A new tradition on this site is to get pumped for the upcoming NFL season by watching clips of openings of NFL broadcasts and reminiscing. This tradition started when I was in China and somehow found myself in Hong Kong or Macau for the first weekend of the season; being in HK or Macau meant I had free access to YouTube and would spend hours watching old NFL Today highlights! (Yes, literally hours).
For this year's montage, let's focus on NBC and their NFL theme songs in the 80s and 90s. Our first opening:
1. 1980 AFC Championship Game (played Jan, 1981): Oakland at San Diego
A lot of questions about this:
- What is the muppet at the :04 mark? What the hell?
- Jack Murphy was a sports writer?
- The theme song starts at the :59 mark. Wow. This is the opposite of a motivational theme. The music makes me want to put on my disco shoes and dance, instead of running through walls.
- "The American Way to Beat the Pump". Who thought of that?
- Yikes! Dick Enberg in a bright red coat!
I completely forgot that San Diego actually hosted an AFC Championship game during the Fouts years. There's a reason I forgot - because I was still crying from the week before - click on this link for more info.
Looking back, there's so much heartbreak for Chargers fans in that era. Let's recap:
1979: #1 seed in the AFC; played Houston at home in the divisional playoffs; Houston was without their QB, WR and Earl Campbell; Fouts threw 5 interceptions in a 17-14 loss.
1980: Hosting the AFC championship at home, losing to Oakland
1981: #2 seed, advanced to the championship game where they traveled to.....Cincinnati, in the infamous Freezer bowl with the actual temperature being -9 F.
What horrible luck.
2. 1988 Divisional Playoff: Houston at Denver
This is clearly the best music NBC ever came up with for the NFL. Love the image looking up at the Lombardi trophy. Again, this game is blocked from my memory because of what happened the week before; we lost to Houston in the Wild card game at home.
- 0:45 mark: "Alamo - where all the miles are free". I guess we all take for granted that rental cars have unlimited miles.
- 2:15 - yikes! Merlin Olsen really is the Mountain man. Extreme close up!
- 2:15 - also, please fire the intern that is handling the camera in the background. I'm dizzy after watching just 5 seconds of that.
3. 1994 Divisional Playoff: Cleveland at Pittsburgh
The music here is not great; it's adequate. However, when your graphics prominently feature ….the first down markers - well, that's not inspirational.
Theme song starts at 1:05
- 1:10 - Um, NBC couldn't spring the licensing money to get freal NFL uniforms in their intro? #43's uniform looks like bad high school uniform
- 2:14 Those blue NBC coats are awful
- 2:13 Wow...what horrible poetry by Pittsburghers. "Your chances are skinny with a quarterback named Vinny" ???? Really? That's the best you can do?
Now - try to compare those NBC theme songs against the gold standard - the early / late 90s theme for CBS:
1998- Jets at Niners
You get:
- The Goo Goo Dolls to open
- The greatest NFL opening theme ever (at 0:50)
- Greg and Phil - 20 years ago!
This was the game that ended on Garrison Hearst's 95 yard run in OT. I watched this in the Des Moines airport (no joke). I think this was the first year I played serious fantasy football - and I believe I had Garrison on my team! Helped to propel me to a week 1 win. It's been all downhill from there.....
For this year's montage, let's focus on NBC and their NFL theme songs in the 80s and 90s. Our first opening:
1. 1980 AFC Championship Game (played Jan, 1981): Oakland at San Diego
A lot of questions about this:
- What is the muppet at the :04 mark? What the hell?
- Jack Murphy was a sports writer?
- The theme song starts at the :59 mark. Wow. This is the opposite of a motivational theme. The music makes me want to put on my disco shoes and dance, instead of running through walls.
- "The American Way to Beat the Pump". Who thought of that?
- Yikes! Dick Enberg in a bright red coat!
I completely forgot that San Diego actually hosted an AFC Championship game during the Fouts years. There's a reason I forgot - because I was still crying from the week before - click on this link for more info.
Looking back, there's so much heartbreak for Chargers fans in that era. Let's recap:
1979: #1 seed in the AFC; played Houston at home in the divisional playoffs; Houston was without their QB, WR and Earl Campbell; Fouts threw 5 interceptions in a 17-14 loss.
1980: Hosting the AFC championship at home, losing to Oakland
1981: #2 seed, advanced to the championship game where they traveled to.....Cincinnati, in the infamous Freezer bowl with the actual temperature being -9 F.
What horrible luck.
2. 1988 Divisional Playoff: Houston at Denver
This is clearly the best music NBC ever came up with for the NFL. Love the image looking up at the Lombardi trophy. Again, this game is blocked from my memory because of what happened the week before; we lost to Houston in the Wild card game at home.
- 0:45 mark: "Alamo - where all the miles are free". I guess we all take for granted that rental cars have unlimited miles.
- 2:15 - yikes! Merlin Olsen really is the Mountain man. Extreme close up!
- 2:15 - also, please fire the intern that is handling the camera in the background. I'm dizzy after watching just 5 seconds of that.
3. 1994 Divisional Playoff: Cleveland at Pittsburgh
The music here is not great; it's adequate. However, when your graphics prominently feature ….the first down markers - well, that's not inspirational.
Theme song starts at 1:05
- 1:10 - Um, NBC couldn't spring the licensing money to get freal NFL uniforms in their intro? #43's uniform looks like bad high school uniform
- 2:14 Those blue NBC coats are awful
- 2:13 Wow...what horrible poetry by Pittsburghers. "Your chances are skinny with a quarterback named Vinny" ???? Really? That's the best you can do?
Now - try to compare those NBC theme songs against the gold standard - the early / late 90s theme for CBS:
1998- Jets at Niners
You get:
- The Goo Goo Dolls to open
- The greatest NFL opening theme ever (at 0:50)
- Greg and Phil - 20 years ago!
This was the game that ended on Garrison Hearst's 95 yard run in OT. I watched this in the Des Moines airport (no joke). I think this was the first year I played serious fantasy football - and I believe I had Garrison on my team! Helped to propel me to a week 1 win. It's been all downhill from there.....
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