. Sullivan is tied in with a piece on this year’s Heisman favorite, Bo Jackson of Auburn.

A moving part of the show deals with Iowa quarterback Chuck Long and his younger brother, Andy, who has cerebral palsy.

“Andy keeps playing football in perspective,” Long says. “After a loss, I just think of Andy and how he has to battle every day and how he would love to just be able to play football. Suddenly, the loss doesn’t seem all that important.”

Notes HBO, which has a good track record for televising good fights, offers another attractive one tonight at 7--Donald Curry vs. Milton McCrory in a welterweight title-unification bout. HBO has done seven fights this year. Only one could be classified as a dog--Larry Holmes vs. David Bey. But HBO made up for that one with Holmes’ upset loss to Michael Spinks. And it had the fight of the year--if not the decade--when Marvin Hagler and Thomas Hearns slugged it out nonstop for nearly three rounds. “We are just involved in world championship fights, impact fights,” said Ross Greenburg, who produces HBO’s fight telecasts. “We take the biggest names in boxing and look for the best matchups. We want to carve a niche for ourselves and a dollar niche in what we will pay in rights, which is a step above the networks. Then, we can bring it home in prime time.” A big plus about boxing coverage on HBO is that there are no commercials, so viewers are shown replays after each round and are taken into the corners.

There are two high school football playoff games on TV tonight via tape-delay. Channel 56 will offer Santa Ana vs. El Modena in its game of the week at 10, and Prime Ticket will have Banning vs. San Fernando at 10:45 in its inaugural high school football telecast. The Prime Ticket announcers will be Randy Rosenbloom and Ron Glazer. . . . With the Raiders playing at Denver Sunday and the Rams playing Monday night, L.A. will get four pro football telecasts Sunday--Dallas at Cincinnati at 10 a.m. on CBS, Indianapolis at Chicago at 10 a.m. on NBC, the Raider game at 1 p.m. on NBC, and Pittsburgh at San Diego at 6 p.m. on ABC. . . . Hospital report: KABC sportscaster Bud Furillo this week underwent his second abdominal operation. He’ll be off the air for about four weeks.

Did you catch the clips of Channel 2’s Jim Hill working last Sunday’s game at Green Bay during a snowstorm? The snow on his head made him look as if he was doing a commercial for a dandruff shampoo. Hill played for the Packers for three years but said he never experienced a snowstorm like that. It snowed for 30 hours straight. . . . The Dodgers announced this week that there will be 25 games televised on Dodgervision next season, an increase of five. . . . Jaime Jarrin is the sports director at Channel 52, a new Spanish-language station. Channel 52 is on the dial where ON TV used to be. ON TV has been absorbed by SelecTV.