VIDEO: Revisiting Lennon Tragedy Announcement During Patriots Monday Night Football Game

VIDEO: Revisiting Lennon Tragedy Announcement During Patriots Monday Night Football Game

Robert Alvarez

Revisiting the Announcement of John Lennon's death during Patriots Monday Night Football game 35 years later.

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Howard didn't want to announce it. He couldn't grasp the significance of the moment.

So weird that I can clearly remember that moment. I was 12 years old and I remember dozing off to a very boring game. I awoke just as Cosell made that announcement. Back then, MNF used to start around 9 or 9:30, and the game would be on at 12:30 am. Patriots-Dolphins was the biggest game of the year always (Miami used to be a torture chamber for the Patriots, they lost there to the Phins as much as the Bills lose to the Patriots at Gillette now).

I was home on leave. Headed to Mediterranean. When Howard first started talking. I'm thinking war with Russia(They were in Afghanistan) or big news about hostages in Iran.

That Chapman douche will have a parole hearing next August.

It would be a shame if he were to somehow be released.

patsfaninpa said:

I was home on leave. Headed to Mediterranean. When Howard first started talking. I'm thinking war with Russia(They were in Afghanistan) or big news about hostages in Iran.

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I was stationed in MCAS Iwakuni Japan at the time, and was working my avionics shift when I went to the supply building; one of the guys I knew there was listening to the game on Armed Forces Radio and asked me if I had heard the news. I thought that he was referring to the Pats-Doofins game and what would of course be yet another loss. It was indeed a loss, just not the type I had expected.

I've always wondered, had he not died would Lennon agree to reform the Beatles one last time for one
of the Live Aid performances, in London or Philly, in 1985?

captain stone said:

I was stationed in MCAS Iwakuni Japan at the time, and was working my avionics shift when I went to the supply building; one of the guys I knew there was listening to the game on Armed Forces Radio and asked me if I had heard the news. I thought that he was referring to the Pats-Doofins game and what would of course be yet another loss. It was indeed a loss, just not the type I had expected.

I've always wondered, had he not died would Lennon agree to reform the Beatles one last time for one
of the Live Aid performances, in London or Philly, in 1985?

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That's a great question. Never thought of that possibility, but what a moment that would have been. Only fly in the ointment might have been Yoko.

Like Joe Theisman's broken leg, remember it well.. shock and disbelief.

When I get to NYC always stop at "Strawberry Fields Monument" in Central Park.. "Give peace a chance"..

Jackson 2 said:

That's a great question. Never thought of that possibility, but what a moment that would have been. Only fly in the ointment might have been Yoko.

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Oh come on. She would have been on stage critiqing and offering suggestions. they loved that.

I still remember Howard Cosell announcing it. Everyone was crying.

Speaking of Yoko and Lennon's murder...

Denis Leary: We live in a country where John Lennon takes six bullets in the chest, Yoko Ono was standing right next to him, not ONE ****ING BULLET! Explain that to me God!

50-yard-line said:

Howard didn't want to announce it. He couldn't grasp the significance of the moment.

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My interpretation, after listening to it, is much different. It seems to me that he felt that making the Lennon announcement would make the game meaningless, to the viewers and even to the announcers themselves. Given that the game was about over, he wondered if it was the right thing to do, and that maybe right after the game was over would be better.

Has it really been 35 years since the assassination of the hippy king?

Damn some of you guys are old

Jangles said:

Has it really been 35 years since the assassination of the hippy king?

Damn some of you guys are old

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That's hilarious. John Lennon was a hippie about as much Warren Buffett is.

I was a sophomore at the University of Maine at Orono, watching the game in a buddy's dorm room. Quite a shock. Cosell's off-the-cuff eulogy was strange and awkward, like he was doing the highlights... and yet somehow also seemed moving and heart-felt.

Jackson 2 said:

That's hilarious. John Lennon was a hippie about as much Warren Buffett is.

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"Imagine no possesions, I wonder if you can, No need for greed or hunger, A brotherhood of man. Imagine all the people Sharing all the world."
-John Lennon (Imagine)

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So, yeah

Jangles said:

So, yeah

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So, yeah, lyrics don't always mirror real life. You just cited a textbook example. Thanks for making my point. I couldn't have done better myself!

Every time I hear him singing "nothing's gonna change my world" I can't help but think how wrong he was.

Also, I couldn't stomach the way the mediots turned around his criticism about being treated like a God, and turned it into him saying that he is God. Too bad the message he was sending was warped by the assclowns who fill people's heads with nonsense. It was a great message.

We can only Imagine what great music and/or accomplishments that we lost on that horrible day.

His Double Fantasy album was released earlier that year and was quite popular, though to be blunt,
I wasn't a fan of it at all. Nothing but soft ballads & elevator musak. Maybe he would've re-discovered
his Rock & Roll Mojo later in life, but at that time and beyond, the other 3 were producing far, far more
interesting stuff.