I smiled when I got a call from our stations managing editor Bill Bishop earlier today. He was so excited that the Houston Texans were on Monday Night Football. This guy is talented at what he does in the television world but deep down he is a true sports fanatic. He loves the Texans and he also loves talking about some of the great Monday night games in Houston history. That got me thinking about maybe the best Monday night football game ever at least according to Howard Cosell.

The Astrodome was the setting back in 1978. The Oilers were hosting the Miami Dolphins. I was a rookie quarterback trying to take in all the excitement. We were 7-4 at the time and this was a huge game if we wanted to make the playoffs. I remember the pom poms waving, I mean it was the place to be.

I can't recall all of the specifics of what took place but I will never forget what happened when we got the ball late in the game. Bum Phillips had told starting quarterback Dan Pastorini to "go out and get a couple of first downs" as we were leading 28 to 23 over Miami. Just run out the clock was the goal. That would have blown the top off the dome. It was that crazy! So Dante calls the play in the huddle, I-right toss 28. We always referred to the "I" formation as the truck and trailer with Timmy Wilson (the truck) leading the way for the great Earl Campbell (the trailer). What occured next will never be forgotten. Earl took the pitch from Pastorini moving to his right. The blocking was perfect and Earl took off. He was not supposed to be able to outrun the entire Dolphin defense but as he cruised down the sideline, he put it into his final gear and nobody was going to catch him. He went 81 yards for a touchdown as the place was hysterical! That made it 35-23. We were all stunned!!! The Dome was in full bloom as fans were shaking those pom poms... the Oilers fight song was blarring. You couldn't hear yourself think, it was that loud. As Pastorini came back to the bench, he just shrugged his shoulders at Bum and then Bum looked at him and said "or seven points!" It's makes a quarterbacks job easy when your trying to run out the clock and end up scoring on a simple toss.

Back to Bill Bishop. He went to every home game the Oilers played since 1971 but he missed that Monday Night miracle because he was sick as a dog. I'm betting he will be in Reliant Stadium Monday night December 1st. You just don't want to miss PRIMETIME football! Congradulations to the Texans. They have arrived!

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