| NFL on NBC | |
|---|---|
 Logo used since 2006 | |
| Also known as | NBC NFL |
| Genre | NFL game telecasts |
| Presented by | Pre-game show panelists NFL on NBC game commentators |
| Country of origin | United States |
| Original language | English |
| No. of seasons | 64 |
| Production | |
| Production locations | Various NFL stadiums(game telecasts) NBC Sports HeadquartersStamford, Connecticut(studio segments, pre-game and post-game shows) |
| Camera setup | Multi-camera |
| Running time | 210 minutes or until game ends(inc. adverts) |
| Production company | NBC Sports |
| Original release | |
| Network | NBC |
| Release | October 22, 1939 (1939-10-22) – January 25, 1998 (1998-01-25) |
| Network | NBC Peacock Telemundo,TeleXitos andUniverso (Spanish audio/broadcast) |
| Release | August 6, 2006 (2006-08-06) – present |
| Related | |
NFL on NBC is anAmerican television sports presentation show broadcast byNBC. It aired from October 22, 1939 to January 25, 1998. The show returned on August 6, 2006. The branding is used for the presentation of theNational Football League (NFL). It is the longest running American TV show.
NBC had sporadically carried NFL games as early as1939, including the championship and Pro Bowl through the 1950s and early 1960s. Beginning in1965, NBC signed an agreement to carry theAmerican Football League (AFL)'s telecasts, which carried over with theAmerican Football Conference (AFC) when theAFL merged with the NFL. NBC would continuously carry the AFL/AFC's Sunday afternoon games from 1965 through the1997 season, after which NBC lost the AFC contract toCBS.
NBC's current flagship NFL program,NBC Sunday Night Football, began airing on NBC in2006.[1] Alongside Sunday Night Football, NBC airs the annual preseasonPro Football Hall of Fame Game, theNFL Kickoff game, theprimetime game on Thanksgiving Day, and one regular season game onPeacock. During theNFL Playoffs, NBC airs one to three Wild Card Playoff games with one guaranteed on a Sunday night, one Divisional Round Playoff game, and theSuper Bowl in rotation withFox,CBS andESPN/ABC. In2024, NBC aired a third Wild Card Playoff game on Peacock. From2016 to2017, NBC added a five-gameThursday Night Football package to its offerings supplementing the NFL Kickoff and Thanksgiving Day Thursday night games that were already part of NBC's coverage. Game coverage is usually preceded by the pregame showFootball Night in America.
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NBC's coverage of the National Football League (which has aired under numerous program titles and formats) actually goes back to the beginnings of the network's relationship with the league in1939, when its New York Cityflagship station, then known as W2XBS (nowWNBC) aired the first televised professional football game[2] between thePhiladelphia Eagles and the now-defunctBrooklyn Dodgers football team. Even before this, in1934,NBC Radio'sBlue Network had carried theDetroit Lions' inauguralThanksgiving game nationwide.
By1955, NBC became the television home to theNFL championship game, the precursor to theSuper Bowl, paying US$100,000 to the league for the rights. The network had taken over the broadcast rights from theDuMont Television Network, which had struggled to give the league a national audience (NBC's coverage of proto-Canadian Football League games fromthe year prior was more widely available at the time) and was on the brink of failure; the NFL's associations with NBC (as well as withCBS) proved to be a boost to the league's popularity. For the1957 NFL championship game,Van Patrick andKen Coleman split a half of the play-by-play duties andRed Grange, normally on play-by-play forChicago Bears games onCBS, assumed the color commentator role for this game. The1958 NFL championship game, played atYankee Stadium, between theBaltimore Colts and theNew York Giants went into sudden death overtime. This game, since known as the "Greatest Game Ever Played", was seen by many throughout the country and is credited with increasing the popularity of professional football in the late 1950s and early 1960s.Chris Schenkel called the first half whileChuck Thompson called the second half and overtime.
NBC televised the NFL championship game until1963. The contract for the title game was separate than the regular season contracts held byCBS, which started televising NFL games in1956. Prior to1962, each team had its own individual television contract. (This was in contrast to theAmerican Football League as well as established practice incollege football, both of which forced all of their members to participate in a collective television contract. As the legality of such a collective contract was still in question at the time, and would eventually bedeclared illegal in 1984, the NFL did not pursue such a contract until Congress explicitly allowed for the NFL to do so, with conditions, in theSports Broadcasting Act of 1961.) NBC held individual team contracts with thePittsburgh Steelers andBaltimore Colts in1959,1960 and1961. While the games wereblacked out inPittsburgh andBaltimore, they were broadcast on other NBC stations. In some cases, the game broadcast was seen on CBS in the visiting team's home region. NBC covered eleven games in 1960 and 13 games in 1961 in a "Game of the Week" format. NBC would take one week off due to itscoverage of theWorld Series. During this era, NBC broadcast pre-recorded and edited hour-long broadcasts of NFL games in the off-season under the titleBest of Pro Football.
During this period, NBC also held the rights to thePro Bowl (which was also under a separate contract from the NFL's regular season games and the NFL championship game) via the Los Angeles newspapers' charities. NBC televised the Pro Bowl following the1951 and1952 seasons and again from the1957 to1964 seasons. The1957 game was offered to NBC, thenCBS. Both declined to carry the game.ABC was then offered to televise and accepted, but could not gain enough clearance ofaffiliates in time to make it a profitable venture. Thus they also dropped out and the game was not televised.
At thestart of the 1960s, 10 of the NFL's 13 NFL teams (including the brand newDallas Cowboys) were aligned withCBS, two joined forces with NBC (the aforementionedColts and theSteelers) and one (theCleveland Browns) rejoined its partner, thesyndicatedSports Network. NBC during this time period, employedLindsey Nelson andFrankie Albert as their top broadcasting crew.
In Week 1 of the 1960 season, theWashington-Baltimore game was also seen onNBC affiliates inSt. Louis,Los Angeles,Pittsburgh,Dallas-Ft. Worth andDetroit. For the following week, NBC's affiliates inPhiladelphia, Dallas-Ft. Worth andWashington also carriedChicago-Baltimore game. There was no telecast in Week 3 asNBC was televising Game 4 of thePirates-YankeesWorld Series. Week 4 saw NBC'sGreen Bay andMilwaukee affiliates joining in on theLos Angeles-Baltimore game. For Week 5, NBC'sNew York affiliate also carried the Pittsburgh-Washington game. In Week 6, NBC's Philadelphia affiliate was a part of NBC's telecast of theGreen Bay Packers-Steelers game. For the following week,Chicago's NBC station picked up NBC's Green Bay-Baltimore telecast. TheSan Francisco Bay Area also tuned into NBC's coverage of Baltimore-Chicago in Week 8. Meanwhile,Channel 2 inBaltimore provide their own coverage locally of the Colts-Bears game, with Chuck Thompson and Bailey Goss on the call. In Week 9,WBAL in Baltimore also carried the Cleveland-Pittsburgh game. On Cleveland's own syndicated network, the game was called byKen Coleman andJimmy Dudley. OnThanksgiving Day, 1960, NBC's Green Bay, Milwaukee, Detroit and Los Angeles affiliates joined in on theirSan Francisco-Baltimore telecast. In Week 11, NBC's Pittsburgh's station was also part of the coverage of theDetroit-Baltimore game. For the following week, NBC's St. Louis, San Francisco and Green Bay stations carried thePhiladelphia-Pittsburgh game. In Week 13, NBC's Green Bay, Milwaukee, Los Angeles and Dallas/Ft. Worth affiliates all joined in for NBC's Pittsburgh-St. Louis telecast.
On April 5, 1961, NBC was awarded a two-year contract (1961–62) for the radio and television rights to the NFL championship game,[3] paying US$615,000 annually for the rights ($300,000 of which was to go directly into theNFL Player Benefit Plan). On May 23, 1963, NBC was awarded exclusive network broadcast rights for the 1963 NFL championship game for $926,000. For the1960 NFL championship game, there was an early kickoff due to NFL officials preparing for potential of sudden death overtime.Franklin Field had no lights and sunset would normally occur around 4:35 p.m. at this time of year inPhiladelphia.
NBC continued to televise 13 Sundays involving either theColts andSteelers (the odd week was when NBC had theWorld Series) in1961. This time, Lindsay Nelson was joined by Chuck Thompson on commentary. In Week 1, NBC'sLos Angeles-Baltimore telecast was seen nationally except in NFL markets and theCBS Los Angeles network region (which featuredBob Kelley andGil Stratton on commentary). The exception to this would be if teams did not play on Sunday, then the NBC affiliate could carry their games in those markets as well. So if the Colts or Steelers (in this case the Steelers) were not on NBC and they were on the road, then an ad hoc regional network would be permitted to carry the game, either using its own crew or picking up the CBS feed and crew. In Week 2, NBC's affiliates in Chicago and Los Angeles also plugged into NBC's telecast of theDetroit-Baltimore game. In Week 3, the Baltimore-Green Bay game was televised locally to Baltimore on WBAL 11. Apparently if Baltimore viewers wanted to see the World Series, they would have had to choose betweenWRC 4 inWashington orWGAL 8 inLancaster, Pennsylvania. As previously mentioned, there was no NFL telecast on NBC due to coverage of Game 4 of the World Series. In Week 11, NBC's Green Bay, Milwaukee and Detroit affiliates were added to theirSt. Louis-Pittsburgh telecast. For Week 13, the telecast of the Pittsburgh-Washington game included Channel 4 in Los Angeles and Channel 11 in Baltimore. NBC's Week 14 telecast of the Pittsburgh-St. Louis included channel 4 in the Bay Area and channel 11 in Baltimore.
