211-502: The NFL on Fox (also known as Fox NFL ) is the branding used for broadcasts of National Football League (NFL) games produced by Fox Sports and televised on the Fox broadcast network. Game coverage is usually preceded by Fox NFL Kickoff and Fox NFL Sunday and is followed on weeks when the network airs a Doubleheader by The OT . The latter two shows feature the same studio hosts and analysts for both programs, who also contribute to
422-414: A 480p enhanced-definition widescreen format marketed as "Fox Widescreen". While promoted as having better quality than standard-definition , and being the first U.S. sporting event produced in a widescreen format with the same production as the main feed for standard-definition viewers (rather than using a separate production for the widescreen feed), it was not true high definition , but still matched
633-684: A conspiracy to violate antitrust law , by granting DirecTV exclusive rights to sell the Sunday Ticket product, thereby restricting competition and forcing viewers to pay super competitive prices to view out-of-market games. On June 27, 2024, a jury in Los Angeles found that the NFL had violated antitrust law in setting the price of the Sunday ticket package and ordered a penalty totaling more than $ 4.7 billion. With triple damages allowed under federal antitrust laws,
844-615: A merger on June 8, 1966, to take full effect in 1970. In the meantime, the leagues would hold a common draft and championship game. The game, the Super Bowl , was held four times before the merger, with the NFL winning Super Bowl I and Super Bowl II , and the AFL winning Super Bowl III and Super Bowl IV . After the league merged, it was reorganized into two conferences: the National Football Conference (NFC), consisting of most of
1055-611: A CBS without football. Through the deal, in which also Fox purchased a 20% interest in the company, nearly all of New World's stations (including several that the company was in the process of acquiring from Citicasters and Argyle Communications at the time the deal was struck) switched en masse to Fox beginning that September and continuing through September 1996 as existing affiliation contracts with their previous network partners came to an end (network subsidiary Fox Television Stations bought New World Communications outright in July 1996). In
1266-447: A CGI-animated gopher character that was voiced by Eric Bauza , began as a symbol of the corner camera and was later adopted as an unofficial mascot for Fox's NASCAR coverage. Beginning with the 2009 Daytona 500 , Digger was extended into a series of short cartoons that aired during the pre-race show, country music superstar Keith Urban recorded the theme song for these shorts. Storylines revolved around Digger and his life beneath
1477-552: A Week 6 game and cursed out his critics on Twitter. During Weeks 6–8 of the 2013 season, Thom Brennaman filled in for Joe Buck, Sam Rosen filled in for Kevin Burkhardt, and Charissa Thompson filled in for Erin Andrews; Joe Buck, Kevin Burkhardt, and Erin Andrews were all on Major League Baseball on Fox playoff duty. Meanwhile, Justin Kutcher filled in for Thom Brennaman. During Week 13 of
1688-608: A blizzard; in 2012, when the Kickoff game was moved from Thursday to Wednesday to avoid conflict with the Democratic National Convention ; and in 2020, when a game was postponed from Sunday to Tuesday due to players testing positive for COVID-19 . NFL regular season match-ups are determined according to a scheduling formula. Within a division, all four teams play 14 out of their 17 games against common opponents or each other– two games (home and away) are played against
1899-607: A broadcast of the Washington Redskins / Tampa Bay Buccaneers game scheduled for Week 16. On the day the game was supposed to be broadcast, President Bill Clinton was impeached by Congress and Fox broke into local programming to cover the events. The football game (called by Sam Rosen and Jerry Glanville ) began as scheduled and was shown in split screen . Jerry Glanville left Fox after this season to join The NFL Today on CBS. For Fox's coverage of Super Bowl XXXIII at
2110-478: A club's franchise or any other action, he deems necessary. The commissioner can also issue sanctions up to and including a lifetime ban from the league if an individual connected to the NFL has bet on games or failed to notify the league of conspiracies or plans to bet on or fix games. The current Commissioner of the National Football League is Roger Goodell, who was elected in 2006 after Paul Tagliabue ,
2321-407: A club's season being canceled, a restocking draft would be held. Neither of these protocols has ever had to be implemented. Free agents in the National Football League are divided into restricted free agents , who have three accrued seasons and whose current contract has expired, and unrestricted free agents , who have four or more accrued seasons and whose contract has expired. An accrued season
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#17330925778882532-560: A contract it bought out from ESPN . During the first half of the season, FX served as the primary broadcaster of the Busch Series , airing all but the most prestigious races, which were instead shown on Fox. FX was also home to most of the NASCAR Cup Series night races, The Winston/All-Star Race , and the June race at Dover International Speedway . In those years, if a Fox-scheduled race
2743-594: A different football code than the American game, the CFL established a niche market in Canada and still survives as an independent league. A new professional league, the fourth American Football League (AFL), began to play in 1960. The upstart AFL began to challenge the established NFL in popularity, gaining lucrative television contracts and engaging in a bidding war with the NFL for free agents and draft picks. The two leagues announced
2954-604: A few games in October due to Amin and Davis' MLB postseason assignments. National Football League The National Football League ( NFL ) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United States and Canada and
3165-486: A four-year contract for the broadcast rights to the National Football Conference (NFC), exceeding CBS's bid by more than $ 100 million per year. The NFC was considered the more desirable conference than the American Football Conference (AFC), whose television package was being carried at the time by NBC , due to the NFC's presence in most of the largest U.S. markets, such as New York City , Chicago , Philadelphia , and Dallas ,
3376-452: A lower pick than any team that did not make the divisional round. The Super Bowl champion always drafts last, and the losing team from the Super Bowl always drafts next-to-last. All potential draftees must be at least three years removed from high school in order to be eligible for the draft. Underclassmen that have met that criterion to be eligible for the draft must write an application to
3587-419: A minority of preseason games are distributed among the league's national television partners. Through the 2014 season, the NFL had a blackout policy in which games were 'blacked out' on local television in the home team's area if the home stadium was not sold out. Clubs could elect to set this requirement at only 85%, but they would have to give more ticket revenue to the visiting team; teams could also request
3798-523: A motorcycle accident. For the 2014 Sprint Unlimited , Michael Waltrip filled in for Darrell, who was undergoing gallbladder surgery; for Daytona 500 Practice and Pole Qualifying, the position was filled by Phil Parsons . Darrell Waltrip returned for the Budweiser Duels. In 2016, Jeff Gordon replaced McReynolds in the booth while McReynolds was reassigned as the rules and technical analyst, replacing Andy Petree . In 2017, Dale Earnhardt Jr. joined
4009-561: A motorsports-focused cable channel owned by Fox, began broadcasting NASCAR-related events in February 2002, with its successor Fox Sports 1 taking over Fox Sports' cable event coverage rights when that network replaced Speed in August 2013. Throughout its run, Fox's coverage of NASCAR has won thirteen Emmy Awards . On November 11, 1999, NASCAR signed a contract that awarded the U.S. television rights to its races to four networks (two that would hold
4220-467: A national sporting event was covered entirely by active athletes, the first being the aforementioned Pocono race. The presenters provided coverage from all three perspectives during the race (Hollywood Hotel studio, lap-by-lap commentary and pit road coverage). The booth team of Harvick, Logano and Bowyer was retained, Erik Jones , Ryan Blaney , Bubba Wallace (pit road) was also retained. Brad Keselowski , Ricky Stenhouse Jr. , and Chad Knaus hosted from
4431-449: A new version of his hit song " Sideways ,” with new lyrics referencing NASCAR – which is played during the introduction of the pre-race show. "Sideways" was phased out entirely with the 2013 Sprint Unlimited telecast, with the Fox NFL theme music being used full-time. In addition, a new CGI introduction sequence, produced by Blur Studio , made its debut. In 2015, the introduction sequence
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#17330925778884642-702: A number of awards for its players and coaches at its annual NFL Honors presentation. The most prestigious award is the AP Most Valuable Player (MVP) award. Other major awards include the AP Offensive Player of the Year , AP Defensive Player of the Year , AP Comeback Player of the Year , and the AP Offensive and Defensive Rookie of the Year awards. Another prestigious award is the Walter Payton Man of
4853-524: A playoff bid, the number of wild card teams from each conference dropped from three to two. The playoffs expanded again in 2020, adding two more wild card teams to bring the total to 14 playoff teams. The NFL consists of 32 clubs divided into two conferences of 16 teams each. Each conference is divided into four divisions of four clubs each. During the regular season, each team is allowed a maximum of 55 players on its roster; only 48 of these may be active (eligible to play) on game days. Each team can also have
5064-464: A playoff system was implemented in 1933 that culminated with the NFL Championship Game until 1966. Following an agreement to merge the NFL with the rival American Football League (AFL), the Super Bowl was first held in 1967 to determine a champion between the best teams from the two leagues and has remained as the final game of each NFL season since the merger was completed in 1970. The NFL
5275-695: A record 167 million people that watched Super Bowl XLVIII , the conclusion to the 2013 season. In addition to radio networks run by each NFL team, select NFL games are broadcast nationally by Westwood One (known as Dial Global for the 2012 season). These games are broadcast on over 500 networks, giving all NFL markets access to each primetime game. The NFL's deal with Westwood One was extended in 2012 and continued through 2017. Other NFL games are nationally distributed by Compass Media Networks and Sports USA Radio Network under contracts with individual teams. Some broadcasting innovations have either been introduced or popularized during NFL telecasts. Among them,
5486-447: A scrolling ticker to display the current running order of drivers and other information (such as intervals and other statistics, shown on an occasionally displayed secondary line), instead of the boxes that were used by previous NASCAR broadcasters. Fox would eventually deploy the banner design across all of its sports properties, while its conventions would be adopted by fellow NASCAR broadcasters, including NBC, TNT, and later ESPN. For
5697-542: A simulcast with ESPN. Amazon , through their Prime Video streaming service, is the exclusive carrier of the Thursday Night Football package. NFL Network, a U.S. pay cable channel owned by the league itself, broadcasts select games under the NFL Network Exclusive Game Series banner. Games under this banner usually consist of NFL International Series games and select Saturday games. In 2023,
