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The NFL, along withboxing andprofessional wrestling (before the latterpublicly became known as a staged sport), was a pioneer ofsports broadcasting during a time whenbaseball andcollege football were more popular than professional football. Due to the NFL understanding television at an earlier time, they were able to surpassMajor League Baseball in the 1960s as the most popular sport in the United States.
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[1] 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.
Regular broadcasts of games began after World War II and the first NFL championship to be televised was the 1948 match between the Eagles and Cardinals.
In 1950, theLos Angeles Rams and theWashington Redskins became the first NFL teams to have all of their games—home and away—televised. In the same year, other teams made deals to have selected games telecast. TheDuMont Network then paid a rights fee of US$75,000 to broadcast the 1951 NFL Championship Game across the entire nation.
Locally and regionally televised games were broadcast as early as 1939, but on December 23, 1951, DuMont televised the first ever live,coast-to-coast professional football game, theNFL Championship Game between theLos Angeles Rams andCleveland Browns. DuMont paid$75,000 for the rights to broadcast the game.[2]
From the1951 thru the1964 seasons, the Pro Bowl television rightsholders were theLos Angeles Newspaper Charities, as opposed to theNational Football League. Since the1965 season, the NFL has owned the telecast rights.
In1952, DuMont only airedNew York Giants games before moving to a more national scope the following season.
During the1953[3] and1954 seasons, DuMont broadcast Saturday night NFL games. It was the first time that National Football League games were televisedlive, coast-to-coast, inprime time, for the entire season. This predatedMonday Night Football onABC by 17 years.[4] Several of the games in 1953 and 1954 originated inNew York (Giants),Pittsburgh (Steelers), orWashington (Redskins). (All three of these cities hadDuMontO&Os.)[5]
In 1953, DuMont televised aThanksgiving NFL game between theDetroit Lions and theGreen Bay Packers.
DuMont was nominated forEmmy Awards for its coverage of the 1953 and 1954 seasons but did not win.[6]
DuMont proved to be a less than ideal choice for a national broadcaster. The network had only eighteen primary affiliates in 1954, dwarfed by the 120 available to NBC (although a number of ABC, CBS, and NBC affiliates that had DuMont "secondary" affiliations did carry some NFL games, mainly on Sunday afternoons). Coverage of Canadian football's "Big Four" was more readily available on NBC than NFL games were in most markets on DuMont.[7]
In January 1955, DuMont obtained rights from the Los Angeles Newspaper Charities to cover thePro Bowl only one week before the game date. As they had trouble lining upaffiliates to cover the game on such short notice, the telecast was cancelled.
By1955, the DuMont network was beginning tocrumble. For instance, in1955,NBC replaced DuMont as the network for the NFL Championship Game, paying a rights fee of$100,000.[8] ABC acquired the rights to the Thanksgiving game. Meanwhile, most teams (sans theGiants,Eagles andSteelers, who received regionalized coverage from DuMont) were left to fend for themselves in terms of TV coverage.
DuMont ceased most entertainment programs (and anightly newscast) in early April1955. DuMont still broadcast some sports events (aMonday-night boxing show and the1955 NFL season) until either August1956,[9] or Thanksgiving1957.[10] Prior to the1956 NFL season, DuMont sold its broadcast rights toCBS;[9] for DuMont's last broadcast in 1957, a high school football state championship, it borrowedChris Schenkel, CBS's announcer for New York Giants broadcasts at the time.
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 (as previously mentioned) 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.
In August 1956, theDuMont Television Network, the NFL's primary television partner, ended network operations after years of decline. DuMont had already sold the rights to the NFL Championship toNBC in 1955, and when DuMont ended its regular season coverage, CBS acquired the rights.
CBS' coverage began on September 30,1956 (the first regular season broadcast was a game between the visitingWashington Redskins against thePittsburgh Steelers), before the 1970 AFL–NFL merger. Prior to 1968, CBS had an assigned crew for each NFL team. As a result, CBS became the first network to broadcast some NFL regular season games to selected television markets across the country. From 1970 until the end of the 1993 season, whenFox won the broadcast television contract to that particular conference, CBS aired NFL games from theNational Football Conference. Since 1975, game coverage has been preceded bypre-game showThe NFL Today, which features game previews, extensive analysis and interviews.