At the end of the 1964 season, NBC would carry thePro Bowl one last time as the game was still the property of the Los Angeles Newspaper Charities. CBS not only won the deal tocarry the NFL championship game starting in1964 (which had been at NBC since1955), but it would also begin televising the Pro Bowl after the1965 season as the NFL took control of the all-star tilt. NBC's 1965 Pro Bowl telecast was aired in color and featuredKen Coleman andGordy Soltau on the call.
NBC resumed professional football telecasts on a regular basis in1965. On January 29, 1964, NBC signed a five-year deal with theAmerican Football League (replacingABC in that role), paying them US$36 million to televise its games; with this and the increased, heated battle over college prospects, both leagues negotiated amerger agreement on June 8, 1966. Although they would not officially fully merge and adopt an interlocking schedule until1970, two of the conditions of the agreement were that the winners of each league's championship game would meet in a contest (which would eventually become known as the Super Bowl) to determine the "world champion of football", and that there would be a commonplayer draft.
Curt Gowdy, who had covered the first five seasons of the American Football League with broadcast partnerPaul Christman on ABC, moved over to NBC in the fall of 1965. For the next decade, Gowdy was the lead play-by-play announcer for the network for both AFL football (AFC from 1970 onward) andMajor League Baseball games; however, Gowdy also covered a wide range of sports, earning him the nickname of the "broadcaster of everything." Besides Paul Christman, Curt Gowdy's other football broadcast partners wereKyle Rote,Al DeRogatis,Don Meredith,John Brodie andMerlin Olsen.
For the1966 AFL season, NBC would feature about 40 games incolor, including their three postseason telecasts.
On December 13, 1966, the rights to the Super Bowl for four years were sold to CBS and NBC for $9.5 million. The first everAFL-NFL World championship game was played on January 15, 1967. BecauseCBS held the rights to nationally televise NFL games and NBC had the rights to broadcast AFL games, it was decided by the newly merged league to have both of them cover that first game (the only pro football game to have been carried nationally on more than one network until December 29,2007, with theNew England Patriots-New York Giants game, which aired on NBC, CBS and theNFL Network). However, NBC was forced to broadcast the game over CBS' feed and cameras (CBS received prerogative to use its feed and camera angles since the Coliseum was home to the NFL's Rams), while only CBS' cameras and technical crew were allowed to work the game, although NBC was allowed to use its own commentators. As a result, NBC's crew had little to no control over how the game was broadcast. Each network used its own announcers:Ray Scott (doingplay-by-play for the first half),Jack Whitaker (doing play-by-play for the second half) andFrank Gifford providing commentary on CBS; while Curt Gowdy and Paul Christman did so for NBC. NBC did have some problems with the dual telecast; the network did not return in time from ahalftime commercial break for the start of the second half. Therefore, the firstkickoff was stopped by the game's officials and was redone once NBC returned to the broadcast.
The next three AFL–NFL world championship games, later renamed theSuper Bowl, were then divided by the two networks (with each network broadcasting the game exclusively): CBS broadcast Super BowlsII andIV while NBC coveredIII. When NBC Sports broadcast Super Bowl III, sports broadcasts were produced under the oversight of theNBC News division (this remained the case until 1978, long after both CBS andABC had spun off their sports operations into departments separate from their news divisions). Curt Gowdy handled the play-by-play duties and was joined bycolor commentatorsAl DeRogatis andKyle Rote in the broadcast booth. Also helping with NBC's coverage wereJim Simpson (reporting from the sidelines) andPat Summerall (helping conduct player interviews for the pregame show, along with Rote). In an interview later conducted withNFL Films, Gowdy called it the most memorable game he ever called because of its historical significance.[4] While the Orange Bowl was sold out for the game, the live telecast was not shown in Miami due to both leagues' unconditionalblackout rules at the time. This game is thought to be the earliest surviving Super Bowl game preserved on videotape in its entirety save for a portion of theBaltimore Colts' fourth-quarter scoring drive.
One of the most remembered games on NBC was a1968 game known as theHeidi Game. As its nationally televised game between theOakland Raiders andNew York Jets running late, the network discontinued coverage while the game was still playing to air the movieHeidi just moments after the Jets'Jim Turner kicked what appeared to be the game-winning field goal with 1:05 remaining. While millions of irate fans, missing the finale, jammed NBC's phone lines, the Raiders scored two touchdowns in eight seconds during the final minute to win 43–32.
The reaction toThe Heidi Game resulted in the AFL, and most other sports leagues, demanding thereafter that television networks broadcast all games to their conclusion. NFL contracts with the networks now require games to be shown in a team's market area to conclusion, regardless of the score.
To avoid a repeat incident, a 1975 NBC broadcast ofWilly Wonka & the Chocolate Factory was delayed until the completion of aWashington Redskins–Raiders game. The network installed a new phone in the control room wired to a separate exchange, becoming known as theHeidi Phone, to prevent this situation from occurring in the future.
In1970, after the NFL and AFL completed their merger, NBC signed a contract with the league to broadcast games from theAmerican Football Conference (AFC). After this season, Al DeRogatis and Kyle Rote swapped positions; resulting in DeRogatis being the #1 color commentator alongside Curt Gowdy and Rote being the #2 analyst alongside Jim Simpson.
On January 17, 1971, NBC's telecast ofSuper Bowl V between theBaltimore Colts andDallas Cowboys was viewed in an estimated 23,980,000 homes, the largest household audience ever for a one-day sports event. The game was called by play-by-play announcer Gowdy and color commentator Rote. Although theOrange Bowl was sold out for the event, unconditional blackout rules in the NFL prohibited the live telecast from being shown in theMiami area onWCKT. The blackout was challenged in Miami-Dade District Court by attorneyEllis Rubin, and although the judge denied Rubin's request since he felt he did not have the power to overrule the NFL, he agreed with Rubin's argument that the blackout rule was unnecessary for the Super Bowl.[5]
On Christmas Day, December 25, 1971, NBC telecast the AFC Divisional Playoff between the Kansas City Chiefs and Miami Dolphins. The contest, the final Chiefs game ever played in Kansas City's Municipal Stadium, started around 3 p.m. Central Time. The game lasted well into the evening, delaying some Christmas dinners around the country as the contest became the longest-running game in NFL history, lasting 82:40 of game time. In the second overtime period, Miami converted a field goal to win the thrilling contest, 27–24. Curt Gowdy and Al DeRogatis called the memorable game for NBC.
On January 14, 1973, NBC's telecast ofSuper Bowl VII between theMiami Dolphins andWashington Redskins was watched by approximately 75 million viewers. NBC's telecast ofSuper Bowl IX between thePittsburgh Steelers andMinnesota Vikings had an audience of approximately 78 million viewers. The 1973 game, called by Curt Gowdy and Al DeRogatis, was the first Super Bowl to be televised live in the city where it was being played. Despite the league's unconditional blackout rules that normally would have prohibited the live telecast from being shown locally, the NFL allowed the game to be telecast in the Los Angeles area onKNBC on an experimental basis when all tickets for the game were sold. The league then changed its blackout rules the following season to allow games sold out at least 72 hours in advance to be televised in the host market. No subsequent Super Bowl has ever been blacked out in the city it has been played in, since all of them have been sold out.
On December 16,1973, NBC cameras were there to coverO. J. Simpson as he rushed for 2,000 yards in one season. On that particular day, Simpson'sBuffalo Bills would go on to beat theNew York Jets atShea Stadium. Two days before he was assigned to call 1973's regular-season finale between theHouston Oilers andCincinnati Bengals,Bill Enis died from aheart attack at the age of 39.Al Michaels was brought in to replace Enis in the booth withDave Kocourek.1974 would mark the final season for what would be Al Michaels' first stint with NBC. That season, Michaels called six-tier games withMike Haffner. Also in 1974,Don Meredith would come over to NBC fromABC'sMonday Night Football. He would join Curt Gowdy and Al DeRogatis for theplayoffs andSuper Bowl IX. He also worked that year's Thanksgiving game betweenDenver andDetroit. In Week 13, he joined Jim Simpson andJohn Brodie to call theCleveland-Dallas game.
In1975, because of NBC's coverage of Game 2 of theWorld Series between theCincinnati Reds andBoston Red Sox, NBC's 1:00 p.m. NFL telecasts were canceled.[6][7] All games except for theNew England Patriots–Cincinnati Bengals match were picked up by local stations in the markets of the visiting team. Meanwhile, at 4:00 p.m.Eastern Time, NBC aired a game between theOakland Raiders andKansas City Chiefs nationally. As the 1975 World Series progressed, NBC would advertise its upcoming weekend schedule during the breaks:
If we have a Game 7, we'll haveThe Baseball World of Joe Garagiola at 12:30 and Game 7 fromFenway. Otherwise, we'll haveGrandStand at 12:30, andBuffalo/Miami for most of you at 1:00. Either way, you win at NBC.
As it turned out, no baseball was played that Sunday. Three days of rain inBoston forced Game 6 to be postponed until the following Tuesday, October 21, followed by Game 7 the next night.