5908-405: A sixteen-player practice squad separate from its main roster. Each NFL club is granted a franchise, the league's authorization for the team to operate in its home city. This franchise covers 'Home Territory' (the 75 miles surrounding the city limits, or, if the team is within 100 miles of another league city, half the distance between the two cities) and 'Home Marketing Area' (Home Territory plus
6119-546: A specific exemption from the NFL for the game. The vast majority of NFL games were not blacked out; only 6% of games were blacked out during the 2011 season , and only two games were blacked out in 2013 and none in 2014 . The NFL announced in March 2015 that it would suspend its blackout policy for at least the 2015 season . According to Nielsen , the NFL regular season since 2012 was watched by at least 200 million individuals, accounting for 80% of all television households in
6330-406: A sports division up to that point, and its news division was a few years away from fruition (most Fox stations outside of a few owned by the network did not even produce their own news programming), and most Fox affiliates were often either full-power UHF stations or low-powered stations. In addition, there were some smaller markets that were not yet served by a local Fox affiliate; back in 1991,
6541-531: A substantial audience, its instant success has nonetheless been remarkable given the differences between Fox's coverage and the coverage provided by ABC , CBS, ESPN , TNT and NBC up to that time. Fox used the slogan "Same Game, New Attitude" to promote its new NFL package (it did the same for its new Major League Baseball coverage in 1996). The network's pre-game show, Fox NFL Sunday focused more on entertainment and less on in-depth discussion of game strategy . Hill, who later said "Most of my concepts about
NFL on Fox - Misplaced Pages Continue
6752-471: A team that finishes last would play two other last-place teams in the conference. The final game is an inter-conference based on a rotating cycle and determined by previous season's standings. In total, each team plays 17 games and has one bye week, where it does not play a game. Although a team's home and away opponents are known by the end of the previous year's regular season, the exact dates and times for NFL games are not determined until much later because
6963-547: A total of 32 are given. Clubs are required to make their selection within a certain period of time, the exact time depending on which round the pick is made in. If they fail to do so on time, the clubs behind them can begin to select their players in order, but they do not lose the pick outright. This happened in the 2003 draft , when the Minnesota Vikings failed to make their selection on time. The Jacksonville Jaguars and Carolina Panthers were able to make their picks before
7174-431: A two-conference system from 1933 to 1966 , where the champions of each conference would meet in the NFL Championship Game . If two teams tied for the conference lead, they would meet in a one-game playoff to determine the conference champion. In 1967 , the NFL expanded from 15 teams to 16 teams. Instead of just evening out the conferences by adding the expansion New Orleans Saints to the seven-member Western Conference,
7385-493: A vertical leaderboard, although this time it initially occupied an opaque sidebar spanning the entire left side of the screen. The design was once-again criticized by viewers during events leading up to the Daytona 500, as the opaque sidebar reduced the amount of screen space devoted to race footage to a roughly 4:3 window, the ticker fell within overscan on some televisions, while some camera shots were not correctly framed to suit
7596-421: A weekend) or USA Network .) On December 7, 2005, NASCAR signed a new eight-year broadcast deal effective with the 2007 season, and valued at $ 4.48 billion, with Fox and Speed Channel, which would also share event rights with Disney -owned ABC , ESPN and ESPN2 , as well as TNT. The rights would be divided as follows: In October 2012, NASCAR extended its contract with Fox Sports through 2022, which allowed Fox
7807-539: A younger audience. Some NASCAR fans accused Fox of dumbing down and fluffing its coverage in order to gain revenue from Digger merchandise sales. Despite continuous outrage from the NASCAR fan community, as well as talk from the NASCAR community that the Fan Council was not pleased with the situation, Fox did not announce any plans to drop the usage of the characters, and even had posted pictures of holiday-themed versions of
8018-427: Is defined as "six or more regular-season games on a club's active/inactive, reserved/injured or reserve/physically unable to perform lists". Restricted free agents are allowed to negotiate with other clubs besides their former club, but the former club has the right to match any offer. If they choose not to, they are compensated with draft picks. Unrestricted free agents are free to sign with any club, and no compensation
8229-448: Is earned by the 32 clubs and is taxable there. This will remain the case even when the league office and Management Council file returns as taxable entities, and the change in filing status will make no material difference to our business." As a result, the league office might owe around US$ 10 million in income taxes, but it is no longer required to disclose the salaries of its executive officers. The league has three defined officers:
8440-543: Is elected by an affirmative vote of three-fourths or 10 of the conference members. The commissioner appoints the secretary and treasurer and has broad authority in disputes between clubs, players, coaches, and employees. He is the "principal executive officer " of the NFL and also has authority in hiring league employees, negotiating television contracts, disciplining individuals that own part or all of an NFL team, clubs, or employed individuals of an NFL club if they have violated league by-laws or committed "conduct detrimental to
8651-463: Is owed if they sign with a different club. Clubs are given one franchise tag to offer to any unrestricted free agent. The franchise tag is a one-year deal that pays the player 120% of his previous contract or no less than the average of the five highest-paid players at his position, whichever is greater. There are two types of franchise tags: exclusive tags, which do not allow the player to negotiate with other clubs, and non-exclusive tags, which allow
NFL on Fox - Misplaced Pages Continue
8862-474: Is required to schedule three preseason games. NFC teams must play at least two of these at home in odd numbered years and AFC teams must play at least two at home in even numbered years. However, the teams involved in the Hall of Fame game, as well as any team that played in an American Bowl game, play four preseason games. Preseason games are exhibition matches and do not count towards regular-season totals. Because
9073-418: Is the wealthiest professional sports league in the world by revenue and the sports league with the most valuable teams. The NFL also has the highest average attendance (67,591) of any professional sports league in the world and is the most popular sports league in the United States. The Super Bowl is also among the most-watched sporting events in the world, with the individual games accounting for many of
9284-553: The 1998 - 2000 seasons , Buck would often be assigned to working at Fox NFL Sunday studio for halftime coverage whenever the main pregame crew was on the road. Kevin Harlan left Fox after this season to join the NFL on CBS . Harlan and Bill Maas anchored Fox's halftime coverage for Week 6, as the Fox NFL Sunday crew did the pregame show from Green Bay 's Lambeau Field . In 1998 , Fox had
9495-625: The Brunswick-Balke Collender Cup , was donated to the NFL (then APFA) in 1920 by the Brunswick-Balke Collender Corporation . The trophy, the appearance of which is only known by its description as a "silver loving cup", was intended to be a traveling trophy and not to become permanent until a team had won at least three titles. The league awarded it to the Akron Pros, champions of the inaugural 1920 season; however,
9706-593: The Foxnet cable channel began operations to provide the network's programming to those areas until a new over-the-air affiliate was made available. John Madden joked when he joined the network that it should be called Fox Sport, "because the only sport we had at Fox was football, NFL football", but Rupert Murdoch 's vast resources allowed the network to grow quickly, primarily to the detriment of CBS. After bringing in David Hill from Murdoch's U.K.-based Sky Sports to head-up
9917-793: The Hammond Pros and Muncie Flyers from Indiana; the Rochester Jeffersons from New York; and the Rock Island Independents , Decatur Staleys , and Racine (Chicago) Cardinals from Illinois. The league was renamed to the American Professional Football Association (APFA) . The league elected Jim Thorpe as its first president, and consisted of 14 teams (the Buffalo All-Americans , Chicago Tigers , Columbus Panhandles and Detroit Heralds joined
10128-463: The Houston Texans began play as an expansion team . Other drafts held by the league include an allocation draft in 1950 to allocate players from several teams that played in the dissolved All-America Football Conference and a supplemental draft in 1984 to give NFL teams the rights to players who had been eligible for the main draft but had not been drafted because they had signed contracts with
10339-496: The Internal Revenue Code provides an exemption from federal income taxation for "Business leagues, chambers of commerce, real-estate boards, boards of trade, or professional football leagues (whether or not administering a pension fund for football players), not organized for profit and no part of the net earnings of which inures to the benefit of any private shareholder or individual." In contrast, each individual team, with
10550-792: The Los Angeles Rams who came from a 1936 iteration of the American Football League, and the Cleveland Browns and San Francisco 49ers , both from the AAFC. By the 1950s, the NFL had an effective monopoly on professional football in the United States; its only competition in North America was the professional Canadian football circuit, which formally became the Canadian Football League (CFL) in 1958. With Canadian football being
10761-557: The NASCAR on Fox team; also in 2019, Shannon Spake replaced Chris Myers as host due to Myers being moved to Fox's Premier Boxing Champions coverage, although Myers appeared on site for the Daytona 500, while Adam Alexander served as on site host for the rest of the season. On May 25, 2019, the Alsco 300 , the Xfinity race at Charlotte Motor Speedway , was an all-drivers broadcast, the third time that
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#173309257788810972-544: The NFL on Fox after his contract expired after the 2013 season. Tim Ryan left Fox after 2013 when he accepted the job as the San Francisco 49ers radio color commentator. And Tom McCarthy left Fox after 2013 and joined rival CBS. David Diehl replaced Billick as Thom Brennaman's analyst, while Ronde Barber replaced Ryan as Chris Myers' analyst. For Week 7, Tim Brando replaced Mike Goldberg after Goldberg performed poorly during
11183-473: The NLCS and World Series . Justin Kutcher took Brennaman's place on the #4 announcing crew. During Weeks 5–8 of the 2017 season , Kenny Albert filled in for Kevin Burkhardt while Burkhardt worked the studio shows for Fox's MLB Playoff coverage. During Weeks 5–8, Sam Rosen filled in for Kenny Albert while he was with the #2 team. During Weeks 6–8, Thom Brennaman, for the 9th straight year, filled in for Joe Buck while
