ESPN Sunday Night Football

History

The concept of a regular Sunday night professional football series on ESPN was originally devised for the United States Football League. As part of the abortive 1986 USFL season, ESPN was to carry a weekly Sunday night game throughout the fall. In 1987, the NFL granted ESPN rights to air a series of Sunday night games over the second half of the regular season, making the NFL the last major North American professional sports league to begin airing games on cable television. Games were typically simulcast on over-the-air stations in each team's local market so that households without cable could still view their local team.

During the inaugural 1987 season, branded as ESPN Sunday Night NFL, the announcing booth consisted of Mike Patrick, Roy Firestone, and a weekly guest color commentator. Joe Theismann took over as lead analyst in 1988. For the first regular season game, between the New York Giants and New England Patriots, WABC-TV produced a completely separate telecast from ESPN's because WABC's union contract prohibited non-union workers from producing live events for the station. That WABC broadcast featured play-by-play man Corey McPherrin and color commentators Frank Gifford and Lynn Swann.

In 1990, the NFL expanded Sunday night offerings to the full season, with TNT airing games in the first half and ESPN taking over for the second half. Beginning in 1998, ESPN broadcast the entire slate of Sunday night games, now officially rebranded as ESPN Sunday Night Football, and held exclusive rights to any night game other than the season opener and regular Monday night games on ABC. ESPN would usually have a few weekends each season with games on both Saturday and Sunday nights. During this period, Major League Baseball typically held Game 2 of the World Series on a Sunday night, and the NFL would schedule that weekend's game for Thursday instead.