1975 was also the final season for Al DeRogatis at NBC. He would return briefly in1988 as a fill-in color commentator during theSummer Olympics. Thefollowing year, Curt Gowdy split double-duty with John Brodie and Don Meredith in Weeks 12 and 14. In Week 12, Gowdy and Brodie worked the Thanksgiving Day game (Buffalo-Detroit), while Gowdy and Meredith worked thePittsburgh-Cincinnati game. In Week 14, Gowdy and Brodie called the Pittsburgh-Houston game on Saturday, then the following day Gowdy and Meredith called the Cincinnati-New York Jets game. Don Meredith would return to ABC'sMonday Night Football at the end of the season. After Meredith left NBC, John Brodie would be the top color commentator alongside Curt Gowdy in1977 and1978. Meanwhile, after this season,Tim Ryan, who was on the fifth-tier announcing team withLionel Aldridge, left NBC to joinCBS Sports.
On January 9, 1977, 81.9 million people (the largest audience ever for a sporting event at that point) watched NBC's telecast ofSuper Bowl XI between theOakland Raiders andMinnesota Vikings. Only three other television events prior to that time, all of which aired on all three commercial networks of the era (the funeral of PresidentJohn F. Kennedy, the 1969 moonwalk ofNeil Armstrong andBuzz Aldrin, and the 1974 resignation speech of PresidentRichard M. Nixon), attracted more viewers than Super Bowl IX. The game was also the last broadcast that color commentator Don Meredith, who called the game with Gowdy, did for NBC, as he returned to ABC to rejoin theMonday Night Football crew for the1977 season, where he had been a commentator from 1970 to 1973.Bryant Gumbel andLee Leonard with analystJohn Brodie anchored NBC's pregame, halftime and postgame coverage.
On October 12, 1977, CommissionerPete Rozelle negotiated contracts with the three television networks to televise all NFL regular season and postseason games, as well as select preseason games, for four years beginning with the1978 season.ABC was awarded yearly rights to 16Monday night games, fourprime time games, theAFC-NFC Pro Bowl, and theHall of Fame Games.CBS received the rights to allNational Football Conference (NFC) regular season and postseason games (except those in the ABC package) and to Super BowlsXIV andXVI. NBC received the rights to all AFC regular-season and postseason games (again, except those in the ABC package) and to Super BowlsXIII andXV. Industry sources considered it the largest single television package ever negotiated.
After the1977 season,Jack Buck, who was the initial host forNBC's first official studio pregame show in1975, and on the fourth-tier announcing crew withJimmy Johnson in 1977, would return to CBS Sports, primarily calling games forCBS Radio. Dick Stockton, who was on the sixth-tier team with Len Dawson, would also return to CBS Sports.
After the1975 World Series, Curt Gowdy was removed from NBC's baseball telecasts, when sponsorChrysler insisted on havingJoe Garagiola (who served as a spokesman in many of the automotive manufacturer's commercials) be the lead play-by-play voice. Gowdy continued as NBC's lead NFL announcer through the1978 season, with his final broadcast being the memorableSuper Bowl XIII between thePittsburgh Steelers andDallas Cowboys. With NBC now anxious to promoteDick Enberg (who hosted NBC's pre-game and post-game coverage of Super Bowl XIII) to the lead NFL position, Gowdy moved over toCBS to call morefootball, as well asbaseball on radio.
The teams of Dick Enberg and Merlin Olsen and Curt Gowdy and John Brodie began 1978 as co-head crews. But the unofficial passing of the torch happened on Thanksgiving, when Enberg and Olsen covered theDenver-Detroit game, while the following Sunday, Gowdy and Brodie covered theSeattle-Oakland game. Len Dawson joined Dick Enberg in covering theHouston-Miamiwild card game, and Charlie Jones in the Houston-New England divisional playoff game. Dawson did not work Week 15 due to mourning the death of his wife. Merlin Olsen would join Curt Gowdy and John Brodie for that season's AFC championship game.
NBC's January 21, 1979 telecast ofSuper Bowl XIII between the Pittsburgh Steelers and Dallas Cowboys was viewed in 35,090,000 households, by an estimated 96.6 million fans. The game – called by Curt Gowdy on play-by-play, with Merlin Olsen and John Brodie on color commentary and Dick Enberg serving as the pregame host for the broadcast withBryant Gumbel andMike Adamle as sideline reporters – was Gowdy's seventh and final Super Bowl telecast, and his last major event for NBC before moving to CBS later in 1979. Enberg had essentially succeeded Gowdy as NBC's lead NFL play-by-play announcer in the 1978 regular season, and network producers did not decide until nearly the last minute which of them would conduct play-by-play for that year's Super Bowl. NBC preceded the game with the first network broadcast ofBlack Sunday, a 1977 film that depicts a terrorist attack on a fictitious Super Bowl game in the Orange Bowl between Pittsburgh and Dallas (and which utilized footage shot during Super Bowl X). The pregame festivities featured theDallas Cowboys Cheerleaders and several military bands.The Colgate Thirteen performed the national anthem. Thecoin toss ceremony featuredPro Football Hall of Famer and longtimeChicago Bears owner/head coachGeorge Halas. The national radio broadcast of Super Bowl XIII was carried by theCBS Radio Network, withJack Buck andHank Stram calling the action. Locally on radio,Verne Lundquist andBrad Sham called the game for the Cowboys onKRLD inDallas, whileJack Fleming andMyron Cope called it for the Steelers onWTAE in Pittsburgh. A technical glitch led to Fleming and Cope's commentary going out over NBC's television broadcast in place of the network's own audio during the coin toss ceremony.
After his call of Super Bowl XIII, Curt Gowdy was "traded" by NBC to CBS forDon Criqui;[8] Gowdy would call games withHank Stram for two seasons at CBS.
NBC made history in the 1980s with anannouncerless telecast, which was a one-shot experiment credited toDon Ohlmeyer, between theNew York Jets andMiami Dolphins inMiami on December 20,1980,[9] as well as a single-announcer telecast, coverage of theCanadian Football League[10][11] during the1982 players' strike (the first week of broadcasts featured theNFL on NBC broadcast teams, before a series of blowout games on the network and the resulting lowratings resulted in NBC cutting back and eventually canceling its CFL coverage), and even the first female play-by-play football announcer,Gayle Sierens (which in its own way set the mold for female sportscasters of today).
Bob Trumpy filled in for Merlin Olsen alongside Dick Enberg during theOakland Raiders-Philadelphia Eagles regular season game in Week 12 of the1980 season.
Television ratings in 1980 were the second-best in NFL history, trailing only the combined ratings of the1976 season. All three networks posted gains, and NBC's 15.0 rating was its best ever. NFL broadcasts on CBS and ABC had their best ratings since 1977, with 15.3 and 20.8 ratings, respectively. In1981, ABC and CBS set all-time rating highs. ABC finished with a 21.7 rating and CBS with a 17.5 rating. NBC however, was down slightly to 13.9; this was, at the time, the nadir of theFred Silverman era, when ratings for the network were down across the board.
On November 15, 1981, theSan Francisco 49ers game against theCleveland Browns sold out in time for theTV blackout to be lifted. ButKRON (NBC in theBay Area) had to air theOakland Raiders' road game against theMiami Dolphins. They ultimately showed the Browns-49ers game ontape delay that night.
On January 2, 1982, NBC was on hand for adivisional playoff game between theSan Diego Chargers andMiami Dolphins that would go down as the "Epic in Miami". The game, won by the Chargers in overtime, 41–38, is one of the most famous in National Football League lore because of the conditions on the field, the performances of players on both teams, and the numerous records that were set.[12]Don Criqui andJohn Brodie called the action andBryant Gumbel served as the anchor, one of his final assignments for NBC Sports as he began co-hostingToday two days after the game. The following week, NBC covered the AFC championship game between the Chargers andCincinnati Bengals. While the "Epic in Miami" was played in the heat and humidity ofMiami, the Chargers found themselves dealing with nearly the exact opposite conditions in the "Freezer Bowl" inCincinnati.
In 1982, the NFL signed a five-year contract with the three television networks (ABC, CBS, and NBC) to televise all NFL regular season and postseason games starting with the1982 season. During the 1982 season, Dick Enberg teamed with John Brodie to call the Week 1 game between theLos Angeles Raiders and theSan Francisco 49ers, and then with Len Dawson for the Week 2 game between the Raiders andAtlanta Falcons.
NBC's nationalNielsen rating of 48.6 forSuper Bowl XVII was the second-highest for a Super Bowl broadcast, trailing only the 49.1 garnered bySuper Bowl XVI on CBS the year before. Following the game, NBC aired the premiere episode ofThe A-Team, beginning the tradition of the game's host network airingprogramming after the game.
On August 3, 1983, NBC broadcast the first televised NFL game fromLondon with theSt. Louis Cardinals andMinnesota Vikingsplaying atWembley Stadium. NBC would regularly televise pre-season exhibition games outside of the United States from1986-1994.1983 was alsoBob Costas' last season in the booth (by this time, he was on the fourth-tier team with Bob Trumpy) before being promoted as the new host (replacingLen Berman) ofNFL '84.
In the1984 season, the October 18 game between thePittsburgh Steelers atSan Francisco 49ers and theBuffalo Bills atSeattle Seahawks were both on at the same time as Game 5 of theWorld Series (also onNBC) between theSan Diego Padres and theDetroit Tigers. The Steelers won that day. It was the only loss the 49ers suffered in the 1984 season. Meanwhile, almost of theNew York Jets games that year were called byMarv Albert and John Brodie also worked with Phil Stone (for the Steelers-Oilers game in Week 14), andMarty Glickman (for the Bills-Jets in Week 15) in 1984, andJay Randolph (for the Steelers-Raiders game in Week 16).