11394-662: The National League Championship Series . Sam Rosen was scheduled to fill in for Thom Brennaman while Brennaman filled in for Buck. However, Fox Sports president Eric Shanks brought up the idea of a two sport, same-day doubleheader if both the San Francisco Giants and St. Louis Cardinals won their divisional series. When St. Louis beat the Washington Nationals on Friday night, Buck went to San Francisco instead of Washington, D.C. and called both
11605-813: The New England Patriots and Pittsburgh Steelers are tied for the most Super Bowl victories at six each. The reigning league champions are the Kansas City Chiefs , who defeated the San Francisco 49ers by a score of 25–22 in Super Bowl LVIII . On August 20, 1920, a meeting was held by representatives of the Akron Pros , Canton Bulldogs , Cleveland Indians , and Dayton Triangles at the Jordan and Hupmobile auto showroom in Canton, Ohio . This meeting resulted in
11816-520: The New Orleans Saints and the Seattle Seahawks . Andrews once again joined Pam Oliver as sideline reporter for Wild Card weekend, NFC Championship, Thanksgiving, and Super Bowl XLVIII . Andrews and Oliver would later swap teams the following season with Andrews joining Buck and Aikman, and Oliver joining Burkhardt and Lynch. Meanwhile, Brian Billick was not offered a contract extension with
12027-665: The Skycam camera system was used for the first time in a live telecast, at a 1984 preseason NFL game in San Diego between the Chargers and 49ers , and televised by CBS. Commentator John Madden famously used a telestrator during games between the early 1980s to the mid-2000s, boosting the device's popularity. Each April (excluding 2014 when it took place in May), the NFL holds a draft of college players. The draft consists of seven rounds, with each of
12238-485: The Sparks Energy 300 , the Xfinity race at Talladega Superspeedway , was an all-drivers broadcast, the second time that a national sporting event was covered entirely by active athletes, the first being the aforementioned Pocono race. The presenters provided coverage from all three perspectives during the race (Hollywood Hotel studio, lap-by-lap commentary and pit road coverage). The booth team of Harvick, Logano and Bowyer
12449-506: The Tampa Bay Buccaneers - Green Bay Packers game on Week 13. Meanwhile, Mark Schlereth joined Fox Sports this year and became Dick Stockton's broadcast partner. Mike Pereira , who previously served as offsite rules analyst, moved to an on-site role with the lead broadcast team for select games. Dean Blandino , who recently resigned from his title as VP of Officiating earlier in the year, replaced Pereira as rules analyst when Pereira
12660-523: The United States Football League or Canadian Football League . Like the other major sports leagues in the United States , the NFL maintains protocol for a disaster draft . In the event of a 'near disaster' (less than 15 players killed or disabled) that caused the club to lose a quarterback, they could draft one from a team with at least three quarterbacks. In the event of a 'disaster' (15 or more players killed or disabled) that results in
12871-527: The aspect ratio of HDTV sets. As previously alluded to, this was Summerall's 26th and final Super Bowl broadcast on television or radio. It was also the eighth and final Super Bowl telecast (and final NFL telecast of any kind) for the Summerall and Madden announcing team. The two had become the NFL's most famous broadcast duo since they were paired together in 1981 on CBS . Joe Buck, Troy Aikman , and Cris Collinsworth replaced Pat Summerall and John Madden as
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#173309257788813082-551: The four that the network had before the deal . The new affiliates in St. Louis and Greensboro switched shortly before the Rams relocated from Los Angeles and the Carolina Panthers began play with the 1995 preseason. Besides giving the network leverage in attracting new affiliates, the rights gave Fox many new viewers and a platform for advertising its other shows. Fox's acquisition of
13293-457: The playoffs , a single-elimination tournament , which culminates in the Super Bowl , played in early February between the winners of the AFC and NFC championship games. The NFL was formed in 1920 as the American Professional Football Association ( APFA ) before renaming itself the National Football League for the 1922 season . After initially determining champions through end-of-season standings,
13504-610: The #1 team of Buck, Aikman, and Oliver for the playoffs that year. Chris Myers meanwhile joined the Brennaman/Billick/Laura Okmin crew for the Divisional game. After the 2012 season, Ron Pitts left Fox Sports after being part of the NFL broadcast team for 18 years and joined OK!TV . Kevin Burkhardt replaced him. The following year , Burkhardt, John Lynch, and Andrews called the Divisional Playoff game between
13715-507: The #4 team with Kenny Albert and Jonathan Vilma. During Week 6, Fox College Football play-by-play voice Noah Eagle filled in for Amin on the #3 team while the latter worked the 2022 National League Division Series , while Brandon Gaudin filled Davis' role. In Weeks 7, 8 and 9, Amin temporarily replaced Davis on the #2 team while Myers moved to the #3 team and Gaudin took his place on the #5 team. During this period, Burkhardt continued to call NFL games, but Matt Vasgersian filled in for him in
13926-484: The #4 team with Kenny Albert. Spielman left Fox after Week 14 to join the Detroit Lions front office. Huard took over Spielman's place with Kugler. Stockton retired following the season. The 2021 season saw a few changes on the broadcast team. The #1 team with Buck, Aikman and Andrews added Tom Rinaldi as a second sideline reporter, while the #2 team led by Burkhardt now featured Greg Olsen as its analyst. Johnston
14137-439: The #6 team with Chris Spielman. With Charles Davis departing for CBS, his position at the #2 team with Kevin Burkhardt was filled by Daryl Johnston, who in turn was replaced by Brock Huard and Greg Jennings on the #5 team with Chris Myers. Adam Amin replaced Dick Stockton on the now-promoted #3 pairing with Mark Schlereth, though Stockton would continue to call select games when necessary. Jonathan Vilma replaced Ronde Barber on
14348-445: The #7 team. Kirk Morrison moved down to the #7 team and was joined by Chris Cooley and Matt Millen as rotating analysts. Laura Okmin and Tony Siragusa swapped broadcast teams as sideline reporters/analysts, joining the #3 and #4 teams, respectively. Holly Sonders joined the #3 and #5 team as a rotating sideline reporter. Danielle Trotta joined Peter Schrager as a rotating reporter for the #7 broadcast team. Brady Quinn moved down to
14559-471: The #8 team, where he was joined by his CFB broadcast partner Joe Davis . On September 27, 2015, Richard Deitsch of SI.com reported that, "in an effort to get Holly Sonders reps as an NFL sideline reporter", Fox Sports management pulled various assignments they had originally given Laura Okmin and Jennifer Hale on the #3 and #5 teams, respectively, and reassigned them to Sonders. The 2015 season marked Tony Siragusa's final season with Fox. During Weeks 5–8 of
14770-425: The 1990s, the inaugural winner, Emmitt Smith , famously threw the 2002 award into a trash can. Following the 2004 season , Cris Collinsworth left Fox Sports. After sitting out the 2005 season , he returned to NBC Sports for the 2006 season . For the 2006 season (the first after James Brown left to return to CBS as host of The NFL Today ), Fox experimented with a traveling pre-game show, hosted by Joe Buck from
14981-566: The 2013 season, Dick Stockton, Brady Quinn , and Kristina Pink were assigned college football responsibilities, leading to a makeshift #6 team. As the rotational broadcaster Brennaman was moved down to fill in for Stockton. He was joined by Donovan McNabb and Charissa Thompson. Kutcher once again filled in for Brennaman. In Week 15, Kutcher again filled in for Brennaman because this time, Brennaman had voice problems. In 2015 , Charles Davis replaces David Diehl as Thom Brennaman's analyst. Meanwhile, Sam Rosen replaced Mike Goldberg and Tim Brando on
15192-445: The 2014 season, alongside a new corporate style, Fox replaced the scrolling ticker with a leaderboard-style sidebar occupying the right-side portion of the screen, with one section displaying the top three drivers, and a scrolling section displaying the remainder of the field of drivers. While Fox Sports president Eric Shanks justified the changes, noting that it would allow more of the field to be displayed at once and more frequently than
15403-575: The 2015 season, Sam Rosen filled in for Kevin Burkhardt while Burkhardt worked the studio shows for Fox's MLB Playoff coverage. During Week 5, Justin Kutcher filled in for Kenny Albert while Albert worked the American League Division Series between the Texas Rangers and Toronto Blue Jays . During Weeks 6 and 8 Thom Brennaman filled in for Joe Buck, Kutcher filled in for Thom Brennaman, and Peter Schrager filled in for Erin Andrews during
15614-424: The 32 clubs getting one pick in each round. The draft order for non-playoff teams is determined by regular-season record; among playoff teams, teams are first ranked by the furthest round of the playoffs they reached, and then are ranked by regular-season record. For example, any team that reached the divisional round will be given a higher pick than any team that reached the conference championships, but will be given
15825-592: The 49ers football game and the Giants baseball game. Fox did not send its #2 team of Kenny Albert, Daryl Johnston, and Tony Siragusa to cover the playoffs in 2012 , marking the first time since Fox acquired NFL rights that they did this. Instead the #3 team of Thom Brennaman and Brian Billick were in the booth for the Divisional Playoffs, as they called the Seattle Seahawks at Atlanta Falcons match-up. Erin Andrews , who had joined Fox after leaving ESPN , joined
16036-448: The AFC package, and Fox carries afternoon games from the NFC package. These afternoon games are not carried on all affiliates, as multiple games are being played at once; each network affiliate is assigned one game per time slot, according to a complicated set of rules. Since 2011, the league has reserved the right to give Sunday games that, under the contract, would normally air on one network to
16247-612: The APFA awarded the Akron Pros the championship by virtue of their 8–0–3 record. The first event occurred on September 26, 1920, when the Rock Island Independents defeated the non-league St. Paul Ideals 48–0 at Douglas Park . On October 3, 1920, the first full week of league play occurred. The following season resulted in the Chicago Staleys controversially winning the title over the Buffalo All-Americans. On June 24, 1922,
16458-523: The APFA changed its name to the National Football League (NFL). In 1932 , the season ended with the Chicago Bears ( 6–1–6 ) and the Portsmouth Spartans ( 6–1–4 ) tied for first in the league standings. At the time, teams were ranked on a single table and the team with the highest winning percentage (not including ties, which were not counted towards the standings) at the end of the season
16669-589: The Charlotte studios. In 2020, due to the COVID-19 pandemic after the fourth race of the season Fox started using their Charlotte Studio to the maximum extent possible to avoid travel, ensure social distancing, and limit the number of staff onsite at races. The only on-air talent onsite was at most two pit reporters per race, all other talent was stationed at the Fox Studios in Charlotte. In 2021, Myers returned to hosting
16880-588: The Digger die-cast in 2009 and 2010. In response to the comments, in 2010, the Digger cartoon was not shown during pre-race shows and Digger appeared less often at the bottom of the screen. Throughout the 2011 season as well as the 2012 Budweiser Shootout and Daytona 500 , Digger appeared very sparingly, usually only during commercial bumpers. As of the 2012 Subway Fresh Fit 500 , all appearances and references to Digger were dropped entirely from Fox's NASCAR broadcasts. However, nods to it occasionally came up (for example, at
