If I have to be Howard Cosell, so be it

Did you see the helmet to helmet contact between the Steelers' James Harrison and the Broncos' Correll Buckhalter near the end of last night's game? Harrison's hit might not have been intentional, but the happy idiots on Monday Night Football didn't need to celebrate the contact that sent Buckhalter to the ground for a bit. He was perhaps too dazed to ask why he needed to be treated like so much refuse during garbage time.

Do they still show helmets colliding on the Monday Night Football opening?

Monday Night Football is in its 40th season, which means it's close to the age a number of football players never reach because they are felled by dementia and die from the head pounding they took in their careers.

Hey, it's been in all the papers lately, guys. Haven't you heard? Concussions are not good for you. Maybe you guys also smoke a few packs of cigarettes in the booth, too, for the kids to see on national tv. The Surgeon General report of 1964 may not have reached Mike, Jon and Ron, the Mad Men of Monday Night.

And then they actually went to a tape of Jack Tatum, comparing Harrison favorably with the man who wrote the book They Call Me Assassin. You remember Tatum. He was the guy who hit Darryl Stingley in another meaningless moment, an NFL preseason game, broke his neck and caused Stingley to become a quadriplegic. It was not an illegal hit at the time. Stingley, who had played for Marshall High School, made it to age 55.

And there was Jon Gruden, I think (and I'd like to think Mike Tirico was appalled), voicing over tape and describing the brilliance of Jack Tatum. You can't judge Tatum by today's standards. But you sure can judge the guys in the booth. Do we really need to bring back Dennis Miller to give us some historical perspective?