John Lennon offers his take on American football to Howard Cosell during halftime of the December 9, 1974 Monday Night Football game, as the Washington Redskins were on their way to defeating the Los Angeles Rams. If I recall the story correctly, California Governor Ronald Reagan, who was also at the game, tried to explain NFL rules to the baffled former Beatle.

Six years later, Cosell would report Lennon’s murder live on another Monday Night Football telecast: “Remember this is just a football game, no matter who wins or loses. An unspeakable tragedy, confirmed to us by ABC News in New York City–John Lennon outside of his apartment building on the West Side of New York City, the most famous, perhaps, of all of the Beatles, shot twice in the back, rushed to Roosevelt Hospital, dead on arrival. Hard to go back to the game after that news flash.”

A little more than a year later, Ronald Regan would, of course, survive an assassination attempt.