17091-647: The Fox booth as a guest color commentator for the Clash after deciding not to compete in the race as a driver. He would become a permanent color commentator for NBC in 2018 after he retired from driving full-time. With NBC's permission, Jr. returned to Fox as a guest color commentator for the GEICO 500 at Talladega in April 2022. On June 10, 2017, the Xfinity Series race at Pocono Raceway
17302-549: The Green Bay Packers to victories in the first two Super Bowls. Unlike the previous trophies, a new Vince Lombardi Trophy is issued to each year's champion, who maintains permanent control of it. Lombardi Trophies are made by Tiffany & Co. out of sterling silver and are worth anywhere from US$ 25,000 to US$ 300,000. Additionally, each player on the winning team as well as coaches and personnel are awarded Super Bowl rings to commemorate their victory. The winning team chooses
17513-457: The July 2013 spin-off of its publishing unit, now the current News Corp. ) began to upgrade some of its local affiliates – and eventually purchased additional stations from other television station groups, such as New World Communications and Chris-Craft Industries ' BHC Communications and United Television , making it the largest owner of television stations in the United States. The time now filled by NFL on Fox on Sunday afternoons during
17724-777: The MLB Playoffs. During Week 5 of the 2016 season , Kenny Albert had been scheduled to work the Los Angeles Dodgers - Washington Nationals National League Division Series series and the Washington Redskins - Baltimore Ravens game. Both events occurred 40 miles apart from Friday to Sunday. Rain postponed the Game 2 of the NLDS to Sunday and Fox kept Albert on baseball coverage, with Sam Rosen taking his place alongside Daryl Johnston. Sam Rosen remained with Daryl Johnston in Weeks 6–8, while Kenny Albert
17935-470: The NASCAR Cup Series season, as well as the first 14 Xfinity (formerly Nationwide) Series events. As a result, Fox will broadcast the races it already covers, as well as all of the events held in June, which include the events at Pocono and Michigan with coverage ending with the Toyota/Save Mart 350 at Sonoma. Fox had previously held rights to these three races under its initial 2001–06 contract. Under
18146-603: The NFC receive the George Halas Trophy , named after Chicago Bears founder George Halas , who is also considered one of the co-founders of the NFL. The AFC champions receive the Lamar Hunt Trophy , named after Lamar Hunt , the founder of the Kansas City Chiefs and the principal founder of the American Football League. Players on the winning team also receive a conference championship ring. The NFL recognizes
18357-554: The NFL announced the NFL Source initiative, aimed at increasing the number of minority- and women-owned businesses that work with the league throughout the year. NFL Source will be mandatory for teams that host major events, such as the Super Bowl and the NFL Draft, and their organizing committees, but will be optional for other contracts at the team level. The NFL will partner with the U.S. Black Chambers, Inc to help local businesses across
18568-402: The NFL by January 15 renouncing their remaining college eligibility. Clubs can trade away picks for future draft picks, but cannot trade the rights to players they have selected in previous drafts. Aside from the seven picks each club gets, compensatory draft picks are given to teams that have lost more compensatory free agents than they have gained. These are spread out from rounds 3 to 7, and
18779-516: The NFL cannot hold games on those days until the Friday before the third Saturday in December. While Saturday games late in the season are common, the league rarely holds Friday games, the most recent one being on Christmas Day in 2020. NFL games are rarely scheduled for Tuesday or Wednesday, and those days have only been used three times since 1948: in 2010, when a Sunday game was rescheduled to Tuesday due to
18990-455: The NFL could ultimately be liable for $ 14.39 billion. The league said it would ask the judge to set the verdict aside then appeal the verdict if needed. From 1920 to 1934, the NFL did not have a set number of games for teams to play, instead setting a minimum. The league mandated a twelve-game regular season for each team beginning in 1935 , later shortening this to eleven games in 1937 and ten games in 1943 , mainly due to World War II. After
19201-503: The NFL occupied the top three rates for a 30-second advertisement: $ 882,079 for Sunday Night Football , $ 562,524 for Monday Night Football , and $ 440,523 for Thursday Night Football . The league, in recent years, has expanded their televised broadcasts to over-the-top streaming services. Since 2022, Amazon holds the exclusive rights to broadcast the Thursday Night Football package. Prior to then, Amazon streamed games from
19412-401: The NFL on Fox in 2024, serving as the #1 analyst with Burkhardt. Olsen was then bumped to the #2 analyst role with Davis. Johnston is then paired with Kugler on the #5 team, while Sanchez moved to the #3 pairing with Amin. Mark Schlereth replaced Robert Smith on the #6 team with Myers, and Megan Olivi replaced the departing Shannon Spake on the #4 team with Albert and Vilma. Jason Benetti called
19623-587: The NFL realigned the conferences and split each into two four-team divisions. The four division champions would meet in the NFL playoffs , a two-round playoff. The NFL also operated the Playoff Bowl (officially the Bert Bell Benefit Bowl) from 1960 to 1969. Effectively, a third-place game , pitting the two conference runners-up against each other, the league considers Playoff Bowls to have been exhibitions rather than playoff games. The league discontinued
19834-536: The NFL to acquire the Monday Night Football contract for the same amount ABC that had been paying to carry the package, about US$ 1.3 billion at the time. However, the NFL, in part because Fox had not yet established itself as a major network, chose to renew its contract with ABC. Meanwhile, after the Fox Broadcasting Company was launched, David Dixon , founder of the above-mentioned USFL, proposed
20045-494: The NFL with National Hockey League (NHL) rights, but Fox then promptly outbid CBS for those as well; in addition, Fox took over the rights to Major League Baseball (MLB) in 1996, after the cancellation of The Baseball Network , which was a joint venture between NBC and ABC at the time and had replaced CBS two years prior. CBS began rebuilding itself after the network took the AFC television contract from NBC in 1998. Fox's acquisition of National Football League television rights
20256-449: The NFL would receive less money than the $ 3.6 billion for four years that ABC, CBS, NBC, TNT, and ESPN had paid in 1990. Fox wanted the NFL to build credibility for itself; even those working in television thought of it as "the one that has that cartoon show" ( The Simpsons ). More than 85% of affiliates were UHF stations. Knowing that it would likely need to bid considerably more than the incumbent networks, Fox bid $ 1.58 billion to obtain
20467-561: The National Football Conference contract severely affected CBS, beyond losing a marquee sporting event and some of its key talent and production staff. Not only was it largely relegated to former Fox affiliates and lesser known independent stations in the markets affected by Fox's affiliation agreement with New World, but CBS' older-skewing programming slate caused it to struggle further in the ratings , pushing it to third place, ahead of fourth-place Fox. CBS had hoped to replace
20678-479: The Playoff Bowl in 1970 due to its perception as a game for losers. Following the addition of the former AFL teams into the NFL in 1970 , the NFL split into two conferences with three divisions each. The expanded league, now with twenty-six teams, would also feature an expanded eight-team playoff, the participants being the three division champions from each conference as well as one 'wild card' team (the team with
20889-609: The Talladega race in 2014, when Carl Edwards showed debris on his firesuit, Mike Joy commented that he hoped that nothing had happened to Digger, to which Darrell Waltrip responded, "Digger's retired"). Digger made a cameo appearance in the 2009 20th Century Fox film Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel . He also made an appearance in the Fox NFL Sunday introduction during the December 20, 2009 broadcast, in which
21100-501: The Top 50 most valuable sports teams in the world; and 16 of the NFL's owners are listed on the Forbes 400 , the most of any sports league or organization. At the corporate level, the National Football League considers itself a trade association made up of and financed by its 32 member teams. Up until 2015, the league was an unincorporated nonprofit 501(c)(6) association. Section 501(c)(6) of
21311-513: The United States and 69% of all potential viewers in the United States. NFL regular season games accounted for 31 out of the top 32 most-watched programs in the fall season and an NFL game ranked as the most-watched television show in all 17 weeks of the regular season. At the local level, NFL games were the highest-ranked shows in NFL markets 92% of the time. Super Bowls account for the 22 most-watched programs (based on total audience) in US history, including
21522-471: The Vikings were able to use theirs. Selected players are only allowed to negotiate contracts with the team that picked them, but if they choose not to sign they become eligible for the next year's draft. Under the current collective bargaining contract, all contracts to drafted players must be four-year deals with a club option for a fifth. Contracts themselves are limited to a certain amount of money, depending on
21733-545: The Xfinity, Truck and ARCA Series. Retired Cup Series driver Tony Stewart was the first guest color commentator and was in the booth for the Clash, the Daytona 500 and the race at COTA. NOTE: This is Fox's Cup Series commentator lineup for 2024. Booth announcers Race Strategy, Technical and Rules analyst Pit reporters Pre-race show (at track) NOTE: This is Fox's 2024 Xfinity & Truck and ARCA commentator lineup for 2024. For Xfinity, Truck and ARCA broadcasts,
21944-923: The Year Award , which recognizes a player's off-field work in addition to his on-field performance. The NFL Coach of the Year award is the highest coaching award. The NFL also gives out weekly awards such as the FedEx Air & Ground NFL Players of the Week and the Pepsi MAX NFL Rookie of the Week awards. In the United States, the National Football League is televised on eight networks across seven media partners: ESPN / ABC , CBS , Fox , NBC , Prime Video , Netflix , and NFL Network . The league offers its media rights in packages of games to prospective media partners. The packages can vary depending on conference, broadcast time slot, or both. CBS televises afternoon games from
22155-646: The at-track portions of pre-race alongside Jeff Gordon and Clint Bowyer . Spake, McReynolds, and McMurrary host pre-race coverage from the Charlotte studios. After the 2021 season, Gordon left Fox to work for Hendrick Motorsports full-time as the team's Vice Chairman. (He had previously worked with the team during the second half of the Cup Series season when NBC was broadcasting the races, after spending his entire full-time career with them). Fox did not replace him with one permanent color commentator and instead filled his spot with rotating guest commentators as they do in
22366-406: The beginning of his tenure to 17 million by the end of his tenure, and 400 million global viewers watched 1989's Super Bowl XXIII . The NFL established NFL Properties in 1963. The league's licensing wing, NFL Properties, earns the league billions of dollars annually; Rozelle's tenure also marked the creation of NFL Charities and a national partnership with United Way . Paul Tagliabue