CBS's first attempts to broadcast theNFL on television were notable for there being no broadcasting contract with the league as a whole. Instead, CBS had to strike deals with individual teams to broadcast games into the teams' own markets, many of which CBS had purchased from the moribundDuMont Television Network. Often the games would be broadcast with "split audio" – that is, a game between two franchises would have the same picture in both teams' "networks" (the visiting team's home city andaffiliates of the home team's "network" beyond a 75-mile radius of the home team's television market). Each team's "network" had different announcers (usually those working in their home markets).
TheNew York Giants in particular were carried on theDuMont network, then CBS (airing locally onWCBS-TV, channel 2) in the early days of the NFL of the league's television broadcasts, when home games wereblacked out within a 75-mile radius of New York City.Chris Schenkel was theirplay-by-play announcer in that early era when each team was assigned its own network voice on its regional telecasts. At the time, there were few if any true national telecasts until the NFL championship game, which was carried byNBC. Schenkel was joined byJim McKay, laterJohnny Lujack through the 1950s and the early 1960s. As Giants players retired to the broadcast booth in the early and 1960s, firstPat Summerall, thenFrank Gifford took the color analyst slot next to Schenkel. As the 1970 merger of the NFL and AFL approached, CBS moved to a more generic announcer approach while Schenkel left to joinABC Sports.
The Week 5 game betweenNew York andPhiladelphia in 1956 was a national telecast with theGiants crew (Chris Schenkel andGene Kirby) calling the shots. The Week 13 game between theWashington Redskins andBaltimore Colts in 1956 was also a national telecast with theWashington voices (Arch McDonald andJim Gibbons) calling the game. The1957 Pro Bowl was offered toNBC, then CBS. 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.
BothNBC andCBS passed on the rights to the1957 Pro Bowl.ABC apparently considered televising the game, but could not gain enough clearance ofaffiliates to make a telecast feasible. So for the third straight year, there was no telecast.
When CBS televised a Week 1 game between theBears andGreen Bay Packers in1957, it not only served as a rare occurrence of an away game shown on the Chicago CBS network, but a regular season NFL telecast shown in Chicago. This particular game (called byRed Grange and Bill Fay for the Chicago market andRay Scott andJohnny Lujack for the Green Bay market) was the first official game ever played in the new City Stadium, which we now know asLambeau Field. Also in Week 1 of the 1957 season, thePhiladelphia-Los Angeles game not televised, so theEagles crew ofByrum Saam andJack Whitaker worked theDetroit-Baltimore game back to the Philadelphia region. Meanwhile,Jim McKay worked with Chris Schenkel for that week'sNew York-Cleveland game.
Per the October 17, 1957 issue ofSports Illustrated, theRedskins-Cardinals game in Week 2 of the 1957 season was a virtual national telecast, seen everywhere except theWest Coast and the Green Bay and Detroit networks. Arch McDonald and Jim Gibbons called the game for the Washington market whileJoe Boland andJoe Foss called it for the Chicago market. Also per the November 4, 1957 issue ofSports Illustrated, the Chicago Bears-Los Angeles game was listed as not being televised.
For theThanksgiving Day game in 1957 between Green Bay and Detroit, Joe Boland andBob Kelley worked the national audio feed. Meanwhile, Ray Scott and Johnny Lujack called the game for the Green Bay market andVan Patrick,Bob Reynolds andLes Bingaman called it for the Detroit market. One week later, the New York-Pittsburgh game was a national telecast, simply using the Giants on-air talent (Chris Schenkel and Jim McKay). The Week 13 game between Pittsburgh and the Chicago Cardinals was originally scheduled to be televised at least regionally, but with nothing at stake for this game and with the Detroit-San FranciscoWesterntiebreaker set for later in the day, this game was dropped from telecast.
For1958, Red Grange partnered with Bill Fay to do play-by-play on the CBS Chicago football network when theBears were home. At this point, theCleveland Browns were still a part of thesyndicatedSports Network outside of the Cleveland region, which consisted of non-CBS affiliates.Leon Hart would join theDetroit Lions broadcast crew (consisting of Van Patrick and Bob Reynolds) for1958. The Lions alsosimulcast the team of Patrick and Reynolds forradio and the CBS-TVLions network.
