| ESPN Sunday Night Football | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Also known as | ESPN Sunday Night NFL (1987–1997) |
| Presented by | Chris Berman Tom Jackson |
| Starring | Mike Patrick Joe Theismann Paul Maguire Suzy Kolber seebelow |
| Country of origin | United States |
| Production | |
| Running time | 180 minutes |
| Original release | |
| Network | ESPN |
| Release | November 8, 1987 (1987-11-08) – January 1, 2006 (2006-01-01) |
| Related | |
| NFL on TNT ABC Monday Night Football | |
ESPN Sunday Night Football was theESPN cable network's weeklytelevision broadcasts of Sunday eveningNational Football League (NFL) games. The first ESPN Sunday night broadcast occurred on November 8,1987, while the last one aired on January 1, 2006.
Former NFL CommissionerPaul Tagliabue credits ESPN with raising the "profile" of the league, by turning "a potential six- or seven-hour television experience into a twelve-hour television experience," factoring in bothSunday Night Football and the network's pregame showSunday NFL Countdown.
WhileABC had been airing occasional Sunday night NFL games (usually one per season) under itsMonday Night Football banner since1978, the concept of playing a regular series of Sunday night professional football games on ESPN was originally a concept designed for theUnited States Football League (USFL). As part of the abortive1986 USFL season,ESPN was to carry a weekly Sunday night game throughout the fall season.[1]
As part of its new television package in 1987, the NFL granted ESPN the rights to air a series of Sunday night games, which were to air over the second half of the regular season. The NFL thus became the last major North American professional sports league to begin airing its games oncable television.[2] However, the games were typicallysimulcast on regularover-the-air television stations in each participating team's local market, so that households without cable television could still see the telecasts of their local team.
During the inaugural season ofESPN Sunday Night NFL (as the telecast was then branded) in1987, the network's announcing booth consisted ofMike Patrick,Roy Firestone, and a weekly "guestcolor commentator".Joe Theismann took over as lead analyst beginning in1988.
During the first season, the game between theNew York Giants andNew England Patriots (the first regular season game aired by ESPN) sawWABC-TV[3] (ABC's flagship station out ofNew York City) produce a completely separate telecast from ESPN's. The reason behind this was that WABC's union contract at the time prohibited non-union workers, such as those at ESPN, from producing live events for WABC. The WABC broadcasts involved play-by-play man (and WABC-TV sports director)Corey McPherrin andFrank Gifford andLynn Swann (fromMonday Night Football) on color commentary.
In 1990, the NFL expanded its Sunday night offerings to the full season, withTNT airing games in the season's first half and ESPN taking over for the second half. Beginning in1998, ESPN broadcast the entire slate of Sunday night games (now officially rebranded asESPN Sunday Night Football), and had exclusive rights to any night game other than the season opener and regular Monday night games, which aired onABC. Thus, ESPN would usually have a few weekends each season with games on both Saturday (sometimes Thursday instead) and Sunday nights. During this period,Major League Baseball would typically hold Game 2 of theWorld Series on a Sunday night, and in deference the NFL would schedule TNT's and later ESPN's game that weekend for Thursday instead.
Also in 1998,Paul Maguire joined Patrick and Theismann in the booth after re-joining ESPN after several years as a color commentator forNBC. Beginning in1999,Suzy Kolber, who had recently rejoined ESPN fromFox Sports, served as the sideline reporter; Kolber replacedSolomon Wilcots, who joinedCBS as a color commentator. In2002, ESPN'sSNF crew covered the new Thursday,opening night kickoff game. In2004,Pat Summerall replaced Patrick for the preseason and for several regular season weeks following Patrick's recovery from open-heart surgery.
After the2005 season, ESPN ended this package in favor of picking up the broadcast rights toMonday Night Football from ABC.NBC picked up the rights to ESPN's Sunday night games. To replaceSunday Night Football ESPN moved its late-seasonSunday Night Baseball broadcasts back to the network and replaced most of the rest of the open weeks withNBA telecasts.
From1987–1997, ESPN used various themes for its NFL coverage, reflecting its separate management from sister company ABC Sports (nowESPN on ABC since September 2006) at the time.
In1998, asDisney began consolidating ESPN and ABC Sports, ESPN's NFL coverage began using themes associated withMonday Night Football such as "Heavy Action" and an amended version of itsHank Williams Jr.theme. In-game use of these themes ended after2000, in favor of another original theme also referred to as "Sirens" (for featuringsirens prominently) byThe Herbaliser.[4]
When ESPN gained the Monday night games, they once again began using the traditionalMonday Night Football themes, but with increased frequency.
During a game between theNew England Patriots atNew York Jets on December 20,2003, former Jets quarterbackJoe Namath in a sideline interview withSuzy Kolber twice stated that he wanted to kiss her, and "couldn't care less about the team strugg-a-ling." Namath later apologized and blamed the incident on his obvious intoxication. Soon after, Namath entered an outpatient alcoholism treatment program. Namath chronicled the episode, including his battle with alcoholism in his book,Namath (ISBN 0-67003-329-4).
NOTE: Pat Summerall filled in for Mike Patrick who was recovering from heart bypass surgery.
| Preceded by ABC (occasional Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday night games) | NFL Sunday night broadcaster 1987–2005 (withTNT from1990–1997) | Succeeded by |
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Owners:Walt Disney Company (80%);Hearst Communications (20%) | |||||||||||||||||||