[4] During negotiations on a new television contract that would begin in 1970 (coinciding with the completion of a merger between the NFL and AFL), Rozelle concentrated on signing a weekly Monday night deal with one of the three major networks.

This became one of the major factors leading to the 2006 end of MNF on ABC, and NBC instead agreeing to air the "Game of the Week" with flex scheduling on Sunday Night Football.

Most recently, Allegiant Stadium in Paradise, Nevada, hosted its first NFL game on September 21, 2020, when the Las Vegas Raiders defeated the New Orleans Saints 34–24 on Monday Night Football.

For its 2006 debut on ESPN, Williams Jr. re-recorded the MNF opening theme with an all-star jam band that included among others Brian Setzer, Little Richard, Questlove, Joe Perry, Clarence Clemons, Rick Nielsen, Bootsy Collins, Charlie Daniels, and Steven Van Zandt.

It features computer-generated imagery showing a city being transformed into a football stadium and passers-by on the street turning into players, coaches, fans, and officials set to an updated orchestral treatment of the "Heavy Action" theme song.

Celebrities for 2006 included Arnold Schwarzenegger, Matthew Fox, Hugh Hefner, Paris Hilton, Spike Lee, Ashton Kutcher, Samuel L. Jackson, Ludacris, Jack Black, Kiefer Sutherland, James Belushi, Ben Stiller, Tyra Banks, Carmen Electra, and Eva Longoria.

On the opening weekend, Arnold Schwarzenegger, another celebrity-turned-California governor, was in the booth at McAfee Coliseum in Oakland, California; before that, Jamie Foxx appeared at FedExField in suburban Washington, D.C.

"), actor Sylvester Stallone, film director Spike Lee, hip hop artist Jay-Z, and MNF theme singer Hank Williams Jr. ESPN scaled back to only one opening tease for the 2007 season.

[37] This was primarily due to the buffo ratings ESPN received for airing the October 5, 2009 game which featured Favre taking on his former team, the Green Bay Packers.

This time, Williams Jr. turns a wheel filled with paint, with CGI colors blasting into the air, revealing the helmets containing logos of the participating teams – which stay on top of the building.

The opening sequence for the 2011 season was set in a closed-studio setting, with Hank Williams Jr. (in his 23rd year) performing with a band with members such as Jimi K Bones from KIX and Blondie, The House Jacks, and Jenny Morrison (bass guitar), Chris King (trumpet), Clay Lucovich (trombone), and Florizel Dennis (baritone saxophone) from Orlando, Florida ska band Tef London, in front of a live audience with large video screens in the background.

"[40] Williams commented on the matter: "After reading hundreds of e-mails, I have made my decision... By pulling my opening October 3, [ESPN] stepped on the toes of the First Amendment Freedom of Speech, so therefore me, my song, and All My Rowdy Friends are out of here.

Among the few changes, GMC's product placement promoted the automaker's line of Denali vehicles, while the sequence itself included some additional highlights of MNF games from the previous 44 seasons up to 2013.

After three years of using the timeline-themed open, MNF debuted a new 75-second, Hollywood-themed open on September 12, 2016, featuring ESPN's new MNF broadcast team – Sean McDonough (play-by-play), Jon Gruden (color) and Lisa Salters (sideline reporter) – and more than 20 active NFL stars and Pro Football Hall of Famers walking along a red carpet entrance lined by cheering fans and photographers taking pictures.

Jon Gruden left MNF after 9 seasons and returned to coaching with the Oakland Raiders and was replaced by Jason Witten, formerly a tight end for the Dallas Cowboys.

[44] Finally, rules analyst Gerald Austin left MNF to work as an adviser to Gruden and the Raiders and was replaced by recently retired referee Jeff Triplette.

In the case of the latter, it was originally scheduled to be played at Estadio Azteca in Mexico City, but was moved to the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum (the Rams' home stadium at the time, which itself last hosted a Monday Night Football game in 1985) due to the poor field conditions at the former.

Witten was not replaced, therefore making the 2019 broadcast team consist of Joe Tessitore (play-by-play), Booger McFarland (color commentator) and Lisa Salters (sideline reporter).

To formally celebrate the 50th anniversary of Monday Night Football, the Las Vegas Raiders' Week 2 home opener (their first after relocating from Oakland) was simulcast by ABC.

[57] After their appearance in the opening broadcast, the Muppets soon re-appeared with Rowlf the Dog, Scooter, Gonzo, Animal, Beaker, the Swedish Chef and others singing a football-themed rendition "Carol of the Bells".

[60] For the first time since 2005, there was no season-opening doubleheader as the opening game of Monday Night Football's 52nd season consisted only of the Baltimore Ravens-Las Vegas Raiders matchup, which was aired on ESPN and simulcast on ABC, ESPN2, and ESPN+, as part of the network's Megacast series.

On November 30, 2023, the Week 15 matchup between the Kansas City Chiefs at the New England Patriots was flexed out of Monday Night Football in favor of the Philadelphia Eagles at the Seattle Seahawks.

In 2023, ESPN debuted the official new opening song, "In the Air Tonight," a cover of the 1981 Phil Collins classic, featuring Chris Stapleton, Cindy Blackman Santana, and Snoop Dogg.

[78] In 2005, the broadcast's final year on ABC, Monday Night Football began using a horizontal bar on the bottom of the screen rather than a scorebug, with all information being contained on a single line.

Chicago Tribune media writer Phil Rosenthal described the briefly-used graphic as a "fluorescent-highlighter fever dream", and felt that "the quickness with which ESPN abandoned this unnecessary bit of flash probably speaks more to how misguided this latest supposed 'innovation' was than any increased sensitivity to the twitterati.

Coverage was moved one hour earlier to 8 p.m. Eastern Time in 1998, with a pre-game show titled Monday Night Blast, hosted by Chris Berman from the ESPN Zone restaurant in Baltimore preceding the start of the game at 8:20 p.m.

This was done mainly to address ABC's inability to find a suitable 8 p.m. lead-in program for MNF since MacGyver ended its run in 1992 (not even two other series from MacGyver's production company Paramount Television – The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles and The Marshal – saw success, despite the former's ties to Paramount's Indiana Jones film series), and to allow stations to start their late local newscasts nearer to their regular times.

Whenever an ABC affiliate pre-empted the show to air the NFL, these stations would then broadcast Dancing with the Stars on tape delay immediately after their late-evening local newscasts, Jimmy Kimmel Live!, and Nightline.

[102] For the 2023 season, ESPN Deportes introduced the new Monday Night Football team of Rebeca Landa on the play-by-play, with Sergio Dipp as analyst, and Katia Castorena as sideline reporter.

On April 22, 2014, the NFL announced that it had exercised an option in ESPN's recent contract extension for Monday Night Football rights to air a first-round Wild Card playoff game on the channel after the conclusion of the 2014 season.