"But if dreams came true, oh, wouldn't that be nice
But this ain't no dream we're living out through tonight
Girl, you want it, you take it, you pay the price
Prove it all night, prove it all night."
My, how the times have changed. There was a time, what now seems way back, when Monday Night Football was the marquee game of the week in the NFL. Back when Frank Gifford, Dandy Don Meredith and Howard Cosell battled over airtime in a revolutionary three-man booth. Back when Cosell used Monday nights as a podium to pontificate on an array of sports issues. Back when 9:00 PM on the East Coast meant most televisions were tuned in to ABC. Back when home dogs barked louder than ever. Yeah, Mondays were the night and the time was right.

It's now 2008 where Mike Tirico, Ron Jaworski and Tony Kornheiser occupy the Monday Night booth inside the studios at ESPN. Their predecessors, Al Michaels and John Madden are working a day in advance, broadcasting Sunday Night games on NBC. Warning: if you tune in at 9:00 PM on Mondays you will have missed the first 20 minutes of the game. Nevertheless, as watered down as it has become, Monday Night Football still makes a big splash when it comes to television ratings and games of importance on the NFL scales of exposure.

Because players enjoy being 'on stage', Monday Night Football is still a time to shine in front of peers and football fans alike. And for handicappers in search of winning edges, Monday Night Football still affords opportunities galore.

One of my favorite plays on Monday Night Football involves home teams returning off back-to-back road games. That's because, since 1980, teams in this situation are 54-36-1 ATS – or 60% ATS on the blind. However, by applying an added dimension we can enhance our chance of winning if we were to -

PLAY ON any NFL Monday Night home team off back to back road games versus an opponent off a home game

By following the criteria above we have a neat 39-20-1 ATS winning edge. Better yet, make sure we are a worthy team (win percentage greater than .400) and we improve those numbers to 32-13-1 ATS. Best of all, put the worthy home team up against an opponent off a division home game and we soar to new heights, going 20-3-1 ATS.

Here is the list of teams that will be out to PROVE IT ALL NIGHT this 2008 NFL season: 9/29 Pittsburgh, 10/13 Cleveland, 10/20 New England, 11/10 Arizona, 11/24 New Orleans, 12/1 Houston and 12/8 Chicago. Mark down the dates now, because as 'The Boss' says, "If you want it, you take it, you pay the price. Prove it all night. Prove it all night..."