22577-410: The best overall record, with tiebreakers in the event of two or more teams having the same record). These teams are seeded according to overall record and tiebreakers, with the division champions always ranking higher than the wild card teams. The top team (seeded one) from each conference are awarded a bye week, while the remaining six teams (seeded 2–7) from each conference compete in the first round of
22788-492: The best win percentage that did not win its division) from each conference. In 1978, the league added a second wild card team from each conference, bringing the total number of playoff teams to ten, and a further two wild card teams were added in 1990 to bring the total to twelve. When the NFL expanded to 32 teams in 2002 , the league realigned, changing the division structure from three divisions in each conference to four divisions in each conference. As each division champion gets
22999-401: The biggest crock of shit I've ever heard." Among the reasons of criticism is the purpose of the character's usage. Though it was at one time commonplace for networks to create mascots for sports coverage to incorporate an educational and entertaining element into their coverage, which was the case with Peter Puck , Digger was created purely to add entertainment to the broadcast and reach out to
23210-438: The broadcast television rights and two that would hold the cable television rights), split between Fox and sister cable channel FX , and NBC and TBS (whose rights were later assumed by TNT ) starting with the 2001 season. Fox and FX would alternate coverage of all races held during the first half of the season, while NBC and TNT would air all races held during the second half. Beginning in 2001, Fox alternated coverage of
23421-545: The broadcasting rights, scoring had been displayed in a box on the top left corner. Fox was also the first network to use the unique font/styling for each car number (such as Dale Earnhardt's number 3, Jeff Gordon's 24, the Petty 43) for their on-screen graphics, as opposed to a generic font (however the banner continued to use just text). Other networks would adopt this innovation and is now commonplace for most American motorsport broadcasts. From its debut until 2013, Fox initially used
23632-417: The broadcasts on ESPN or ABC. ESPN also holds exclusive rights to stream one Sunday morning international game on ESPN+. Beginning in 2024, Netflix holds the global streaming rights for at least one Christmas Day game every season as part of a three-year deal. The Super Bowl television rights are rotated on a four-year basis between CBS, Fox, NBC, and ESPN/ABC. The NFL's most recent contract negotiation for
23843-521: The broadcasts. After a NASCAR town hall-style meeting at the end of May 2009, Fox Sports chair David Hill reported receiving an email from a high-ranking NASCAR official whose identity he chose to conceal, stating that Digger could have been the cause of ratings declines for Fox's NASCAR coverage. Hill said "It was because of Digger that people were turning off in droves because they couldn't stand it, I said, I'm so sorry. If I'd known, I never would have created him. I didn't realize how insidious he was. It's
24054-414: The commissioner, secretary, and treasurer. Each conference has one defined officer, the president, which is essentially an honorary position with few powers and mostly ceremonial duties, including awarding the conference championship trophy. The commissioner is elected by the affirmative vote of two-thirds or eighteen (whichever is greater) of the members of the league, while the president of each conference
24265-462: The company that makes the rings; each ring design varies, with the NFL mandating certain ring specifications (which have a degree of room for deviation), in addition to requiring the Super Bowl logo be on at least one side of the ring. The losing team are also awarded rings, which must be no more than half as valuable as the winners' rings, but those are almost never worn. The conference champions receive trophies for their achievement. The champions of
24476-463: The country obtain the certifications necessary to do business with the league in furtherance of its efforts to increase partnerships with certified and underrepresented businesses that are 51% owned and operated or led by a veteran, woman, minority, person with disabilities or LGBTQ+. In 2015, a class-action lawsuit was filed on behalf of NFL Sunday Ticket subscribers, alleging that the NFL, its member teams, its broadcast partners, and DirecTV engaged in
24687-512: The creation of the "American Football Federation", a spring league that would be made up of ten teams and draft high school graduates who were declared academically ineligible to play College Football by the NCAA . The proposed league never came to fruition. Despite having a few successful shows in its slate, the network did not have a significant market share until the early 1990s when Fox parent News Corporation (which became 21st Century Fox through
24898-435: The critical role that soccer programming had played in the growth of British satellite service BSkyB , believed that sports, and specifically professional football, would be the engine that would turn Fox into a major network the quickest. To this end, Fox had bid aggressively for football broadcast rights almost from the start. It notably passed on the original United States Football League (USFL), which had hoped to move to
25109-642: The current league champion, the league issued a smaller replica trophy to each champion, who would maintain permanent control over it. The current location of the Ed Thorp Memorial Trophy, long thought to be lost, is believed to be possessed by the Green Bay Packers Hall of Fame . The current trophy of the NFL is the Vince Lombardi Trophy . The Super Bowl trophy was officially renamed in 1970 after Vince Lombardi , who as head coach led
25320-477: The deal: In November 2023, Fox extended its contract through 2031. Fox will significantly decrease the amount of races aired compared to the previous contract. Under the deal: From 2001 to 2018, Fox used a portable studio called the Hollywood Hotel for pre-race coverage. For the 2001 to 2007 races held at Daytona International Speedway , the building next to Gatorade Victory Lane was used instead. If
25531-456: The end of the 1998 season, the starting lineups were shown using a virtual TV. To TV viewers, it appeared as if the end zone opened up and a giant TV came up out of the ground. The virtual TV displayed video announcing the starting lineups. The virtual TV effect was provided by PVI Virtual Media Services using their L-VIS virtual graphics system. 2001 was the final year of commentating NFL games full-time for Pat Summerall , as his retirement
25742-407: The exact draft pick the player was selected with. Players who were draft eligible but not picked in the draft are free to sign with any club. The NFL operates several other drafts in addition to the NFL draft. The league holds a supplemental draft annually. Clubs submit emails to the league stating the player they wish to select and the round they will do so, and the team with the highest bid wins
25953-518: The exception of the non-profit Green Bay Packers , is subject to tax because they make a profit. In 2015, the NFL gave up its tax-exempt status following public criticism; in a letter to the club owners, Commissioner Roger Goodell labeled it a "distraction", saying "the effects of the tax-exempt status of the league office have been mischaracterized repeatedly in recent years… Every dollar of income generated through television rights fees, licensing agreements, sponsorships, ticket sales, and other means
26164-475: The exclusive U.S. television rights to Super Bowl XXXI (held in 1997) under the initial contract, which took effect with the 1994 season . The unexpectedly high bids from Fox and other networks increased the NFL salary cap , new in 1994, to $ 34 million from the predicted $ 32 million. CBS's Laurence Tisch had apparently underestimated the value of its NFL rights with respect to its advertising revenues and to its promotional opportunities for other programming on
26375-427: The fall and winter months was formerly in the control of the stations themselves (and still is to some extent outside of the NFL season, particularly during weeks when no sports programming is scheduled at all by the network, as well as on non-doubleheader weeks during the season or in home markets when a competing channel is airing a home game cancelling a doubleheader on Fox stations in those areas), which usually filled
26586-465: The fall in 1986 , the same time Fox was to debut, and was seeking a broadcast contract; the USFL would shut down instead. In 1987, Fox's first full year on the air, ABC initially hedged on renewing its contract to carry Monday Night Football – then the league's crown-jewel program – and was in the middle of negotiations to reach a new contract, due to an increased expense of the rights. Fox made an offer to
26797-537: The first and most preeminent race of the season, the Daytona 500 , with Fox televising the race in odd-numbered years and NBC airing it in even-numbered years through 2006. For balance, the network that did not air the 500 in a given year during the contract would air Daytona's summer night race, the Pepsi 400 . Valued at $ 2.4 billion, Fox/FX held the rights to this particular contract for eight years (through 2008) and NBC/TNT having
27008-432: The following month on September 4, with the premiere of Fox NFL Sunday , followed by a slate of six regionally televised regular season games on the first Sunday of the 1994 season . Though Fox was growing rapidly as a network, and had established itself as a presence, it was still not considered a major competitor to the more-established " Big Three " broadcast networks ( ABC , CBS and NBC ). Fox management, having seen
27219-623: The formation of the American Professional Football Conference (APFC), a group who, according to the Canton Evening Repository , intended to "raise the standard of professional football in every way possible, to eliminate bidding for players between rival clubs and to secure cooperation in the formation of schedules". A second meeting was held on September 17, 1920, with representatives from teams within four states: Akron, Canton, Cleveland, and Dayton from Ohio;
27430-571: The former. In weeks when Fox airs a doubleheader , the late broadcast (which airs nationwide in nearly all markets, there typically being only one to three games taking place at the time) airs under the brand America's Game of the Week . The network aired its inaugural NFL game telecast on August 12, 1994, with a preseason game between the Denver Broncos and the San Francisco 49ers at Candlestick Park in San Francisco. Coverage formally began
27641-425: The game was moved to the week before. Because of this, players from the teams participating in the Super Bowl are exempt from participating in the game. The Pro Bowl is not considered as competitive as a regular-season game because the biggest concern of teams is to avoid injuries to the players. The National Football League has used three different trophies to honor its champion over its existence. The first trophy,
27852-415: The graphic positioned over live action has become the norm in virtually all sports broadcasts at the national and regional production levels. Following the 1997 season , Joe Buck did not call another NFL game on Fox until 2001 . For Fox's first two years of NFL coverage, Buck was paired with Tim Green on the fourth-tier team. And in 1997, Buck was teamed with Bill Maas on the fourth-tier team. Between
28063-467: The group, nearly 50 more potential schedules were developed to try to ensure that the chosen schedule would be the best possible one. Following the conclusion of the regular season, the NFL Playoffs, a 14-team single-elimination tournament, is then held. Seven teams are selected from each conference: the winners of each of the four divisions as well as three wild card teams (the three remaining teams with
