Broncos fans may have been disappointed by the outcome, but ESPN was more than pleased, after the “Monday Night Football” matchup between Denver and Green Bay earned cable television’s highest ratings of the year, the network said Wednesday.
ESPN’s 10.5 rating for the “MNF” game, representing an average 10,163,000 homes, was the highest of any cable TV show this year. By comparison, Game 4 of the World Series between the Rockies and Red Sox at
Coors Field on Sunday attracted a 12.6 rating on Fox.
Brett Favre threw an 82-yard scoring pass to Greg Jennings 16 seconds into overtime to defeat the Broncos 19-13. The 77,160 people in attendance at Invesco Field at Mile High represented the largest football crowd in Colorado history.
In Denver, the game earned a 14.4 rating on ESPN and a 22.3 rating for its simulcast on KCNC-4 – for a combined 36.7 rating locally. In Milwaukee, the game combined for a 48.8 rating. The final game of the World Series on Sunday drew a 39.2 rating in Denver.
The Packers-Broncos game topped the previous highest- rated cable show this year, ESPN’s airing of the Dallas-Buffalo game on Oct. 8, which drew a 10.0 rating.
Rangers visit Rams. Lonnie Porter starts his 31st season at Regis and Tim Miles opens his era at Colorado State when the men’s basketball exhibition season tips off tonight at Moby Arena at 7 p.m.
CSU has one returning starter, lone senior Stuart Creason; two junior-college transfers, guards Marcus Walker and Willis Garner; and six freshmen. The Rangers are led by Geremey Gibson, who averaged 13.9 points last season. Regis faces Wyoming on Saturday in another Mountain West measuring stick.
Metro tops CSU. The Metro State women’s basketball team made the most of Linda Lappe’s coaching debut as the Division-II Roadrunners topped D-I Colorado State 55-42 in a preseason game at Moby Arena in Fort Collins. Lappe, a former standout player at Colorado and an assistant last season at CSU, saw Metro State outscore the Rams 35-18 in the second half.
Mammoth signs five players. The Colorado Mammoth of the National Lacrosse League re-signed defenseman Rich Catton and transition player Jim Moss and added transition player Scott Davidson and goalies Pete Jokisch and Craig Robertson to its preseason roster.
Catton, an eight-year NLL veteran, signed a one-year contract to play his third season for Colorado. Moss returns from an eight-game season with the Mammoth last year after signing a three-year deal.
Davidson is a former standout at the University of Denver from 2002-05 and was the Mammoth’s No. 39 selection in the 2005 NLL entry draft. Jokisch played club lacrosse at Colorado State.
Woolridge to coach. The Houston Takers of the minor-league American Basketball Association hired former Nuggets forward Orlando Woolridge as head coach, replacing the fired Sam Smith. Woolridge, the No. 6 pick in the 1981 NBA draft, averaged 25.1 points for the Nuggets in 1990-91 under coach Paul Westhead.
