Mark Gastineau

Howard Cosell hosted the first instalment of Monday Night Football.

The 1984 NFL season, which began at a time when the league was facing declining ratings, the lingering effects of the 1982 NFL strike, and the upstart United States Football League, among others.

The year was 1981: A president and a pope survived assassins, gas cost about a buck-thirty and “Don’t Stop Believin'” was Top 10. And a phenomenon was sweeping the NFL. The Jets’ front four of Mark Gastineau, Joe Klecko, Marty Lyons and Abdul Salaam — all of whom the team drafted during the 1970s — led the league with 66 quarterback sacks and became stars.