Moss, Cosell, the Bucs and the NFL's best rivalry

	Randy Moss announced his presence to the nation by torching the Packers for two long TDs in a Monday night game in 1998. Vincent Laforet/Getty Images

I'm not all misty-eyed for the passing of ABC's Monday Night Football, but after 36 seasons and many incarnations, it has earned its status as a pop culture icon. And now, once the Patriots and Jets tee it up this coming Monday, it'll be time to say good-bye.

Like any other kid growing up in the 1970s, I liked Monday Night Football for two reasons: Getting to stay up later than normal on a school night to watch the halftime highlights, and for one of the best pieces of opening theme music in TV history: "Duhnt-duhnt-duhnt-duh!!''

Say what you will about the announcers, the glitzy new formats ABC trotted out every few years, or the late nights that inevitably rolled into early Tuesday mornings, we did watch. We had to watch. It was must-see TV before they ever invented must-see TV.

Here are five of my favorite MNF memories:

1. Vikings 37, Packers 24, Oct. 5, 1998

This was the night that Randy Moss officially became the NFL's Next Big Thing. I was covering the game as the Vikings beat writer for the Minneapolis Star Tribune, and while we knew by then that Minnesota's rookie receiver had some rare play-making skills, he hadn't really taken over a game quite like he did that night at cool and blustery Lambeau Field.

Moss, playing in just his fifth NFL regular-season game, caught five Randall Cunningham passes for 190 yards and two touchdowns (52 and 44 yards) as the stunned Packers fans saw the undefeated Vikings bring Green Bay's club-record 25-game home winning streak to a resounding end. Minnesota led 37-10 early in the fourth quarter, and I'll always remember how Moss and Cunningham (who finished with 442 yards passing) appeared to be playing their own personal game of pitch-and-catch.

2. Packers 12, Bucs 9, in OT, Dec. 12, 1983

This isn't a game that's going to make anyone's list but mine, but I was there in Tampa Stadium that night that Howard Cosell called his final Monday night game from ABC's booth. But that's not what made this late-season game between two also-rans memorable.

Leave it to Bucs head coach and noted quipster John McKay to do that. Tampa Bay, headed for a 2-14 season, lost to the Packers thanks to kicker Bill Capece missing both an extra point and a 35-yard fourth-quarter field goal attempt. Green Bay capitalized on Capece's miscues and tied the game on a Jan Stenerud field goal late in regulation, and won it on another Stenerud three-pointer early in overtime.

After the game, McKay was asked about his struggling kicker and got off one of his most inspired lines: "Capece is kaput. There will be no more field goals kicked by the Bucs this year, no matter what the score is. I'm tired of being crucified.''

Capece was cut soon after, and the next week, new kicker Dave Warnke missed a field goal and an extra point and shanked three kickoffs in a three-point loss at Detroit. Fed up with kickers, McKay then had 300-pound offensive tackle George Yarno kick the Bucs' final PAT of the season.