NFL
Which NFL team has the best Monday Night Football record?
MNF returns today with the San Francisco 49ers taking on the New York Jets. The hosts have a very impressive record on Mondays.
Monday Night Football holds a special place in the hearts of football fans. It’s a tradition that dates back to the early 1960s, before the NFL’s merger with the AFL, and was introduced by the NFL in 1970.
The first MNF of 2024 will see the San Francisco 49ers take on the New York Jets. The 49ers are looking to build on an impressive 2023 campaign in which they made it to the Super Bowl, while the Jets are hoping to make the playoffs for the first time since 2010.
Historically the 49ers have been far more successful, with five Super Bowl titles to the Jets’ single championship. Unsurprisingly, that extends to MNF, where San Francisco have the second-most NFL victories in Monday Night Football games.
StatMuse shows that the 49ers have won 52 Monday Night Football games out of 83 while the Jets have won just 24 of their 60 previous MNF appearances. The 49ers’ Monday points per game record (25.4) is the highest in the NFL.
Which team has won the most MNF games?
Across the 54-year history of Monday Night Football, the Pittsburgh Steelers have won more games than any other franchise. The Steelers have won 56 of their 88 MNF appearances, an impressive of win percentage of 64%.
The team with the most Monday matches is NFL history is the Dallas Cowboys, who have had games scheduled in the final slot of the weekend 89 times.
The first-ever MNF was played on September 21, 1970 and was broadcast live on ABC, who were charging advertisers $65,000 per minute for the airtime. The Jets were involved in the inaugural edition, losing to the Cleveland Browns 31-21. However, no one in Cleveland was able to watch the game because the league’s blackout rules at the time prevented games being televised in local markets to protect in-stadium attendances.
In 2006 MNF rights were snapped up by ESPN as part of a deal that saw NBC take ESPN’s Sunday evening broadcast package. Currently, ESPN pays $2.7 billion per year for the rights to broadcast Monday Night Football, a staggering amount for just 25 match-ups.