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Must-See TV
Cold, Hard Football Facts for March 30, 2006
This is the new “Must-See TV.”
For a fifth straight year, the NFL season will kick off with a single nationally televised game on a Thursday night. What's different about the 2006 debut is the network  broadcasting it.
NBC, which hasn’t aired an NFL game since the 1997 season, has gotten off the sidelines and regained gridiron grandeur. The Peacock Network was awarded a primetime package that consists primarily of Sunday night games but also includes the Thursday opener on Sept. 7, when the Dolphins visit the defending-champion Steelers.
Had NBC shown football on a Thursday night back in the fall of ’97, it would have preempted popular programs like “Friends” and “Seinfeld.” Now, the only Joey will be Pittsburgh’s Port er (seen here sacking Tennessee's Steve McNair) – and the outside linebacker would undoubtedly like to greet new Miami QB Daunte Culpepper in the backfield with a “How you doin’?”
The Dolphins-Steelers broadcast will signal the official return of a true pigskin pioneer. On Oct. 22, 1939, NBC became the first network to televise an NFL game. As the Brooklyn Football Dodgers earned a 23-14 victory over the Philadelphia Eagles at Ebbets Field, some fortunate local fans were able to watch the game from the comfort of their living rooms. Only about 1,000 TV sets existed in New York at the time.
And only the Cold, Hard Football Facts could provide this coincidental correlation:
- In NBC’s first NFL telecast, the backfield star for Brooklyn was Hall of Famer Ace Parker.
- In NBC’s next NFL telecast, the backfield for Pittsburgh will feature Duce Staley and Willie Parker.
A lot has certainly happened in the intervening 67 years, and television has played a pivotal role. On Jan. 15, 1967, because NBC owned the exclusive broadcasting rights to the American Football League, it was one of two networks (along with CBS) to televise the first AFL-NFL World Championship Game. Now known as Super Bowl I, the game saw the AFL’s Chiefs lose to the NFL’s Packers, 35-10.
With the 1970 merger of the two leagues, new television contracts were negotiated. NBC got to air all AFC games except those on Monday night (which were the property of ABC), and that affiliation would continue until Jan. 25, 1998. The network’s final telecast under its last contract with the NFL was Super Bowl XXXII, when the Broncos upset the Packers, 31-24, to claim their first title.
Between NBC’s last game and its next game, there are several interesting parallels. Consider the following:
Jan. 25, 1998
Denver’s victory ended a reign of dominance by the NFC, which had won the previous 13 Super Bowls.
Sept. 7, 2006
A definitive switch in conference power has been seen, as the AFC has now won three consecutive Super Bowls and seven of the last nine.
Jan. 25, 1998
Denver’s John Elway became the oldest Super Bowl-winning quarterback, capturing his first championship in his second-to-last season and adding another in his swan song.
Sept. 7, 2006
Pittsburgh’s Ben Roethlisberger, the youngest Super Bowl-winning quarterback, will begin defense of the championship he captured in just his second season.
Jan. 25, 1998
The losing quarterback in that Super Bowl was Brett Favre, who had just been named the league’s MVP for a third straight time.
Sept. 7, 2006
Jan. 25, 1998
Paul Maguire was a color analyst in the booth for NBC.
Sept. 7, 2006
Maguire, who had become a fixture on ESPN’s primetime NFL telecasts, will be calling college games, and his former network, NBC, will be taking over Sunday nights.
Jan. 25, 1998
Cris Collinsworth served as a studio analyst on the “NFL on NBC” pregame show, hosted by Greg Gumbel.
Sept. 7, 2006
Collinsworth will return to the NBC studio for the new pregame show, “Football Night in America,” hosted by Bob Costas.
Announcing the games for NBC will be a familiar tandem. Al Michaels, who has been the voice of “Monday Night Football” on ABC for the last 20 years, will handle play-by-play, and John Madden, his partner for the past four seasons, will provide color analysis. It's Madden's first stint on NBC, after working for CBS, FOX and ABC.
In its other broadcast of Kickoff Weekend, NBC has Peyton Manning and the Colts invading the Meadowlands to oppose Eli Manning and the Giants on Sunday night, Sept. 10. The game will mark the first time in NFL history that brothers have squared off as starting quarterbacks. The network that brought us “Family Ties” will thus have ample opportunity to explore the brotherly bond.
We have previously noted the frequency with which relatives are becoming NFL quarterbacks – a concept we call “QBDNA.” Here is a brief history of fraternal accomplishments at the position:
- The first brothers to play quarterback in the NFL were Ed and Joey Sternaman. They were teammates on the Bears between 1922 and 1927, and each took snaps at various times.
- The first brothers to be quarterbacks on opposing teams in an NFL game were Terry and Craig Bradshaw. Terry had already won four Super Bowls with the Steelers by the time Craig joined the Oilers for two games in 1980.
- The first brothers to be starting NFL quarterbacks during the same season were Ty and Koy Detmer. In 1998, Ty started one game with the 49ers and Koy got five starts with the Eagles.
- The first brothers to be starting NFL quarterbacks on the same day were Damon and Brock Huard. On Nov. 26, 2000, Damon’s Dolphins beat the Colts but Brock’s Seahawks lost to the Broncos.
- The first brothers to be starting NFL quarterbacks for the same month were Matt and Tim Hasselbeck. In December of 2003, Matt’s Seaha
 wks went 2-2 while Tim’s Redskins were 1-3.
Last season, the Mannings became the first set of brothers to quarterback their teams to the playoffs. (Rest assured, that's not a Lombardi Trophy in Peyton's hands in the photo here.) However, both lost their only game of the postseason with disappointing performances in front of the home crowd. The Mannings have also been at the helm of the last two offenses to get shut out in the postseason. Peyton and the Colts lost 41-0 to the N.Y. Jets in the 2002 playoffs. Eli and the Giants lost 23-0 to Carolina in the 2005 playoffs.
On Sept. 10, when NBC is live from New Jersey on Sunday night, the Mannings better be “Ready For Primetime Players.”
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