28274-522: The guest color commentator will usually be an active Cup Series driver, if not a crew chief. In 2022 and 2023, they also did this for the Cup Series to replace Jeff Gordon until Kevin Harvick started as a permanent color commentator in 2024. The guest color commentators for the Cup Series have been retired Cup Series drivers and crew chiefs. See List of NASCAR on Fox broadcasters#Former commentators The original theme music for NASCAR on Fox broadcasts
28485-532: The higher remaining seed hosting the lower remaining seed. The AFC and NFC champions then compete in the Super Bowl to determine the league champion. The only other postseason event hosted by the NFL is the Pro Bowl , the league's all-star game . Since 2009, the Pro Bowl has been held the week before the Super Bowl ; in previous years, the game was held the week following the Super Bowl, but in an effort to boost ratings,
28696-446: The highest professional level of American football in the world. Each NFL season begins annually with a three-week preseason in August, followed by the 18-week regular season , which runs from early September to early January, with each team playing 17 games and having one bye week . Following the conclusion of the regular season, seven teams from each conference, including four division winners and three wild card teams, advance to
28907-422: The infield of a fictional racetrack. Other characters include his girlfriend Annie and the track's security chief, Lumpy Wheels (respectively named after the daughter of Fox Sports president David Hill , and former track promoter Humpy Wheeler ). Digger's souvenir trailer at the tracks attracted sizeable crowds of families with young children. However, the cartoon segment drew wide opposition from regular viewers of
29118-539: The infield, depending on the venue. The idea was to build a crowd around the production of the segment; this has similarities to Fox's own NFL pregame show in 2006 , as well as the College GameDay football and basketball shows on ESPN. In 2012 , John Roberts filled in for Chris Myers as host for the Budweiser Shootout and the Daytona 500 , as Myers was on bereavement leave following his son's death in
29329-479: The last of which was gaining a national following in the 1990s. Despite so much skepticism that the network had to assure the NFL and media that Bart Simpson would not be an announcer, to the surprise of many in the sports and media industries, on December 17, 1993, the NFL selected the bid offered by Fox, stripping CBS of football for the first time since 1956 . Fox's coverage, in addition to being able to televise NFC regular season and playoff games, also included
29540-1028: The latter called the ALCS and World Series . Either Dan Hellie or Justin Kutcher took Thom Brennaman's place on the #4 announcing crew. Originally, Jay Cutler was slated to join Kevin Burkhardt and Charles Davis. Cutler ended up coming out of retirement for 2017, signing with the Miami Dolphins due to the injury of Ryan Tannehill . Also in 2017, Ronde Barber and Daryl Johnston switched broadcast teams; Barber joined Kenny Albert and Johnston joined Chris Myers. Chris Spielman became Thom Brennaman's permanent broadcast partner. However, he became Dan Hellie's temporary partner for Weeks 6 and 7 and Justin Kutcher's temporary partner for Week 8. David Diehl became Sam Rosen's permanent partner except for Week 14 when Brady Quinn joined Rosen and for Week 17 when Matt Millen joined him. Greg Jennings became Tim Brando's temporary partner for
29751-456: The lead voice of Fox's MLB broadcasts, moved to the #2 team after serving as a fill-in announcer for a number of seasons. Davis was joined by Daryl Johnston and Pam Oliver. Sideline reporter Kristina Pink then joined the #3 team with Adam Amin and Mark Schlereth after serving the same role on Thursday Night Football. Elsewhere, Johnston's spot with Myers on the #5 team was filled in by Robert Smith , and Shannon Spake replaced Lindsay Czarniak on
29962-730: The league during the year). The Massillon Tigers from Massillon, Ohio was also at the September 17 meeting, but did not field a team in 1920. Only two of these teams, the Decatur Staleys (now the Chicago Bears) and the Chicago Cardinals (now the Arizona Cardinals), remain in the NFL. Although the league did not maintain official standings for its 1920 inaugural season and teams played schedules that included non-league opponents,
30173-469: The league has to account for, among other things, the Major League Baseball postseason and local events that could pose a scheduling conflict with NFL games. During the 2010 season, over 500,000 potential schedules were created by computers, 5,000 of which were considered "playable schedules" and were reviewed by the NFL's scheduling team. After arriving at what they felt was the best schedule out of
30384-512: The media rights deal was announced on March 18, 2021, to take effect beginning in the 2023 season. The deal renewed previous rights agreements made by the NFL and each of its network partners to air their respective game packages, while awarding Amazon the Thursday Night Football package. ESPN/ABC is set to return to the Super Bowl broadcast rotation and will broadcast the Super Bowl on U.S. television in 2027, 21 years after airing its last Super Bowl, Super Bowl XL . Digital and streaming distribution
30595-468: The most watched television programs in American history and all occupying the top five of Nielsen 's all-time most-watched U.S. television broadcasts by 2015. The NFL is headquartered in Midtown Manhattan . The Green Bay Packers hold the most combined NFL championships with thirteen, winning nine titles before the Super Bowl era and four Super Bowls afterwards. Since the creation of the Super Bowl,
30806-460: The network introduced a new award for their Thanksgiving Day telecast starting in 2002, named the "Galloping Gobbler." It was represented by a small figurine of a cartoonish, silver turkey wearing a football helmet striking a Heisman-like pose. Much like Cleatus and Digger , the original Galloping Gobbler trophy reflected Fox's irreverent mascots, and went through several iterations. Unimpressed by its tackiness after having won four Turkey Legs in
31017-423: The network introduced the "Gopher Cam" full-time in 2008, a camera angle from the bottom banking of a track's turn. Fox implied that it invented the technology. However, it was quickly brought to light that Terry Lingner of ESPN, along with engineer James Fishman, had developed the technology 15 years earlier under the name "Tread Cam.” However, it should be known that the devices are completely different. "Digger,"
31228-637: The network's #2 broadcast team, while James Brown , who had called play-by-play for CBS' game telecasts, was hired to be the studio host. Fox also hired a set of the next generation of young, up-and-coming play-by-play announcers for its lower-level broadcast crews: 26-year-old Kenny Albert , son of legendary sports announcer Marv Albert ; 30-year-old Thom Brennaman , son of longtime Cincinnati Reds announcer Marty Brennaman ; 25-year-old Joe Buck , son of legendary sports announcer Jack Buck ; and 34-year-old Kevin Harlan , son of Green Bay Packers executive Bob Harlan . Fox sought to raise its station profile as
31439-581: The network. Indeed, Fox was still an upstart player in 1993, not yet considered on par with CBS, NBC and ABC, the three longer established major networks (Fox, by comparison, had debuted in October 1986 as the only venture at a fourth television network since the 1956 demise of the DuMont Television Network to truly compete with the "Big Three"). The network already had offbeat hits such as The Simpsons , Married... with Children , and Beverly Hills, 90210 on its schedule. However, Fox did not have
31650-520: The new Fox Sports division, Fox began luring over members of the CBS Sports staff, hiring longtime producer Ed Goren as Hill's second-in-command. Fox was also able to procure Pat Summerall and Madden to be its lead broadcast team, a capacity they had been serving for CBS. Terry Bradshaw , who was previously co-host of The NFL Today , was added to serve as the pregame show's lead analyst. Dick Stockton and Matt Millen also came over from CBS and became
31861-449: The new layout. By the Daytona 500, the graphic had been revised to remove the opaque sidebar, and make the leaderboard slightly translucent. In 2019, during Daytona 500 qualifying, Fox introduced a new augmented reality " GhostCar ," allowing for a live visualization of a previous driver's qualifying lap (such as the leader or driver on the bubble) to be overlaid into live footage of another driver's qualifying attempt. NBC had introduced
32072-698: The number 1 announcing team. Summerall, however, would continue to work for Fox in 2002 , calling almost all Dallas Cowboys games alongside Brian Baldinger . One notable exception was in Week 8, when Summerall called the Cowboys- Seattle Seahawks game alongside Daryl Johnston and Baldinger worked the Arizona Cardinals - San Francisco 49ers game alongside Kenny Albert . At this point, it would become common practice for Joe Buck to take time off from calling NFL games in order to cover postseason baseball for Fox . When John Madden left Fox after 2001,
32283-454: The online streaming rights for its event telecasts; the Fox Sports contract also retains coverage of the first 13 races of the NASCAR Cup Series and exclusive coverage of the Daytona 500. On August 1, 2013, Fox Sports extended its contract by two additional years through 2024, due to NASCAR's contract with NBC Sports running through that same time, and acquired the rights to the first 16 races of
32494-561: The other in Los Angeles traffic . With Kristina Pink moving to a co-sideline reporter for Thursday Night Football , the #3 team of Kenny Albert/Ronde Barber had rotating sideline reporters throughout the season. Weeks before the 2020 season, Fox dropped Thom Brennaman following the controversy surrounding his use of a homophobic slur while working as the television voice of the Cincinnati Reds . Kevin Kugler took over Brennaman's slot on
32705-462: The other network (known as "flexible scheduling"). The only way to legally watch a regionally televised game not being carried on the local network affiliates is to purchase NFL Sunday Ticket, the league's out-of-market sports package , which is available through YouTube TV starting with the 2023 season. The league also provides NFL RedZone , an omnibus telecast that cuts to the most relevant plays in each game, live as they happen. In addition to
32916-495: The other three teams in the division, while one game is held against all the members of a division from the NFC and a division from the AFC as determined by a rotating cycle (three years for the conference the team is in, and four years in the conference they are not in). Two of the other games are intraconference games, determined by the standings of the previous year – for example, if a team finishes first in its division, it will play two other first-place teams in its conference, while
33127-473: The others). The telecast ended up being the highest-rated program in the history of the then ten-year-old Fox network, and it currently ties Super Bowl XLII for the highest-rated program in the entire history of the network. Fox's broadcast was also the first Super Bowl to have a constant, live-updating graphic for the score, time and down, and distance. The FoxBox was used also in Super Bowl XXXIII , and
