I faintly remember him as a player, but Knew him better growing up as one of the Three 'founding fathers' in the MNF broadcast booth and a spokesman for different products.

Only "faultless frank" Gifford remains from the original three

One of the more remarkable developments to me as time has passed since the 60s, 70s, and 80s is how much the MNF crew have faded from the public memory.

Don Meredith was a pretty big star in the NFL who became a bigger star for his MNF work and parlayed that into a prime time acting career on TV.

He was the QB for the Cowboys when they became "America's Team" and he played the good ole boy personna to perfection as a foil for Howard Cosell's opinionated, well-educated New Yorker schtick.

Cosell, for those of you too young to remember, was a star beyond his sports reporting.

His status in popular culture was such that Woody Allen referenced him in at least a couple of movies and the jokes are ones everyone would get at that time. There was also serious talk of Cosell running for Senator from New York.

It's amazing to me how little Cosell is mentioned today considering how well known he was at his peak.

There was a time it seemed Howard Cossell was on either tv or radio every day. Besides his ABC job, he did a 5 minute nightly spot called "speaking of sports", as well as a Sunday night half hour talk called "speaking of everything" both on the old WABC 77AM.

I think he was ahead of his time as one not being just a talking head sportscaster, but rather a sportsjournalist who didn't mind ruffling feathers. He knew his value and was proud to boast of it.

There has not been anyone quite like Mr. Cossell since his passing