For the 1985 season, NBC used Graham De Wilde's composition "Send Them Victorious" for their official theme music for the NFL. On January 26, 1986, theChicago Bears defeated theNew England Patriots 46–10 inSuper Bowl XX at theLouisiana Superdome. The NBC telecast replaced thefinal episode ofM*A*S*H as the most-viewed television program in history, with an audience of 127 million viewers, according to ACNielsen figures. In addition to drawing a 48.3 rating and a 70% share in the United States, Super Bowl XX was televised to 59 foreign countries and beamed via satellite to theQE2. An estimated 300 millionChinese viewers watched a tape delayed broadcast of the game in March. NBC Radio figures indicated an audience of 10 million for the game.
Bob Griese would work the1985 AFC championship game as a field reporter, and would serve as a third commentator alongside Dick Enberg and Merlin Olsen for Super Bowl XX. Following the1986 season, Griese would move to ABC as acollege football analyst. In Week 15 of that season, Charlie Jones,Jimmy Cefalo, and Griese (who normally worked with Marv Albert in 1986) called theMiami-Los Angeles Rams game.
As previously mentioned, during the 1987 season, through a short stint with NBC Sports,Gayle Sierens became the first woman to doplay-by-play for an NFL regular season football game when she called the December 27 game between theSeattle Seahawks and theKansas City Chiefs. Sierens' broadcast partner on that day wasDave Rowe. She was originally to be a regular play-by-play announcer for the season, but a contract dispute withWFLA inTampa, Florida prevented her from continuing in that role beyond her lone game.[13]One year later, Sierens would joinLen Berman andPaul Maguire on NBC'sNFL Live! program while regular panelistsBob Costas,Ahmad Rashad andGayle Gardner were inSeoul for theSummer Olympics.
NBC's 1989 telecast ofSuper Bowl XXIII between theSan Francisco 49ers andCincinnati Bengals was watched by an estimated 110,780,000 viewers, according toACNielsen, making it the sixth most-watched program in television history. The game was Merlin Olsen's final Super Bowl broadcast, as he was demoted[14] the following season to make room for Bill Walsh. The game featured a special segment byFrank Deford profiling recently deceasedPittsburgh Steelers ownerArt Rooney. This was also the first NFL game that NBC covered with their new "Quantel Cypher" graphics system, which was introduced during their coverage of the1988 Seoul Olympics (the network had usedChyron for their graphics prior to Super Bowl XXIII). With the win, the 49ers became the first team to win Super Bowls televised on three different networks (the other two beingSuper Bowl XVI on CBS andSuper Bowl XIX on ABC). Since then, theWashington Redskins (in1992), theGreen Bay Packers (in1997), thePittsburgh Steelers (in2006) theNew York Giants (in2008) theNew England Patriots (in2015) and theDenver Broncos (in2016) have accomplished this same feat. This was the last outdoor Super Bowl to start earlier than 6:00 p.m. Eastern Time, as it started just after 5:00 p.m.
Starting in1989, NBC commissioned musician (and then-Entertainment Tonight co-host)John Tesh, who would later compose "Roundball Rock" for the forthcomingNBA on NBC broadcasts to compose a new theme, called "Gridiron Dreams" which was used on the network's NFL telecasts until 1991. The versions used on the pre-game show are different from the version supplied on Tesh's albums. For the 1992 season,John Colby composed a theme only used that year through the1992 AFC championship game in which theBuffalo Bills beat theMiami Dolphins 29–10.
Week 7's telecast of thePatriots-49ers game (called by Dick Enberg and Bill Walsh) was moved fromSan Francisco'sCandlestick Park toStanford Stadium inPalo Alto, California following theLoma Prieta earthquake in theBay Area on October 17. Following the 1989 season, after being demoted to the #2 team alongside Charlie Jones, Merlin Olsen would move over to CBS. Olsen's final telecast for NBC was thedivisional playoff game between theBills andBrowns. Meanwhile,Lyle Alzado, who was on the eighth-tier team alongsideFred Roggin, would leave NBC after the 1989 season in order to attempt a comeback as a player. Alzado however did work Week 4'sChargers-Cardinals game alongside Jay Randolph.
Don Ohlmeyer, thenexecutive producer ofNBC's telecasts ofNational Football League (NFL) games, began considering doing a telecast without announcers early inthe 1980 season. He had several reasons. First, he had long believed that the announcers were overly chatty and did not let the game speak for itself when they needed to. Second, NBC, while it primarily covered the games of the NFL'sAmerican Football Conference (AFC) teams, generally in smallermarkets, was earningratings almost as good as those of rivalCBS, who at the time was broadcasting games involving teams from theNational Football Conference (NFC). A game without announcers might well attract enough viewers to put NBC past CBS.
In October of that year reports began to circulate that Ohlmeyer was considering the idea. He confirmed it but said he would only actually do it for a game that had noplayoff implications. The last week of the season gave him the chance, with a contest scheduled for Saturday, when it would be shown nationally, between theNew York Jets and theMiami Dolphins.[15]
Reaction was mixed, ranging from "good-natured humor to applause to some surprising anger," asBryant Gumbel would later put it on air shortly before the telecast started. "My first reaction was of incredible nerve, nervousness,"Dick Enberg, one of the NBC announcers, recalled toESPN 30 years later. "We all gathered together, hoping that Ohlmeyer was dead wrong ... What if this crazy idea really worked?" Dolphins'defensive endBob Baumhower was also apprehensive about what viewers might overhear among the players. "I hope we're all extra careful," he said. "There's a lot of extra talking going on out there that people don't realize."[15]
Ohlmeyer and the NBC broadcast crew prepared to compensate for the lack of announcers in several ways. NBC promoted the game by telling viewers they would, in lieu of announcers, have the experience of actually being in the stadium, so the network placed more microphones, and more sensitive microphones, around the field than it otherwise would have. However, the NFL refused to relax one of its restrictions and allow microphones to be placed on the players themselves, which unfortunately meant that it was impossible for viewers to make out signals called by the quarterbacks.
The network increased its use of on-camera graphics during the game to regularly conveydown and distance, score, and statistical information, to the point that more were than had ever been used in any previous NFL telecast. The monochromatic yellow line that was superimposed on the field to indicate the distance needed for a first-down was then the most advanced technology available; however, speaking later from a 21st-century perspective, Ohlmeyer said seems like "troglodyte communication". The technology of the time would have allowed for a continuousscore bug and a running clock, both of which would have eliminated the need to constantly provide that information, but it did not occur to the crew to deploy it that way.
NBC asked Bob Kaufman, the Orange Bowl'spublic address announcer, to make more frequent announcements of information than usual, and to include more information in those announcements than stadium announcers typically did. Accordingly, he noted aloud during the game that referees were calling for a first-down measurement, and Kaufman gave the length of game time that adrive had taken. Television audiences were able to hear this.
Bryant Gumbel introduced the game prior to thekickoff as "a telecast that figures to be different." He was then shown walking into the stadium to watch the game. At frequent intervals, usually every other commercial break, he addressed the camera and gave the audience the score and brief updates as to what had happened and what was happening at that point. His presence was augmented by excerpts from prerecorded interviews with coaches and players, including the Dolphins'Don Shula andDuriel Harris.
TheNew York Jets/Cleveland Browns game from December 12,1981 was handled by Dick Enberg working solo without usual broadcast partnerMerlin Olsen. To fill the gap, interviews from both teams would be used where Olsen's commentary would have been fitting.
At the start of the1982 season, Dick Enberg teamed with John Brodie to call the Week 1 game between theLos Angeles Raiders-San Francisco 49ers, and then with Len Dawson for the Week 2 game between the Raiders andAtlanta Falcons.
As previously mentioned, NBC (with the exception of its northernmostaffiliates that were located close to the Canadian border) broadcast games in theCFL for three weeks during the 1982 NFLplayers' strike[16][17] The first week of broadcasts featured theNFL on NBC broadcast teams, before a series of blowout games on the network and the resulting lowratings resulted in NBC cutting back and eventually cancelling its CFL coverage. (At the time,ESPN held the U.S. broadcast rights, who sublicensed them to NBC during the strike; rights reverted to ESPN after the experiment failed.) The announcers who called the games for NBC are in parentheses.
There wereblackouts of the CFL games. The blackouts weren't exactly because of not selling out thestadiums, but for beingtoo close to Canada. For instance NBC'saffiliate inSyracuse did not get these games. Their TV listings showed these CFL games onCKWS 11 (CBCKingston, Ontario), while NBC (WSTM 3) listed "NFL FootballNew England atBuffalo (if strike settled) or movie" for Sunday, October 3.
A game between featuring the Edmonton Eskimos at the Winnipeg Blue Bombers was tentatively scheduled for 1:30 p.m.Eastern Time on Sunday October 17, even making newspaper TV listings. At the last moment NBC cancelled the broadcast. The network was worried that the game would run over its allotted time and conflict with Game 5 of the1982 World Series, which was supposed to begin at 4:30. NBC did not resume CFL broadcasts afterwards. As previously mentioned, the games it showed had mostly been blowouts and the network even ended its October 3, 1982 broadcast "Heidi Game" style before the game ended in order to not delayprime time programming.