33338-570: The package was built upon visual elements from the then-current NFL on Fox branding, including the use of stylized "comic book" illustrations of drivers. NASCAR on Fox has won 13 Emmy Awards for its coverage, including three for Outstanding Sports Series (2001, 2005, 2007), six for Outstanding Live Event Audio Sound (2002, 2005, 2006, 2011, 2012, 2013), one for Outstanding Graphic Design (2001), five for Outstanding Technical Team Remote (2001, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2007) and one for Promotional Announcement Episodic (2008). After limited usage in 2007,
33549-399: The player to negotiate with other clubs but gives his former club the right to match any offer and two first-round draft picks if they decline to match it. NASCAR on Fox NASCAR on Fox , also known as Fox NASCAR , is the branding used for broadcasts of NASCAR races produced by Fox Sports and have aired on the Fox television network in the United States since 2001. Speed ,
33760-592: The playoffs, the Wild Card round, with the 2-seed competing against the 7-seed, the 3-seed competing against the 6-seed and the 4-seed competing against the 5-seed. The winners of the Wild Card round advance to the Divisional Round, which matches the lower seeded team against the 1-seed and the two remaining teams against each other. The winners of those games then compete in the Conference Championships, with
33971-414: The pre-merger NFL teams, and the American Football Conference (AFC), consisting of all of the AFL teams as well as three pre-merger NFL teams. Today, the NFL is the most popular sports league in North America – with much of the league's growth and popularity attributable to former Commissioner Pete Rozelle , who led the league from 1960 to 1989. Overall annual attendance increased from 3 million at
34182-435: The preseason does not count towards standings, teams generally do not focus on winning games; instead, they are used by coaches to evaluate their teams and by players to show their performance, both to their current team and to other teams if they get cut. The quality of preseason games has been criticized by some fans, who dislike having to pay full price for exhibition games, as well as by some players and coaches, who dislike
34393-461: The previous commissioner, retired. The NFL season format consists of a three-week preseason , an 18-week regular season (each team plays 17 games), and a 14-team single-elimination playoff culminating in the Super Bowl, the league's championship game. The NFL preseason begins with the Pro Football Hall of Fame Game , played at Tom Benson Hall of Fame Stadium in Canton . Each NFL team
34604-583: The previous week for the Budweiser Shootout as Myers was on bereavement leave. However, if a Saturday night race is rained out to Sunday then the studio will be in use for the delayed coverage. Prior to 2015, if the hotel was no longer available, Jeff Hammond could be shifted to substitute for a pit reporter or analyst if necessary. For instance, Hammond did this in 2002 for the Dodge/Save Mart 350 at Sonoma Raceway to replace Steve Byrnes , as Byrnes
34815-468: The race is delayed to a Monday, the Hollywood Hotel studio was usually not used, with the exception of the 2012 Daytona 500 , which was delayed by one day. This was because Myers also hosted a talk-show for Fox Sports Radio , resulting in him having to return to Los Angeles to begin the following week's shows. John Roberts filled in for Myers for this particular race, and had also filled in for Myers
35026-545: The regional games, the league also has packages of telecasts, mostly in prime time, that are carried nationwide. NBC broadcasts the primetime Sunday Night Football package, which includes the Thursday NFL Kickoff game that starts the regular season and a primetime Thanksgiving Day game . ESPN is the main broadcaster of the Monday Night Football package with ABC airing select games either exclusively or as
35237-511: The regular season, Thom Brennaman filled in for Buck during the MLB playoffs. During Weeks 15-17 of the regular season Charles Davis filled in for Jim Mora , who accepted the head coaching job at UCLA Bruins in 2012 . During Week 6 of the 2012 regular season , Thom Brennaman was set to call the New York Giants vs. San Francisco 49ers football game instead of Joe Buck, who was scheduled to call
35448-405: The relatively longer ticker, the leaderboard was criticized by viewers during events leading up to the Daytona 500 (such as the Sprint Unlimited, Daytona 500 qualifying, and the ARCA series Lucas Oil 200 ) for obstructing too much of the screen. In response to the criticism, Shanks stated that the layout of the leaderboard would be revised in time for the Daytona 500 . The vertical leaderboard
35659-456: The rest of the state the club operates in, as well as the area the team operates its training camp in for the duration of the camp). Each NFL member has the exclusive right to host professional football games inside its Home Territory and the exclusive right to advertise, promote, and host events in its Home Marketing Area. There are a couple of exceptions to this rule, mostly relating to teams with close proximity to each other: teams that operate in
35870-419: The rights for six years (through 2006). Fox Sports Net covered the 2001 Gatorade Twin 125's at Daytona International Speedway, the only time it ever covered a race. Further on the cable side, in October 2002, Speed Channel – which was owned by the Fox broadcast network's parent subsidiary Fox Entertainment Group – obtained the rights to televise all of the races in the Craftsman Truck Series ,
36081-420: The rights to that player. The exact order is determined by a lottery held before the draft, and a successful bid for a player will result in the team forfeiting the rights to its pick in the equivalent round of the next NFL draft. Players are only eligible for the supplemental draft after being granted a petition for special eligibility. The league holds expansion drafts , the most recent happening in 2002 when
36292-443: The risk of injury the games have, while others have felt the preseason is a necessary part of the NFL season. Currently, the 14 opponents each team faces over the 17-game regular season schedule are set using a predetermined formula: The league runs an 18-week, 272-game regular season. Since 2021, the season has begun the week after Labor Day (the first Monday in September) and concluded the week after New Year. The opening game of
36503-414: The same city (e.g. New York City and Los Angeles) or the same state (e.g. California , Florida , and Texas ) share the rights to the city's Home Territory and the state's Home Marketing Area, respectively. According to Forbes , the Dallas Cowboys , at approximately US$ 8 billion, are the most valuable NFL franchise and the most valuable sports team in the world. 26 of the 32 NFL teams rank among
36714-520: The same package as part of a tri-cast model that saw games aired on broadcast television (initially through CBS and NBC, then later with Fox), cable television (through NFL Network), and digital streaming (through Prime Video). Amazon has also streamed games for free on Twitch since 2018. CBS streams its AFC package games on Paramount+ as a simulcast with its CBS broadcasts. NBC streams Sunday Night Football and select exclusive games on Peacock . ESPN streams its games on ESPN+ in simulcast with
36925-441: The schedule will give half the teams nine games as the home team, while half the teams have only eight home games. To minimize the perceived benefit on competition of having more home games, the extra home game will be rotated between the two conferences each year. This is because playoff berths are allocated at the conference level, so all teams within the conference will have played the same number of home games. The NFL operated in
37136-549: The season is normally a home game on a Thursday for the league's defending champion. Most NFL games are played on Sundays, with a Monday night game typically held at least once a week and Thursday night games occurring on most weeks as well. NFL games are not normally played on Fridays or Saturdays until late in the regular season, as federal law prohibits professional football leagues from competing with college or high school football. Because high school and college teams typically play games on Friday and Saturday, respectively,
37347-412: The site of the game to which he was assigned. The halftime and postgame shows were hosted by Curt Menefee . During Week 14 of the regular season, Thom Brennaman , Charles Davis and Barry Alvarez took over the #4 team for Sam Rosen and Tim Ryan . During Weeks 6–8 of the 2006 regular season , Dick Stockton filled in for Joe Buck, during the MLB playoffs, and Kenny Albert filled in for Stockton, who
37558-403: The smaller playing field, the Bears won the game 9–0 and thus won the championship. Fan interest in the de facto championship game led the NFL, beginning in 1933 , to split into two divisions with a championship game to be played between the division champions. The 1934 season also marked the first of twelve seasons in which African Americans were absent from the league . The de facto ban
37769-424: The sport safer, mainly through fining or suspending players who break rules. These actions are among many the NFL is taking to reduce concussions and improve player safety. Prior to 2021, the NFL had utilized race-based adjustments of dementia claims in the $ 1 billion settlement of concussion claims, which had been criticized by critics before the NFL decided to end what was called "race-norming". On May 21, 2024,
37980-455: The stands and of the on-field action (including conversations and strategy outlines between coaches and players). These innovations were adopted by rival networks and helped to drive the development of further innovations such as the on-air display of virtual first-down and scrimmage lines . In 1989 , John Madden , then of CBS awarded the first "Turkey Leg Award", for the Thanksgiving Day game 's most valuable player. Pursuant to its name, it
38191-430: The start of its NFL contract came closer by approaching other broadcasters about switching their VHF stations (channels 2 to 13) to the network from one of the other established networks. On May 23, 1994, News Corporation struck an alliance with New World Communications, a television and film production company that by now was a key station group with several VHF CBS affiliates in NFC markets in its portfolio, and wary of
38402-466: The studio during MLB postseason coverage. In Week 17, Jason Benetti made his NFL on Fox debut calling the Arizona Cardinals – Atlanta Falcons game with Brady Quinn . Rules analyst Mike Pereira missed the 2023 season due to injury, leaving Dean Blandino as the sole rules analyst for the duration of the season. Pereira returned in 2024, again splitting duties with Blandino, though he mainly appears on screen with Burkhardt's team. Brady officially joined
38613-499: The summer of 1994, SF Broadcasting (a recently formed joint venture between Fox and Savoy Pictures ) purchased four stations from Burnham Broadcasting, which also became Fox affiliates between September 1995 and January 1996. In the NFC markets affected by the deals, Fox gained VHF affiliates in eight primary markets ( Atlanta , Dallas , Detroit , Green Bay , New Orleans , Phoenix , St. Louis and Tampa ) and three satellite markets ( Austin , Greensboro and Milwaukee ), adding to
38824-423: The system in 2018, but only during replays. The GhostCar feature was re-introduced later in the season, when NASCAR ended its multi-car qualifying format in favor of the previous single-car format. In 2022, Fox introduced a revamp of its on-air presentation for NASCAR (as part of a move towards dedicated graphics packages for each of Fox Sports' major properties, rather than a standard look shared by all telecasts),
39035-437: The timeslots with either syndicated television series (both first-run and off-network) and/or movie blocks. The Sunday afternoon timeslot in the spring is filled by NASCAR on Fox 's coverage of the NASCAR Cup Series . Six years after its first attempt, the league's television contracts for both conferences and for the Sunday and Monday prime time football packages came up for renewal again in 1993. Many expected that
