A video clip clip of the broadcast footage, posted to Twitter on Tuesday by the Funhouse sporting activities media account, captures the remarkable times in advance of the crew returns from a industrial crack, with the sport tied and the on-air talent just apprised of Lennon’s loss of life.
“He was shot exterior his apartment, the Dakota condominium setting up,” Cosell suggests off-air.
“Oh boy,” Gifford replies.
Cosell goes on to say he’s not sure if they should really interrupt the on-air broadcast to notify viewers of the slaying. At the time, a long time just before the World-wide-web and social media, Americans experienced to rely on television and radio for any breaking news coverage the story of Lennon’s murder would lead newspapers the following early morning.
“I can not see this video game problem letting for that newsflash,” Cosell says. “Can you?”
“Absolutely, I can see it,” Gifford responds. He goes on to insert, “If we know it, we have bought to do it. … Do not dangle on it. It’s a tragic moment and this is heading to shake up the full globe.”
Gifford finally convinces Cosell, who claims, “Let Giff call this engage in and then I’ll get it in.”
![This photo from September 1980 shows ABC Monday Night Football commentators, from left, Don Meredith, Howard Cosell and Frank Gifford. At Gifford's urging, Cosell broke the news of John Lennon's assassination on Dec. 8, 1980, during a game between the Patriots and the Miami Dolphins.](https://bostonglobe-prod.cdn.arcpublishing.com/resizer/IlX5dHFitdJsKpgJmOxUHLK_RFY=/20x0/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/bostonglobe/CLVRU7SCBYI6LCJDY25OO6YUIE.jpg)
Then, when they appear again on air, Cosell provides a information a lot of Patriots admirers can nevertheless remember hearing in actual time as they watched, shocked, from living rooms and sports activities bars throughout the area.
“Remember, this is just a soccer sport, no issue who wins or loses,” Cosell says on the air, as the Patriots get ready to try a game-winning field objective in the closing seconds. “An unspeakable tragedy verified to us by ABC News in New York Town: John Lennon, outside the house of his condominium making on the west side of New York Town, the most famous perhaps of all of the Beatles, shot 2 times in the back. Rushed to Roosevelt Medical center, useless on arrival.”
Lennon’s killer, Mark David Chapman, in August 2020 was denied parole for the 11th time. Chapman shot and killed the previous Beatle hours soon after Lennon experienced autographed an album for him. Chapman, 65, is serving a 20-decades-to-existence sentence in New York state.
Substance from the Associated Press was employed in this report.
Travis Andersen can be attained at [email protected]. Observe him on Twitter @TAGlobe.