On January 8, 1983, NBC began their coverage of theNFL playoffs. As a consequence to the strike, which shortened the regular season from a 16-game schedule to only 9 games, a special 16-team playoff format (which was dubbed the "Super Bowl Tournament") was instituted. Geographical divisional standings were ignored and instead, the top eight teams from each conference were seeded 1–8 based on their regular season records. Ultimately, this resulted in the early round playoff games being regionally televised for the first and to date, only time.Don Criqui andJohn Brodie called theCleveland Browns-Los Angeles Raiders game whileBob Costas,Bob Trumpy, andBob Griese called theNew England Patriots-Miami Dolphins game, both at 4 p.m.Eastern Time. The next day, NBC televised theNew York Jets-Cincinnati Bengals (withCharlie Jones andLen Dawson on the call) andSan Diego Chargers-Pittsburgh Steelers games (withDick Enberg andMerlin Olsen on the call) at 12:30 p.m. ET.
On March 6, 1985,NBC Radio and the NFL entered into a two-year agreement grantingNBC the radio rights to a 37-game package for the1985 and1986 seasons. The package included 27 regular season games and 10 postseason games. Also in 1985, the NFL showed a ratings increase on all three networks for the season, with viewership gains of 4% on NBC, 10% on CBS, and 16% on ABC. The 1984 season saw a new theme utilized throughout both the pregame show and game-opening sequence, which would be utilized for the remainder of the decade. Another music selection was used for the "Great Moments" segment, a segment of clips from older games on NBC that was unique in that instead of the NFL Films footage, NBC used their own footage and audio. This segment would be featured at the beginning of the pregame show for much of the latter part of the 1980s.
During 1985 and the season that followed, NBC's #2 team television broadcasters Don Criqui and Bob Trumpy were the lead broadcast team on NBC Radio.
In January 1987, NBC Radio's broadcast ofSuper Bowl XXI between theNew York Giants andDenver Broncos was heard by a record 10.1 million people. Also in 1987, at the NFL's annual meeting inMaui, Hawaii on March 15, the NFL announced the signing of new three-year television contracts with ABC, CBS, and NBC for the1987 to1989 seasons.
During September of the1988 season, NBC brought in some legendary broadcasters to fill-in for their regular play-by-play men. This was because, much of their key personnel (namely,Dick Enberg,Marv Albert,Don Criqui,Charlie Jones,Tom Hammond as well asNFL Live! commentatorsBob Costas,Ahmad Rashad, andGayle Gardner) were away inSeoul, South Korea forNBC's coverage of theSummer Olympic Games.
Albert was callingboxing during the Olympics alongsideFerdie Pacheco, and then spent the three weeks after that covering theWorld Series. Meanwhile, Criqui and Bob Trumpy calledswimming (alongsideCandy Costie-Burke for thesynchronized events andJohn Naber) and calledvolleyball (alongsideChris Marlowe) respectively. Jones calledtrack and field (alongsideFrank Shorter andDwight Stones) and Jimmy Cefalo served as the daytime host. Costas and Gardner were NBC's late night hosts. Enberg served as host for the Opening and Closing Ceremonies and calledmen's basketball (alongsideAl McGuire) andgymnastics (alongsideMary Lou Retton andBart Conner).Jay Randolph calledbaseball during the Olympics alongsideJim Kaat.
In the meantime, filling-in were names such asCurt Gowdy,Ray Scott,Chuck Thompson,Marty Glickman,Merle Harmon andAl DeRogatis. Bob Costas' predecessor,Len Berman, filled-in for him at the anchor's desk whileGayle Sierens (whoa year earlier, made history by becoming the first female play-by-play announcer in NFL history) was also added to the studio team.
In Week 2, Chuck Thompson called theDolphins-Bills game alongside Jimmy Cefalo, who was normally paired with Charlie Jones. Meanwhile, Curt Gowdy called Week 2'sSteelers-Redskins game with Merlin Olsen, who normally worked with Dick Enberg. Al DeRogatis called Week 2'sJets-Browns game alongsideMel Proctor, Ray Scott called theRaiders-Oilers game withJoe Namath (who normally worked with Proctor), and Merle Harmon called that week'sChargers-Broncos game alongsidePaul Hornung.
For Week 3, Thompson worked with Namath on the Broncos-Chiefs game, Gowdy and Al DeRogatis called the Oilers-Jets game, and Scott and Olsen called theSeahawks-Chargers game. The following week, Joe Namath called theDolphins-Colts game alongside Merle Harmon. Meanwhile, the team of Gowdy and DeRogatis called the Jets-Lions game and Scott and Olsen called the Chargers-Chiefs game. For Week 5, Gowdy and Olsen called the Bills-Bears game, Scott and Namath called the Broncos-Chargers game, and Merle Harmon and DeRogatis called the Chiefs-Jets game. Finally for Week 6, Gowdy called the Patriots-Packers game (inMilwaukee) alongsideJerry Kramer.
Other announcers who worked for NBC during the Olympic period include Kevin Slaten andDave Lapham, who worked as a team on theBengals-Eagles game from Week 2. In Week 5, Slaten was paired with Jerry Kramer on the Seahawks-Falcons game. The prior week, Kramer called the Patriots-Oilers game alongside Mel Proctor.
Also during the 1988 season,Jon Morris had nine analyst assignments in the 16 weeks of the season, and was paired with seven different play-by-play men. He only worked with Tom Hammond andSam Nover twice each. Morris worked with Hammond on theOilers-Colts game in Week 1 and thePatriots-Bills game in Week 8. Meanwhile, Morris worked with Nover on theChiefs-Seahawks game in Week 2 and theSteelers-Browns game in Week 12.
On March 12, 1990, at the NFL's annual meeting inOrlando, Florida, the league new ratified four-year television agreements for the1990 to1993 seasons involving ABC, CBS, NBC,ESPN andTNT. The contracts totaled US$3.6 billion, the largest package in television history. This contract saw each network having rights to one Super Bowl telecast as part of the package. The fourth Super Bowl (XXVIII) was up for a separate sealed bid. NBC won the bid, and since they were last in the rotation for Super Bowl coverage in the regular contract, ended up with two straight Super Bowls (although they were originally scheduled to broadcastSuper Bowl XXVI; CBS instead televised the game as part of a swap with the network). CBS is the only other network to televise two Super Bowls (Super Bowl I and II) in a row. NBC, which had held XXVII (according to the original rotation, NBC would have had XXVI and CBS XXVII, but the NFL allowed the networks to switch the two games in order to allow CBS a significant lead-in to its coverage of the1992 Winter Olympics), was the only network to bid on XXVIII. Previously, the league alternated the Super Bowl broadcast among its broadcast network partners, except for Super Bowl I; CBS broadcast Super Bowl II, then the league rotated the broadcast between CBS and NBC until 1985 when ABC entered the rotation when that network broadcastSuper Bowl XIX.[18]
The live Sunday matches of the1991 Ryder Cup held in late September onNBC were scheduled to end by mid-afternoon in order to allow NBC to cover regional NFL games at 4:00 p.m. Eastern Time.
Dick Enberg and Bill Walsh did not call any games during Weeks 9-12 of the1991 NFL season due to being assigned to coveringNotre Dame home games onNBC (this being the network's first season as the home of Fighting Irish home games). Walsh would leave NBC after this season to return to coaching atStanford. Walsh's spot as NBC's number #1 color commentator would be subsequently filled by Bob Trumpy. Meanwhile,Bill Parcells was originally hired by NBC after leaving the New York Giants as a panelist forNFL Live!. However, he would be assigned early in the 1991 season as a substitute for Paul Maguire while Maguire recovered from aheart attack. Maguire would make his return in Week 6, calling theJets-Browns game alongside Marv Albert. Bill Parcells left NBC the 1992 season to take theNew England Patriots head coaching job. At this point, Parcells as assigned to work with Marv Albert full-time while Paul Maguire worked with Don Criqui.
For Week 1 of the 1991 season, Marv Albert substituted as host ofNFL Live!. Regular host Bob Costas along with O. J. Simpson, play-by-play broadcasterTom Hammond and analystTodd Christensen were assigned to cover theworld track and field championships inTokyo,Japan. For the 1993 season,Jim Lampley would replace Bob Costas as host ofNFL Live!. During the 1993 season, there was an open option for the #6 and #7 broadcast teams which included Bob Costas,Dan Hicks,Drew Goodman, andJim Donovan at play-by-play, andJoe Gibbs,Dan Hampton, andMike Ditka at analyst. Costas called theSteelers-Broncos game in Week 12 alongside Gibbs while Gibbs' normal partner, Dan Hicks was paired with Dan Hampton for theColts-Bills game. Hicks and Hampton would also call the following week's game between theRaiders andBengals. O. J. Simpson would be a sideline reporter for several announcing crews during the 1993 season, includingSuper Bowl XXVIII alongside Todd Christensen. Simpson would be gone following the season due to the fall-out from hismurder case.
While withNFL on NBC, Drew Goodman was slated to join Todd Christensen as the #4 announcing team in1994, then in the next two years, he was slated to join the #7 team, to be paired in1995 withTunch Ilkin then with Bob Golic in1996. However, Jim Lampley moved from the studio host to play-by-play in 1994, withGreg Gumbel taking over as the studio host, so Goodman was not placed into the lineup after all.
On December 18, 1993, the NFL announced new four-year television agreements involving ABC, ESPN, TNT and NFL newcomerFox, which took over the NFC package from CBS.[19] The NFL completed its new television agreements on December 20, with the announcement that NBC would retain the rights to the AFC package.[20]
Joe Gibbs would join Mike Ditka atNFL Live! thefollowing season, while Ahmad Rashad would return as co-host with Greg Gumbel. After the 1993 season, Bob Costas' role onThe NFL on NBC would be reduced to presenting feature stories and interviews. Costas would however, call play-by-play on the Week 15 game[21] between theNew York Jets andWashington Redskins alongside Mike Ditka. And as previously mentioned, Costas called the Steelers-Broncos game in Week 12 alongside Joe Gibbs.
