MNF Moments: The first one

11.14.2009

Meet Billy Andrews at the Browns Backers Brunch at the Blind Pig in downtown Cleveland on Sunday. For more, click here.

The latest in a series of memorable Browns moments on Monday Night Football...

The Browns and New York Jets were guinea pigs.

The NFL and ABC had an idea in 1970 for a series of games - one per week - that would be played on Monday nights and nationally televised. The concept sounded good, but no one had any way of knowing for sure if it would be a boom or a bust.

To even try the plan, though, two volunteers - two teams - were needed. The Browns, one of the top clubs in football at the time after having played in the last two NFL Championship Games before the merger with the AFL that year, raised their hand. They would be willing to play in the game and also would offer up their home field, Cleveland Stadium.

What was then needed was a club from the monstrous New York TV market. The Jets, just 20 months removed from having been the first AFL club to win a Super Bowl when they stunned the Baltimore Colts 16-7 after quarterback Joe Namath guaranteed the victory, were the easy choice. They were way ahead of the Giants in national persona at the time.

Despite the needed ingredients to make the telecast work, the people in the offices of both the league and the network held their collective breath when Sept. 21, 1970 arrived.

But there was no need to worry.

Oh, if every experiment could turn out this well.

Video Highlights: Monday Night Moments

Billy Andrews INT return vs. Jets - 1970

Brian Sipe to Ozzie Newsome vs. Cowboys - 1979

Bernie Kosar to Webster Slaughter vs. Bears - 1989

Eric Wright INT return vs. Giants - 2008

It was an instant classic as the Browns won 31-21, clinching the game with a touchdown in the final minute before 85,703, still the largest home crowd in team history.

The way things started, it looked as if the Browns were going to win the game in a rout. They jumped out to a 14-0 first-quarter lead on Bill Nelsen's eight-yard pass to wide receiver Gary Collins, and Bo Scott's two-yard run.

The Jets scored on a two-yard run of their own, by Emerson Boozer, in the second quarter, but the Browns answered when newcomer Homer Jones returned the second-half kickoff 94 yards for a touchdown to make it 21-7.

Later in the third quarter, Boozer scored again, this time from 10 yards, and the Browns' Don Cockroft kicked a 27-yard, leaving the score at 24-14.

The Jets cut it to just three points, their smallest deficit of the night, at 24-21 when Namath threw 33 yards to wide receiver George Sauer with 3:22 left in the fourth quarter.

The Jets forced the Browns to go three-plays-and-out on the ensuing possession, but Cockroft's 69-yard punt made New York start its last-ditch march at its own 4 with just 1:30 remaining. Namath passed 15 yards to Sauer to the 18 to give the Jets a first down with just 38 seconds left. Driving for the winning TD - or even the tying field goal (there was no overtime then) - in that amount of time seemed like a tall order, but with Namath's arm, anything was possible.

So many times in the years that would follow, MNF has been the stage for the stars to come out and showcase their talents. But the series has also been the time when, after all the big names on both sides have done their thing and still been unable to decide the game, virtual unknowns have emerged from the shadows, stolen the show and become the heroes.

And so it was in this first contest. Paving the way for all the little guys in the league for the next 40 seasons was Browns fourth-year right linebacker Billy Andrews, taken near the end of the 1967 NFL Draft - four rounds from the bottom, in the 13th round - out of a tiny school, Southeast Louisiana. He had not been a starter since that rookie year - and only a part-time one then - and did not start against the Jets.

But this night was his time. So when Namath tried to find Boozer in the flat, Andrews intercepted the ball like an All-Pro and raced 25 yards, past the dejected and stunned quarterback, for a TD to seal the victory.

Andrews, now a rancher in Texas, has said that hardly a day has gone by in the last four decades when someone has not mentioned that game and that play to him. He admits the evening forever changed his life.

And NFL history - especially from a TV standpoint - as well.