Monday Night Football

An institution in American TV and sports since 1970, when ABC won partial rights to NFL broadcasts - this Roone Arledge idea of weekly prime-time football (after CBS had done it on a testing-the-waters sporadic basis) won over the NFL suits. The show's as much in the broadcast booth as on the field, enhancing the celebrity of its announcers, which over the years have included Howard Cosell, O.J. Simpson, and Frank Gifford. Theme song by Hank Williams, Jr.

Organized religion involving large, strong, and rich men beating each other up as part of intricate and not so intricate strategies drawn up by older, more experienced, but less rich men in order to entertain poor men sitting in barcoloungers, drinking beer. After it's all over, everybody thanks Jesus and gives the best player the inflated pig bladder they were beating each other up over for 60 minutes.