On November 27, 1994, during a game between theMiami Dolphins andNew York Jets, NBC would be on hand for what would become known as the "Clock Play". This was when DolphinsquarterbackDan Marino ran atrick play, pretending to stop the game clock but instead threw apass that scored the game-winningtouchdown, ultimately giving Miami the 28–24 victory.
Maguire: Marino's trying to get everybody on the line of scrimmage. Now he still has one timeout. They'll save that for the field goal, if they have to.
Albert: We are seeing another spectacular effort by Marino, who fires... TOUCHDOWN!
— NBC'sMarv Albert andPaul Maguire calling the play
Starting in1995, NBC unveiled a new theme by veteran composerRandy Edelman, which was used for both its pregame show (now simply titledThe NFL on NBC) and game telecasts. This theme would be used untilSuper Bowl XXXII[22] in 1997 between theDenver Broncos andGreen Bay Packers. NBC lost AFC television rights after 1997 to CBS which currently has them today. The NFL would not return to NBC until2006 forSunday Night Football. NBC still uses the 1995 to 1997 era theme, but only for online streams ofSunday Night Football online (dubbed "NBC Sunday Night Football Extra") if the feed is accessed prior to the start of the game.
During the 1995 season, the duo of Don Criqui andBeasley Reece called almost all of theJacksonville Jaguars games airing on NBC. In Week 4,Phil Simms and Paul Maguire (who by this point, were a part of the #1 announcing team alongside Dick Enberg) joined Tom Hammond atNotre Dame to call the game played againstTexas on September 23. In Week 13 of the 1995 season, Dick Enberg called the Thanksgiving Day game betweenKansas City andDallas with regular partners Phil Simms and Paul Maguire, and on that Sunday, Marv Albert called thePittsburgh-Cleveland game with Paul Maguire. This prompted other play-by-play announcers to move up (Dan Hicks andCris Collinsworth, Tom Hammond and Bob Trumpy, and Don Criqui andBob Golic). Therefore, Dan Hicks called Week 13'sBengals-Jaguars game with Tunch Ilkin, Tom Hammond called thePatriots-Bills game with Cris Collinsworth, Don Criqui called theBroncos-Oilers game with Bob Golic, and Bob Trumpy called theDolphins-Colts game withJim Lampley.
On December 17, 1995, NBC was on hand for the final home game for theCleveland Browns before theirrelocation toBaltimore. The game was called by Charlie Jones andRandy Cross withJim Gray on the sidelines. The game itself between the Browns andCincinnati Bengals wasblacked out on television locally, but NBC did broadcast extensive pregame coverage fromCleveland with Bob Costas and Mike Ditka.
Following Week 3 of the1997 season, Marv Albert was fired by NBC because ofsexual assault charges pressed against him.[23] Albert, also the lead voice ofNBA on NBC at the time, was replaced in both venues. Albert's final NFL broadcast for NBC was theRavens-Giants game alongside Randy Cross and Len Berman. Tom Hammond would eventually move up to the #2 team, while Dan Hicks would primarily call games with Hammond's old partner,Jim Kelly. Three-man booths were near-prevalent in the aftermath of Marv Albert's firing.
Outside of NBC's #1 team of Dick Enberg, Phil Simms, and Paul Maguire, NBC used the teams of Charlie Jones, Bob Trumpy, andJim Mora (Seattle-Indianapolis in Week 3 andCincinnati-Tennessee in Week 7), Jones, Trumpy, and Randy Cross (Kansas City-Miami in Week 6), Tom Hammond, Cross, and Jim Kelly (Buffalo-New England in Week 7), Dan Hicks, Trumpy, and Kelly (Pittsburgh-Cincinnati in Week 8), Hicks, Paul Maguire, and Kelly (Miami-Buffalo in Week 10), Hicks, Kelly, andJames Lofton (Kansas City-Jacksonville in Week 11), Jones, Trumpy, and Cross (New York Jets-Miami in Week 11),Joel Meyers, Maguire, and Kelly (Jacksonville-Buffalo in Week 16, and Don Criqui, Mora, and Cross (Indianapolis-Minnesota in Week 17).
In 1998, during halftime of the1997 AFC Championship Game, NBC showed a replay of the "Immaculate Reception" from its original broadcast of the1972AFCdivisional playoff game betweenPittsburgh Steelers andOakland Raiders. The replay presented a different angle than theNFL Films clip that is most often shown. According to a writer for theNew York Daily News, "NBC's replay showed the ball clearly hit one and only one man[:] Oakland DBJack Tatum."[24]Curt Gowdy, while doing the live television play-by-play of the game in 1972, called it as having been deflected by Tatum, and reiterated that during the video replay.[25]
NBC's rebound in overall ratings in both the 1980s and 1990s (after years of being in the bottom of the ratings cellar) was attributed in part to its continuing coverage of the NFL. But with television contract re-negotiations in early 1998[26] ushering in the era of multibillion-dollar broadcasting agreements, an era of pro football broadcasting would soon come to an unceremonious conclusion.
As previously mentioned, CBS, stung by Fox's surprise bidfour years earlier, aggressively pursued NFL broadcast rights when the contract came up for renegotiation in 1997. CBS agreed to pay US$4 billion over eight years ($500 million per season) to take over NBC's AFC broadcast rights,[27] which CBS still holds to this day. NBC reportedly bid up to $340 million[28] to retain the AFC rights but wouldn't go higher. NBC later indicated a desire to bid forMonday Night Football rights[29] in1998, but eventually gave up (NBC reportedly set a hard limit of $500 million in their bidding attempt), allowing ABC to retain the rights.[30] NBC Sports presidentDick Ebersol soon argued that in contrast to CBS, NBC wouldn't pursue any property that would likely cost them at least $150 million a year.[31]
NBC's consecutive 33-year run as a football broadcaster came to an end withSuper Bowl XXXII, played on January 25, 1998, between theDenver Broncos and theGreen Bay Packers. The Broncos won 31–24 to snap the AFC's 13-year losing streak in the Super Bowl (since then, the AFC has won 15 additional Super Bowls to the NFC's ten as of the end of the 2022 NFL season). Following the game, NBC aired a special one-hour episode of3rd Rock from the Sun, which opened live at the game site with Greg Gumbel playing himself before he was "attacked" by show starJohn Lithgow as his Dick Solomon character, warning about the invasion of alien females that was part of the episode's plotline.[32][33]
Well, and so the end of the1997 NFL season and forNBC Sports,Super Bowl XXXII is the end of our 32 years coveringAFL,NFL action.NBC's been there from the start, fromJoe Namath all the way toJohn Elway, fromCurt Gowdy to those of us who had the honor of calling this game tonight, and on behalf of all of our crew, all the men and women who have brought you the sights and sounds of NFL football here on NBC since1960, we want to thank you for your effort, and those of you who have watched, and we congratulate theSuper Bowl champions. Theunderdogs havewon. The 13 years of defeat have been erased at least for tonight asDenver wins it, 31-24. Don't wander away, more to come fromSan Diego.Greg Gumbel will be back afterstation identification. Denver Broncos are Super Bowl champs.
— Dick Enberg at the end of Super Bowl XXXII.
While at CBS, Randy Cross would become the #2 analyst,Sam Wyche would leave the pregame show to become the #3 analyst, and Don Criqui and Beasley Reece would reunite for the1998 season. Dick Enberg would stay with NBC for another two years before joining CBS in2000, where he would be the #2 announcer until2005. Cris Collinsworth joinedFox NFL Sunday and then would team up withJoe Buck andTroy Aikman on the #1 team from2002-2004.
Given the challenge of making its coverage of the AFC different from that of NBC, CBS passed over longtime NBC veterans Charlie Jones and Bob Trumpy in favor of newcomers such asIan Eagle andSteve Tasker. According to CBS Sportsexecutive producer Terry Ewert, "We wanted to forge our own way and go in a different direction. We wanted to make decisions on a new way of looking at things." In one stark difference from NBC, CBS used ascore and clock graphic for its NFL games that was constant during the game broadcasts outside of break tosses, a la theFoxBox. CBS' contribution was dubbed theEyeBox.
After NBC lost its NFL rights to CBS at the end of the1997 season, it in the process, marked the beginning of a slow decline for its sports division, culminating in the unproductive2004–05 prime time season (despite heavy lineup promotion during the2004 Summer Olympics), when NBC carried no major sporting championships during prime time (NBC had already lostMajor League Baseball (MLB) broadcasting rights in2000 andNational Basketball Association (NBA) rights in2002; NBC had acquiredNational Hockey League (NHL) rights in 2004, but that league was involved in alockout that cancelled theseason). The other major sport on NBC wasthe NASCAR Winston/Nextel Cup Series.
NBC's attempts to replace the NFL with other professional football, including theXFL in 2001 and theArena Football League (AFL) coverage from2003 to2006, proved to be very unsuccessful. Like CBS before it, NBC would later decide that not having NFL rights did too much damage to its overall ratings to justify foregoing the high rights fees required.
In2005, NBC re-entered the NFL picture during negotiations for television contracts. NBC was able to take advantage of a league desire to be able to switch the schedule so non-competitive games would not air in the league's marquee timeslot. Since this would require a move to Sunday night in order for this to happen, and since ABC decided to relinquish their rights toMonday Night Football, NBC was able to bid on theSunday Night Football package and won the rights after ESPN (corporate sibling to ABC and which had previously held those rights) elected to take over theMonday Night Football rights from ABC.[34] NBC resumed airing NFL football on August 6,2006, with coverage of the annualAFC-NFC Hall of Fame Game.
