MONDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL NO. 2 IN PRIMETIME

With all the close games, no wonder Monday Night Football finishes this close to the top. Nine Monday night games have been decided by seven points or less. The St. Louis Rams-Washington Redskins game of November 20 was a 13-point game (a 33-20 Redskins victory), but viewers still made it the second-ranked primetime program of the week of November 20-26. The game earned a 13.9 rating, second only to the 15.2 of ER……Locally, NFL TV again excelled for the week. NFL games were the top-rated programs in 20 NFL cities. For the season, NFL games have been the top-rated TV program every week the local team has played in 13 NFL cities.

"MEAN JOE" RETURNS TO TV, HEADS FOR LIBRARY OF CONGRESS

He’s in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. He’s going to the Library of Congress. And he’s coming back to TV. He’s "MEAN JOE" GREENE, now the defensive line coach of the Arizona Cardinals, and the centerpiece of one of the most memorable television commercials of all-time. To mark the 50th anniversary of Coca-Cola’s first commercial, the company is donating all of its TV spots to the Library of Congress. One – the "Mean Joe" 1979 commercial in which a dirty, exhausted Greene of the Pittsburgh Steelers throws his jersey to a little boy who hands him a bottle of Coke after a game – is so beloved that it is being resurrected in a nostalgic Coca-Cola TV campaign that began on Thanksgiving Day. "Right away, when you saw the ‘Mean Joe’ spot, you knew it was special," says Steelers owner DAN ROONEY. "I got emotional myself." Last year, TV Guide voted the "Mean Joe" spot as one of the top 10 TV commercials of all time.

IVY GROWS IN NFL

One caught his first NFL TD pass last Monday. Another quarterbacked his team to an 8-3 start. And yet another starts at center for the Minnesota Vikings, the first NFL team to qualify for the 2000 NFL playoffs. While their numbers – there are 12 of them -- are too small to qualify as an "influx," more and more Ivy League players are making an impact on the NFL. Last Monday night, Carolina Panthers running back CHRIS HETHERINGTON of Yale got his team off to a fast start by scoring the game’s first touchdown – on a reception for his first career TD – on the way to a 31-14 victory over Green Bay. Dartmouth quarterback JAY FIEDLER, replacing the retired DAN MARINO, guided the Miami Dolphins to an 8-3 start this year before a neck injury. He returned this week to lead the Bills to a 33-6 victory over Buffalo. And Harvard center MATT BIRK of the Vikings, in his first year as a starter, has helped the team build the NFC’s No. 1 running game. "The Ivy League is not big-time football, but the guys who play it work just as hard at it as people at other schools," says Birk.

FIRST MACKEY AWARD ANNOUNCED MONDAY

He was a premier NFL tight end. Now the first collegiate award for a tight end has been named for him – and will be announced this Monday (12/4). The first JOHN MACKEY AWARD – named after the Pro Football Hall of Fame tight end of the Baltimore Colts and San Diego Chargers – will be presented in New York City to honor the collegiate tight end who exhibits "positive sportsmanship while maintaining a minimum 2.5 GPA." The finalists are ALGE CRUMPLER of North Carolina, TODD HEAP of Arizona State and TIM STRATTON of Purdue. The Mackey Award is sponsored by the Nassau County (NY) Sports Commission. Mackey grew up in Hempstead in Nassau County. Other NFL players/coaches to have collegiate awards named after them: FRED BILETNIKOFF, BUCK BUCHANAN, DICK BUTKUS, LOU GROZA, HARLON HILL, VINCE LOMBARDI, BRONKO NAGURSKI, DAVEY O’BRIEN, WALTER PAYTON, JIM THORPE, JOHNNY UNITAS, and DOAK WALKER.