39246-400: The trophy was discontinued and its current whereabouts are unknown. A second trophy, the Ed Thorp Memorial Trophy , was issued by the NFL from 1934 to 1967. The trophy's namesake, Ed Thorp, was a referee in the league and a friend to many early league owners; upon his death in 1934, the league created the trophy to honor him. In addition to the main trophy, which would be in the possession of
39457-406: The war ended, the number of games returned to eleven games in 1946 , and later back to twelve in 1947. The NFL went to a 14-game schedule in 1961 , which it retained until switching to a 16-game schedule in 1978 . In March 2021, the NFL officially adopted a 17-game schedule after gaining the agreement of the National Football League Players Association (NFLPA). Having an odd number of games in
39668-405: The way sport should be produced, I’ve stolen from video games", suggested to Madden that broadcasts resemble Madden NFL . Fox's NFL coverage introduced bolder and innovative graphics, for instance, the FoxBox , a continuous on-screen time-and-score graphic that Hill had originally used on Sky Sports 's coverage of the Premier League . It also used parabolic microphones to include the sounds of
39879-430: The welfare of the League or professional football". The commissioner can, in the event of misconduct by a party associated with the league, suspend individuals, hand down a fine of up to US$ 500,000, cancel contracts with the league, and award or strip teams of draft picks. In extreme cases, the commissioner can offer recommendations to the NFL's executive committee, up to and including the "cancellation or forfeiture" of
40090-431: Was a part of the eighth-tier team with Ross Tucker . During Week 5 of the regular season, Chris Myers filled in for Dick Stockton, who was calling MLB playoffs for TBS . Myers also filled in for in for Rose during Weeks 11 and 13 of the regular season. At this point, Joe Buck, Troy Aikman, and Pam Oliver became Fox's longest-tenured broadcast team, surpassing the team of Pat Summerall and John Madden. During Weeks 6-8 of
40301-405: Was a watershed event not only for the network, but for the NFL as well. Not only was it the event that placed Fox on a par with the "Big Three" broadcast networks, but it also ushered in an era of growth for the NFL, which continues on largely to this day. While the heavy concentration of major cities in NFC markets – as opposed to the smaller markets generally served by the AFC – virtually guaranteed
40512-446: Was an actual cooked turkey leg, and players typically took a celebratory bite out of the leg for the cameras during post-game interviews. The gesture was seen mostly as a humorous gimmick relating to Madden's famous multi-legged turkey , Madden brought the award to Fox in 1994 , and it continued through 2001. Because of the loose and informal nature of the award, at times it has been awarded to multiple players. On one occasion in 1994, it
40723-407: Was announced earlier that year. 2001 was also John Madden 's last year of commentating on Fox, as he moved to ABC to commentate on Monday Night Football alongside Al Michaels . Madden would soon become the first person to announce Super Bowls on different networks in consecutive years when he called Super Bowl XXXVII on ABC with Michaels. Fox's telecast of Super Bowl XXXVI was presented in
40934-426: Was declared the champion; the only tiebreaker was that in the event of a tie if two teams played twice in a season, the result of the second game determined the title (the source of the 1921 controversy). This method had been used since the league's creation in 1920, but no situation had been encountered where two teams were tied for first. The league quickly determined that a playoff game between Chicago and Portsmouth
41145-424: Was elected as commissioner to succeed Rozelle; his 17-year tenure, which ended in 2006, was marked by large increases in television contracts and the addition of four expansion teams, as well as the introduction of league initiatives to increase the number of minorities in league and team management roles. The league's current Commissioner, Roger Goodell , has focused on reducing the number of illegal hits and making
41356-413: Was elevated to the #2 team with John Lynch. The 2016 season was John Lynch's last with Fox as he leave to become the general manager of the San Francisco 49ers . During Week 8, Matt Smith filled in for Sam Rosen on #7 broadcast team during the MLB Playoffs. Rosen was with the #2 team in London , filling in for Kevin Burkhardt. During Weeks 6–8, Thom Brennaman filled in for Joe Buck while the latter called
41567-424: Was eliminated in favor of intros unique to each track. In 2016, Fox and FS1 (Cup Series only) reintroduced the original theme used between 2001 and 2008. FS1 continues to use their old theme for Xfinity Series and Truck Series. Fox is known for being the first network to show a scoring banner across the top of the screen with scrolling text during NASCAR telecasts. In previous years when ESPN, CBS, and others owned
41778-732: Was expanded to allow CBS, NBC, and ESPN/ABC to stream games on their respective over-the-top streaming services. For each of the packages the respective network partners currently hold, ESPN/ABC is paying US$ 2.7 billion a year; CBS, Fox, and NBC are each paying more than US$ 2 billion a year; and Amazon is paying US$ 1 billion a year. The current deal runs through the 2033 season. The league also has deals with Spanish-language broadcasters NBC Universo , Fox Deportes , and ESPN Deportes , which air Spanish language dubs of their respective English-language sister networks' games. The league's contracts do not cover preseason games, which individual teams are free to sell to local stations directly;
41989-453: Was filling in for Buck. November 8, 2009 (Week 9) featured a special two-hour pregame show originating in Afghanistan . The regular Fox NFL Sunday crew hosted the pregame show; Chris Rose served as studio host and anchored in-game highlights. John Lynch and Trent Green served as studio analysts for the halftime and postgame reports. 2010 was Chris Rose's final season calling NFL games for Fox until he departed for MLB Network . Rose
42200-442: Was filling in for Buck. During Weeks 6–8 of the 2007 regular season , Kenny Albert filled in for Buck, during the MLB playoffs. During Week 6 and 7 of the 2007 regular season, Matt Vasgersian filled in for Albert, who was filling in for Buck. During Week 7 of the 2007 regular season, Matt Devlin filled in for Vasgersian, who was filling in Albert. And during Week 8 of the 2007 regular season, Thom Brennaman filled in for Albert, who
42411-498: Was given to players of both teams. The Week 15, 1995 match-up between the Arizona Cardinals and the San Diego Chargers was part of an experiment by Fox where Terry Bradshaw and Jimmy Johnson provided analysis throughout the game with no play-by-play. At the end of the 1996 season , Fox broadcast its first ever Super Bowl. Super Bowl XXXI would be the first of three Super Bowls to be called by Pat Summerall and John Madden while with Fox (Super Bowls XXXIII and XXXVI being
42622-502: Was in the same style as other Fox Sports properties (such as for NFL and Major League Baseball coverage) and was originally used from 2001 to 2008. In 2008, Fox introduced a new theme for its NASCAR telecasts titled NASCAR Love , performed by country singer Toby Lightman (an instrumental version was used for the opening segment). From the 2011 Budweiser Shootout to 2015, Fox used the NFL on FOX theme song in NASCAR telecasts. In addition, country superstar Dierks Bentley unveiled
42833-426: Was needed to decide the league's champion. The teams were originally scheduled to play the playoff game, officially a regular-season game that would count towards the regular season standings, at Wrigley Field in Chicago, but a combination of heavy snow and extreme cold forced the game to be moved indoors to Chicago Stadium , which did not have a regulation-size football field. Playing with altered rules to accommodate
43044-474: Was on those select games. During Week 8 of the 2018 season , for the first time, Thom Brennaman filled in for Kenny Albert as the number 3 team while Joe Buck did the World Series from Dodger Stadium , 5 miles away. Buck remained on Thursday Night Football , going to Houston on the World Series' travel day from Boston to Los Angeles, but he waived the opportunity for a same-day, two-sport doubleheader on Sunday over concerns about getting from one venue to
43255-534: Was presented by current drivers in the Cup Series, the first time that a national sporting event was covered by currently active athletes. The presenters provided coverage from all three perspectives during the race (Hollywood Hotel studio, lap-by-lap commentary and pit road coverage). The driver commentators were Kevin Harvick (lap-by-lap), Joey Logano , Clint Bowyer (color analysts), Erik Jones , Ryan Blaney , Ricky Stenhouse Jr. (pit road), Danica Patrick and Denny Hamlin (Hollywood Hotel). On April 28, 2018,
43466-512: Was rained out on the scheduled race day and rescheduled to resume the following Monday (or Sunday in the case of a Saturday night race), FX would air the race and selected FOX stations would pick it up if syndicators permitted it. (Rained out races now air in their entirety on the network it originally was scheduled for (example: a race scheduled for Fox on Sunday would remain on Fox on the rescheduled day), unlike NBC, which moves its rained out races to other NBCUniversal properties such as CNBC (if on
43677-402: Was reconfigured into a horizontal version with three columns of 3 drivers each, which could be resized into 2 longer columns of three drivers each to display intervals or other statistics (a version that was later used as the main graphic). In the 2018 NASCAR season, NASCAR coverage adopted a new flat graphics package previously introduced during the previous NFL season. This package reintroduced
43888-543: Was rescinded in 1946 , following public pressure and coinciding with the removal of a similar ban in Major League Baseball . The NFL was always the largest professional football league in the United States; it nevertheless faced numerous rival professional leagues through the 1930s and 1940s. Rival leagues included at least three separate American Football Leagues and the All-America Football Conference (AAFC), on top of various regional leagues of varying caliber. Three NFL teams trace their histories to these rival leagues;
44099-400: Was retained, while Ricky Stenhouse Jr. was moved to the Hollywood Hotel alongside Brad Keselowski , with Bubba Wallace replacing Stenhouse as a pit road reporter. The studio was retired following the 2018 season due to the Charlotte studios getting redone in order to host more shows. In 2019, Fox often cut to the Charlotte studio during the race and talked to Jamie McMurray, who was new to
44310-489: Was reunited with Myers, while Mark Sanchez was hired and paired alongside Kugler. Gus Johnson and Aqib Talib rounded out the team, and would call a select number of games. In 2022, Buck and Aikman left Fox to join Monday Night Football . Burkhardt and Olsen were promoted to replace Buck and Aikman on the #1 team. It was announced, however, on May 10, 2022, that Tom Brady would join the #1 team upon his retirement from playing. Meanwhile, Joe Davis, who had replaced Buck as
44521-420: Was unable to make it due to the birth of his son Bryson. During the 2004 Dodge/Save Mart 350 , the studio was not used and Myers and Hammond were located on the hillside on outdoor chairs; no explanation was given for this. In 2011 , Pizza Hut became the presenting sponsor of the pre-race show. In addition, the first segment of the telecast was moved from the hotel to a tented facility either trackside or in
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