led by legendary quarterback Joe Montana, defeated
Miami 38 to 16 in Super Bowl XIX. The game be-
came the most-watched live event in television to
that time, attracting 115,936,000 U.S. viewers, in-
cluding President Ronald Reagan, who took his sec-
ond oath of office before tossing the coin for the
game. In the United Kingdom and Italy, almost 12
million additional viewers tuned in to the event.
One of the more gruesome moments in NFL his-
tory occurred on November 18, 1985, when New
York Giants linebacker Lawrence Taylor fell heavily
on the leg of Washington Redskin Joe Theismann,
causing multiple fractures that ended the prized
quarterback’s career. Super Bowl XX, in January,
1986, was equally painful for many viewers, as New
England Patriots quarterback Tony Eason gave a dis-
mal performance, failing to complete a pass against
the famed Chicago Bears defense. Eason was 0 for 6
in pass attempts, fumbled the ball once, and was
sacked three times. He was pulled from the game
during the second quarter, but it was too late, and
the Bears went on to defeat New England 46 to 10.
The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) tele-
cast of Super Bowl XX replaced the final episode of
M*A*S*Has the most-viewed television program in
history, with an audience of 127 million U.S. viewers.
The game was also televised in fifty-nine other coun-
tries, and an estimated 300 million Chinese viewers
tuned in to a delayed broadcast of the game in
March, 1986. Also in 1986, the NFL began to make a
concerted effort to expand American football’s pop-
ularity by holding a series of preseason exhibition
games, called American Bowls, at sites outside the
United States. That same year,Monday Night Football
celebrated its seventeenth season, becoming the
longest-running prime-time series in ABC’s history.
The 1987 season was reduced from sixteen games
to fifteen as a result of a twenty-four-day players’
strike. While only one game was canceled outright
because of the strike, three games were played with382 Football The Eighties in America
San Francisco 49er Roger Craig evades the final Miami Dolphin defender and leaps into the endzone to score a touchdown during the
1985 Super Bowl.(AP/Wide World Photos)