On this day in Professional Football History

1989 New Orleans Saints

1984-5-29 USFL Attendance

1983-5-29 Philadelphia Stars at Boston Breakers (USFL week 13)

1983-5-29 New Jersey Generals @ Washington Federals (USFL Week 13)

1983-5-29 Los Angeles Express at Oakland Invaders (USFL week 13)

1988 Street & Smith's Yearbooks

1969/5/29: On this day in pro football history: As the AFL and NFL headed into the merger, television contracts and its money distribution came to the forefront. The NFL teams received $1.2 million while the AFL teams received $800,000.

NFL commissioner Pete Rozelle went to the TV executives and earned his $100,000 salary. Monday Night Football was his new and great pitch. ABC took the idea for a tune of $24 million over the next 3 years for the Monday night primetime NFL matchup. ABC had been without pro football since 1965.

CBS and NBC did not bid for the new Monday night package against ABC. They felt their prime time packages of Gunsmoke, Here’s Lucy, the Carol Burnett Show and others were bigger draws than pro football. Sport Network Inc. did submit a bid who was owned by Howard Hughes.

Rozelle said, “We were committed in advance to give NBC and CBS the first crack at the Monday package and we didn’t make it available to anyone else until they declined. “ The bigger networks were happy with ABC winning the nighttime package. They might have lost some of their stations if the pro football contracts were not won by the big three.

With the $17 million dollar both conferences will earn from CBS and NBC in addition to $8 million from ABC. Each of the 26 teams will receive a little over $1.6 million per season during the life of the contracts.

Contracts for the other AFL & NFL games would expire at the end of the 1969 seasons. The new contracts would be negotiated at a later date.