NBC's rights package is nearly identical to the previous ABC package; in addition to the Hall of Fame Game, the contract gave NBC the rights to one additional preseason game, theNational Football League Kickoff game, and two Saturday playoff games. NBC also received the rights to two Super Bowls in its bidding,Super Bowl XLIII andSuper Bowl XLVI as well as the Pro Bowls in each of those two years. ABC did not have the right to be flexible with theirMonday Night Football schedule and picked matchups based on a team's record in the previous season (as NBC does), which often led to teams with losing records playing each other on Monday night later in the season. The moves were intended to break NBC out of its ratings slump; however, this did not happen right away, and althoughNBC Sunday Night Football is the network's top-rated program and places in the top 30 among all broadcast network programs, it had no effect on the rest of the network's schedule for several years.
Al Michaels, the longtime voice ofMonday Night Football and other events for ABC, moved to NBC to become the play-by-play announcer forSunday Night Football. Michaels was originally slated to continue callingMonday Night Football for ESPN, but a trade was worked out between NBC andThe Walt Disney Company, the parent company of ABC and ESPN. In the trade, Michaels was able to join NBC in exchange for Disney acquiring from NBC's corporate siblingUniversal Pictures, among other things, the rights to the cartoon characterOswald the Lucky Rabbit, which was created at Universal byWalt Disney andUb Iwerks before the founding of Disney's studio (and then given toWalter Lantz, whose most famous creation would beWoody Woodpecker).[35]
Except in2007 (where the Pro Football Hall of Fame Game was televised byNFL Network as part of theThursday Night Football package; NBC had intended to televise theChina Bowl game inBeijing, which was postponed and ultimately cancelled), and in allSummer Olympics years (due toNBC's telecasts of the Games; the games in these years have typically been assigned to either NFL Network, orESPN under the current iteration ofMNF), the Hall of Fame Game has aired on NBC since 2006.
John Madden (who had last worked with Al Michaels onMonday Night Football for ABC) was one of the first people hired by NBC, chosen to continue as a color analyst.Cris Collinsworth substituted for Madden when he was unavailable. For example, during Week 7 of the2008 season (that week's game was involved theSeattle Seahawks playing against theTampa Bay Buccaneers), Madden was given an off-week to alleviate a hectic coast-to-coast bus travel schedule which would have taken him fromJacksonville toSan Diego to Tampa Bay in three weeks.
Super Bowl XLIII was NBC's first Super Bowl broadcast since Super Bowl XXXII.[36] The five-hour pre-game show was preceded by a two-hour special edition ofToday hosted by the regular weekday team live from Tampa and theNFL Films – producedRoad to the Super Bowl.Matt Millen was part of the coverage as a studio analyst. TheToday contribution included portions of a taped interview withPresidentBarack Obama and pictures of troops viewing the proceedings inIraq. His calling of the game made John Madden (in his final game broadcast) the first person to have announced a Super Bowl for each of the four major U.S. television networks, having called five Super Bowls for CBS, three forFox, and two for ABC prior to joining NBC in 2006; Al Michaels also became the second person (afterPat Summerall onCBS andFox) to be the lead Super Bowl play-by-play announcer for two different major U.S. networks (ABC and NBC). The Super Bowl was one of two major professional sports championship seriesNBC broadcast in 2009, as it would also broadcast theStanley Cup Finals. Both championship series involved teams from Pittsburgh winning championships[37] (thePenguins would win the Stanley Cup that year).
The NFL has a strict policy prohibiting networks to run ads during the Super Bowl from the gambling industry, and has rejected ads from theLas Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority. It had been reported that if the television programLas Vegas was airing when NBC televisedSuper Bowl XLIII in 2009, they likely would not have been allowed to promote the series during the entire broadcast.[38] AsLas Vegas ended during the2007–2008 television season, this was no longer an issue for NBC.
With an average U.S. audience of 98.7 million viewers, Super Bowl XLIII was the most-watched Super Bowl in history, and at that point the second-most-watched U.S. television program of any kind (trailing only thefinal episode ofM*A*S*H in 1983; both would be broken bySuper Bowl XLIV the following year).[39] However, the Nielsen rating of 42.1, was lower than the 43.3 rating for Super Bowl XLII the previous year.
Tom Hammond was initially NBC's secondary play-by-play announcer, calling one of NBC's two games onWild Card Weekend. Cris Collinsworth called wild card games alongside Hammond until2008, and took over on a permanent basis for the2009 season when Madden announced his retirement from broadcasting on April 16, 2009. Prior to this, he served as a studio analyst for NBC's pregame show,Football Night in America. For the2009 season,Joe Theismann andJoe Gibbs took Collinsworth's place in the booth for the first game of Wild Card Weekend.Andrea Kremer meanwhile, was the sideline reporter. The announcement of Joe Gibbs as one of the color commentators for theWild Card Saturday playoff games marked Gibbs' return to NBC's NFL coverage; where following his first retirement from theRedskins, he served as an occasional commentator on regional coverage during the1993 NFL season before becoming apanelist onNFL Live!/NFL on NBC between the1994 season until NBC lost their rights to cover the NFL after Super Bowl XXXII.
Beginning with the2010 season, NBC elected to use the Notre Dame football broadcast team as its #2Wild Card Weekend broadcast team, calling the early game, asMike Mayock andAlex Flanagan joined Tom Hammond. Dan Hicks filled in for Al Michaels on the2012preseason match-up between theIndianapolis Colts and thePittsburgh Steelers. Al Michaels took some time off during that game after anchoringNBC's daytime coverage of theSummer Olympics inLondon. Hicks also replaced Tom Hammond on theNotre Dame broadcast team at this point.
The2013 season marked the last time that NBC would broadcast awild card playoffdoubleheader for the foreseeable future. For2014,ESPN aired onewild card playoff game, and from2015 onward,ABC wouldsimulcast ESPN's presentation of thewild card playoff game. NBC would meanwhile, only air one wild card playoff game and one divisional playoff game.
On December 14, 2011, the NFL, along with Fox, NBC and CBS, announced the league's rights deal with all three networks was extended to the end of the 2022 season. The three network rights deal includes the continued rotation of the Super Bowl yearly among the three, meant NBC would air Super BowlsXLIX (2015),LII (2018), andLVI (2022).[40] The new rights deal also includes NBC receiving the primetime game of the Thanksgiving tripleheader previously carried by NFL Network, along with a divisional playoff game and one wild card game rather than the full Wild Card Saturday package.
NBC's broadcast ofSuper Bowl XLVI at the end of the2011 season became the most-watched program in the history ofUnited States television, with 111.3 million US viewers, according toNielsen.[41] The game was the first Super Bowl telecast to bestreamed live online legally in the United States, both to computers (via NFL.com and NBCSports.com) and mobile devices (viaVerizon Wireless's NFL Mobileapp).[42][43] The game marked Al Michaels' eighth time conducting play-by-play for a Super Bowl (Michaels had previously done play-by-play for Super BowlsXXII,XXV,XXIX,XXXIV,XXXVII andXL for ABC, andSuper Bowl XLIII for NBC).
NBC's television broadcast of thePatriots-Jets game onNovember 22,2012, immediately following the now notorious "Butt Fumble" play,color commentatorCris Collinsworth said that "Vince Wilfork just threwBrandon Moore intoMark Sanchez,"[44] a view simultaneously echoed on thePatriots radio call by color analystScott Zolak. Moore disagreed with Collinsworth: "when somebody slides into the back of you, you're going to fall. That happens a lot in general. You don't know what's going on (behind you)."[45] Responding to Moore, Collinsworth qualified his description in a phone interview withESPN, saying that Wilfork could see the play develop, so "instead of trying to go around Moore, he pushed him back into the play and made the whole thing happen."[45] ANew York Daily News columnist sided with Moore, stating that "A second look at the play shows Moore holding his own against Wilfork and moving, if anything, mostly forward."[44]
NBC, which carried Thanksgiving afternoon games through 1997, did not issue an MVP award during that time. NBC began broadcasting theThanksgiving prime time game in 2012 (as part of itsSunday Night Football package), at which point the MVP award was added. The award is currently called theSunday Night Football on Thanksgiving Night Player of the Game, and is typically awarded to multiple players on the winning team.[46] From 2012 to 2015, the NBC award was referred to as the "Madden Thanksgiving Player-of-the-Game", honoring John Madden (who announcedNBC games from 2006 to 2008).[47][48]
Sunday Night Football ranked the most-watched program in the United States during the 2011–12 season. This feat was repeated during the 2013–14 season; in that case, NBC finished the season as the #1 network among adults aged 18–49 for the first time since 2004 and #2 in total viewership (behind longtime leader CBS).[49]
NBC's broadcast ofSuper Bowl XLIX at the end of the2014 season became the most-watched program in the history ofAmerican television, with 114.4 million US viewers, according toNielsen (since surpassed by Fox's broadcast ofSuper Bowl LVII in 2023).[50] The game was the fourth overall telecast to bestreamed live online legally in the U.S. both to computers (via NFL.com and NBCSports.com) for the second time and mobile devices (viaVerizon Wireless's NFL Mobileapp). The game marked Al Michaels ninth time conducting play-by-play for a Super Bowl (Michaels had previously done play-by-play for Super BowlsXXII,XXV,XXIX,XXXIV,XXXVII andXL for ABC andXLIII andXLVI for NBC).