Per the November 3, 1958 issue ofSports Illustrated the Chicago Bears-Los Angeles game in Week 6 was not televised. For that year's Thanksgiving Day game betweenGreen Bay and Detroit, three crews were used (a national feed and local audio feeds for the Green Bay and Detroit networks). On the coast-to-coast audio, Joe Boland and Chris Schenkel split play-by-play duties. Meanwhile, Ray Scott andGeorge Connor called the game for the Green Bay market while Van Patrick, Bob Reynolds, and Leon Hart called the game for the Detroit market. The1958 tiebreaker game between Cleveland and New York featured Chris Schenkel and Ken Coleman splitting a half of play-by-play with Johnny Lujack as color throughout.
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.
From 1956 to1959, theBaltimore Colts,Pittsburgh Steelers andPhiladelphia Eagles only had their away games telecast on CBS. When these three played at home, there was no need for the usage of split audio. Instead, the away team's telecasts were produced in a simple singular audio-video feed. In 1959,1960 and 1961, NBC had the rights to televise Colts and Steelers home games. While the game broadcasts were blacked out (as per NFL policy) in those cities, they were available to other NBC-affiliated stations.
TheChicago Bears andChicago Cardinals only produced home telecasts for their vast network. Because of this, if the Bears played the Colts inBaltimore or the Cardinals visitedForbes Field to play the Steelers during this period, it was likely that the games were not televised by CBS (although from 1959 to 1961, they might have been shown by NBC). Meanwhile, theCleveland Browns had their own network, part ofSports Network Incorporated (SNI) andCarling Beer.
By 1959, big-market teams such as the Bears and Giants had all their games televised, but small-market ones like the Packers and 49ers still did not. Upon becoming NFL commissioner, Pete Rozelle worked to ensure that every team got all its games on TV.
CBS had at least 11 teams under contract. TheCleveland Browns were still pretty much, the lone exception. CBS' broadcast of theNew York-Los Angeles game (called by Chris Schenkel and Johnny Lujack) in Week 1, was a national telecast that was carried live. CBS would not dare preempt theratings powerhouse that wasGunsmoke so the game started at approximately 11:15 p.m.Eastern Time. Meanwhile, the huge Chicago network carried only home games of theCardinals andBears. Thus Week 1's Bears-Packers game (called by Ray Scott andTony Canadeo) was seen only on the Packers network (subject to blackout) and theRedskins-Cardinals game (called byJim Gibbons andEddie Gallaher for the Washington market and Joe Boland andPaul Christman for the Chicago market) was seen on the CBS Chicago network, which may have reached 40% of the country. The Eagles crew of Byrum Saam and Jack Whitaker worked that week'sDetroit-Baltimore game for the New York and Philadelphia CBS networks. Finally, thePhiladelphia-San Francisco game was seen only on the CBS Pacific network, thus only the 49ers commentators (Bob Fouts andGordy Soltau) were heard.
On October 11, 1959 during Week 3,NFL CommissionerBert Bell, while in the stands for thePittsburgh-Philadelphia game (with Joe Tucker on commentary), suffered a fatalheart attack. In Week 6 of the 1959 season, the full CBS Pacific network was tuned into the Chicago Bears-Los Angeles game (called by Bob Kelley andElroy Hirsch). Due to the quirk that the Eagles did not televise home games and the Cardinals did not televise away games on their respective networks in 1959, the Philadelphia-Chicago Cardinals game in Week 8 was by design, not televised.
CBS once again used three separate audio feeds for the Thanksgiving Day game in 1959. Joe Boland and Paul Christman, the Cardinals crew, worked the coast-to-coast feed, Ray Scott and Tony Canadeo were heard on the CBS Packers network, and Van Patrick and Bob Reynolds were used for the Lions CBS network (subject to blackout). The Detroit network also plugged into Week 10's San Francisco-Cleveland game (called by Bob Fouts and Gordy Soltau on CBS and Ken Coleman andJimmy Dudley on Cleveland's syndicated network). The following week, the Packers' CBS network plugged into Pittsburgh-Chicago Bears game (called by Joe Tucker for the Pittsburgh market and Red Grange and George Connor for the Chicago market) while the Colts' CBS network plugged into Cleveland-New York game (called by Chris Schenkel and Johnny Lujack for CBS).
For the final week of the 1959 regular season, the Packers' CBS network (again composed of Ray Scott and Tony Canadeo) plugged into Detroit-Chicago bears match-up (called by Van Patrick and Bob Reynolds for the Detroit market and Red Grange and George Connor for the Chicago market) while the Colts' CBS network plugged into New York-Washington game (called by Chris Schenkel and Johnny Lujack for the New York market and by Jim Gibbons and Eddie Gallaher for the Washington market).