NBC's coverage ofSuper Bowl LII between thePhiladelphia Eagles andNew England Patriots at the end of the2017 season highlighted a play that would become known as the "Philly Special". On the play, PhiladelphiaquarterbackNick Foles moved up to behind hisoffensive line and the ball was directlysnapped torunning backCorey Clement. Clement went on to pitch the ball toTrey Burton, who passed the ball to a wide open Foles to score atouchdown; Foles thereby became the first player inSuper Bowl history to both throw and catch a touchdown.[51] Eagles head coachDoug Pederson's decision to attempt to score a touchdown rather than attempt afield goal on the play helped put the Eagles in a better position to defeat theNew England Patriots, which they subsequently did, 41–33. The victory was the Eagles' first championship in 57 years.[52] Many analysts have since called the play one of the gutsiest play-calls in Super Bowl history.[53] Before the play was called, Cris Collinsworth expressed his shock on-air that the Eagles would go for it, as he said, "This is an unbelievable call ... This is like going for an onside kick. This could decide the game."[54]
In the2018 NFC Wild Card game between theEagles andChicago Bears, Chicago kickerCody Parkey missed a 43-yard field goal attempt. The ball would hit the left upright, then bounce off the crossbar and fell to the end zone, no-good. Ultimately, the sixth-seeded Eagles won the game over the third-seeded Bears, 16–15 to advance to the divisional playoff round.[55][56] The term "Double Doink" took hold due to Cris Collinsworth, who said on theNBC broadcast while he watched the replay, "The Bears' season's gonna end on a double doink." While Collinsworth is credited with coining the phrase "Double Doink."[57] when asked about it the following day, he said, "I don’t think I invented the word; I thinkJohn Madden said doink first. But it was this double dinky thing — the ball bounced off one and then the other."[58]
On December 25, 2019,NFL Films allowed twoWestern New York CBS affiliates owned byNexstar Media Group,Buffalo'sWIVB-TV andRochester'sWROC-TV, to rerun the1990AFC championship game as aChristmas special, in which theBuffalo Bills defeated the then-Los Angeles Raiders, 51–3. The telecast aired in its originalstandard definition format, though withNBC News updates regarding thePersian Gulf War and most references toNBC Sports outside natural game action edited out.[59][60]
On February 1, 2016, the NFL announced that NBC had won a partial share ofThursday Night Football rights for the 2016 season; as a result, five additional Thursday night games (in addition the kickoff and Thanksgiving contests) in the later part of the season had been added to NBC's schedule. NBC Sports was also responsible for producing five games that was exclusive toNFL Network.[61] After the 2017 season, NBC insisted on a reduced rights fee in order to continue carryingThursday Night Football, which the NFL rejected;Fox was then awarded the rights toThursday Night Football for the remainder of the time left on the league's broadcast contracts.[62] NBC continued to carry the kickoff and Thanksgiving night games on Thursdays.
NBC often mixed their commentator groupings for 2016. Under league contract, Al Michaels and Cris Collinsworth called all of the games in theThursday Night Football package that aired on NBC along with most Sunday nights. In general,Michele Tafoya served as sideline reporter for Sunday games andHeather Cox for Thursday games, with both sharing duties through the playoffs.Mike Tirico called play-by-play for secondary games in Weeks 15 and 16, and filled in for Michaels forSNF assignments in Weeks 11 and 12. The NFL waived its contract requirement for the2017 season, allowing Mike Tirico to call all games on Thursdays, while Al Michaels remained on Sundays.[63]
Super Bowl LV was televised byCBS. AlthoughNBC was to air this game under the current rotation, they traded with CBS forSuper Bowl LVI, which falls during the2022 Winter Olympics and is the first to be scheduled during an ongoing Olympic Games (this also upholds the untoldgentleman's agreement between the NFL's broadcasters to notcounterprogram the Super Bowl,[64] as NBC also holds the U.S. broadcast rights to the Olympics). CBS, to an extent, also benefited from holding rights to the Super Bowl in the same year that it held rights to theNCAA Final Four (which is cycled withWarnerMedia Entertainment channels on a two-year cycle, and CBS had also broadcast in the same year as itsprevious Super Bowl).[65][66]
With the NFL expanding its Wild Card round to six games in the2020 season, broadcast rights to the new games were sold toCBS andNBC, at approximately $70 million each. Both networks announced plans tosimulcast their games on other outlets owned by their parent companies, with NBC planning to simulcast its game on its recently launched streaming servicePeacock, and on its Spanish-language broadcast networkTelemundo.
The 2020 schedule was released on May 7. The Kickoff game was on September 10, which featured theSuper Bowl LIV ChampionKansas City Chiefs hosting theHouston Texans. The Thanksgiving Night game was supposed to feature theBaltimore Ravens against thePittsburgh Steelers; the ninth time that the Thanksgiving game would have been part of theSNF package shown on NBC. A COVID-19 outbreak on the Baltimore Ravens forced the postponement of the game to the following Sunday afternoon, which was then postponed to the following Tuesday night, and then finally to Wednesday afternoon.[67][68] It was shown on NBC as scheduled, butKWQC-TV - the NBC affiliate for theQuad Cities of Iowa and Illinois - opted not to show the game.[69] Before this occasion, the last Wednesday night game played in the NFL was also a special edition of primetime on NBC - the 2012 Kickoff game between theDallas Cowboys andNew York Giants that was scheduled as such to avoid a conflict with Barack Obama's renomination speech atthat year's Democratic National Convention.
Mike Tirico substituted for Al Michaels on a select number of games in 2020, that started with the September 27 game between theGreen Bay Packers and theNew Orleans Saints. Tirico was initially slated to call the Thanksgiving game in 2020, but was assigned instead to call the Week 12SNF game between the Packers and theChicago Bears withTony Dungy andKathryn Tappen. Tirico was eventually given the assignment to call the rescheduled Ravens–Steelers game with Collinsworth after it was postponed from Sunday afternoon to Wednesday night. Tirico was also slated to call one of NBC's two wild card playoff games in January.
The aforementioned Packers–Saints game took place while the2020 Stanley Cup Finals (rescheduled from its normal late May–early June schedule) were ongoing; As NBC was also therightsholder toNational Hockey League (NHL) games in the United States, the league opted to play Games 4 and 5 (September 25–26) of the finals on consecutive nights to avoid conflict withSNF. In addition, the2020 NBA Finals were also moved from June to October due to the pandemic.SNF games were played on the same night as NBA Finals in consecutive weeks, on October 4 (Philadelphia Eagles vs.San Francisco 49ers) the same day as Game 3, and on October 11 (Minnesota Vikings vs.Seattle Seahawks) on the same day as Game 6 (the eventual last game of the series).
On March 18, 2021, the NFL, along with Fox, NBC, CBS and ESPN/ABC announced the league's rights deal with all four networks was extended through the 2033 season. The four network rights deal includes the rotation of the Super Bowl yearly among the four, meaning NBC will air three Super Bowls:LX (2026), LXIV (2030) and LXVIII (2034), all in Winter Olympic years.[70]
NBC's coverage ofSuper Bowl LVI between theCincinnati Bengals and theLos Angeles Rams at the end of the2021 NFL season was the 20th Super Bowl to air on NBC. The game was overall, the eleventh Super Bowl telecast to be legallystreamed live online in the United States both to computers (via NFL.com,Peacock, and NBCSports.com, in addition to NBC and Telemundo's apps for local streaming) for the fourth time and mobile devices viaVerizon Wireless's NFL Mobile app. The game also marked Al Michaels' eleventh time conducting play-by-play for a Super Bowl (Michaels had previously done play-by-play for Super BowlsXXII,XXV,XXIX,XXXIV,XXXVII,XL forABC and four more includingXLIII,XLVI,XLIX andLII for NBC). It was also the first Super Bowl carried byTelemundo over-the-air with a primarySpanish language broadcast.
Michaels, who would ultimately return toThursday Night Football (this time on Amazon'sPrime Video), would be permanently replaced in theSunday Night Football broadcast booth by Mike Tirico from the2022 NFL season onward.
Beginning in the2023 NFL season, NBC produces a single regular season game per year exclusively airing onPeacock, however those games will still air in the participating markets on their local NBC stations.[71] NBC also produced a playoff game which aired on Peacock in the 2023–24 postseason on a separate one-year deal.
As of the2025 season,Football Night in America is hosted byMaria Taylor, who anchor the series from Studio 3 at NBC Sports Headquarters inStamford, Connecticut.Chris Simms,Jason Garrett,Devin McCourty,Mike Florio, andMatthew Berry are studio analysts.Jac Collinsworth is the on-site host alongside analystsTony Dungy andRodney Harrison.NBC News'Steve Kornacki serves as an analytics expert during the last weeks of the season as the playoff push intensifies.FNIA was broadcast from Studio 8G (and then from Studio 8H) from the GE (now Comcast) Building at30 Rockefeller Plaza in New York City from 2006 to 2013, before production of the program was relocated to Stamford in September 2014, joining all of NBC Sports' other operations andNBCSN.
As of 2025,Peacock, NBC's streaming service, airs additional NFL studio programs. These include weekday showsPFT Live withMike Florio andFantasy Football Happy Hour withMatthew Berry, and the Sunday morning showFantasy Football Pregame with Matthew Berry,Michael Smith, Jay Croucher, andLawrence Jackson.[72]
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link){{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link){{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)As an added bonus, John Madden will return to NBC to open the broadcast and will give his first "Madden Thanksgiving Player of the-Game" award