The NFL on ESPN is the branding used for broadcasts of National Football League (NFL) coverage on the networks of ESPN. NFL coverage first aired on the network in 1980, when ESPN broadcast the 1980 NFL draft. ESPN did not air live NFL games until 1987, when it acquired the rights to Sunday Night Football. In 2006, ESPN lost the rights to Sunday Night Football and began airing Monday Night Football instead.
Former NFL CommissionerPaul Tagliabue credits ESPN with raising the "profile" of the league, by turning "a potential six- or seven-hour television experience into a twelve-hour television experience," factoring in both Sunday Night Football and the network's pregame show Sunday NFL Countdown and still is to this day.
In 1979, several months after the founding of ESPN, then ESPN PresidentChet Simmons asked the NFL if ESPN could air the NFL Draft. NFL commissioner Pete Rozelle, despite questions about viewership potential, granted ESPN the rights.[2] The first draft ESPN aired was in 1980. Bob Ley hosted the initial coverage from Bristol, Connecticut. Howard Balzer, Upton Bell and Vince Papale joined Ley as studio analysts while Joe Thomas and four reporters were on site at the NFL Draft in New York City. Despite ESPN only reaching 4 million homes at the time, the NFL considered the initial NFL Draft broadcast a success and ESPN has aired the NFL Draft every year since.[3] In 1988, the NFL moved the draft from weekdays to the weekend and ESPN's ratings of the coverage improved dramatically.[4]
As part of its new television package in 1987, the NFL granted ESPN the rights to air a series of Sunday night games, which were to air over the second half of the regular season. The NFL thus became the last major North American professional sports league to begin airing its games on cable television.[5] However, the games were typically simulcast on regular over-the-air television stations in each participating team's local market, so that households without cable television could still see the telecasts of their local team. While ABC had been airing occasional Sunday night NFL games (usually one per season) under its Monday Night Football banner since 1978, the concept of playing a regular series of Sunday night professional football games on ESPN was originally a concept designed for the United States Football League (USFL). As part of the abortive 1986 USFL season, ESPN was to carry a weekly Sunday night game throughout the fall season.[6]
As part of the league's television contract renewal with ABC in 1989, ABC was awarded the television rights to Super Bowl XXV and Super Bowl XXIX, and the first round of NFL playoffs. The Monday Night Football announcing team anchored the telecasts, except for the first of two Wild Card Playoff games, in which ESPN's Sunday Night NFL crew of Mike Patrick and Joe Theismann presided over that telecast. However, the original crew for one of the two Wild Card Playoff games from 1990 to 1995 consisted of Brent Musburger and Dick Vermeil (both of whom did college football broadcasts for ABC during those two seasons).
Following The Walt Disney Company's purchase of both ESPN and ABC, the two network's sports departments merged in 1997. Beginning with the 1997 season, the ESPN Sunday Night Football crew called the first Monday Night Football game of the season on ABC, with the ABC Monday Night Football crew calling the second game. ESPN provided wraparound studio programming, with part of the pre and postgame airing on ABC, and ESPN's Ron Jaworski often appeared from the studio for extra analysis during the first game. This arrangement lasted from 1997 through 2005, except for 2002 when ESPN/ABC's college football crew did the early game. Super Bowls on ABC in this period were treated as ESPN events.
In 2003, ABC and the NFL dropped the Monday Night Football game for the final week of the regular season. The move, which had been in effect for the first eight years of the broadcast (1970–1977), was the result of declining ratings, as well as problems involved for potential playoff teams, as there was a potential of only four days rest between their final regular season game and first-round playoff game. ABC replaced the telecast with an opening weekend Thursday night game, and in exchange ESPN got a Saturday night game on the final weekend.
After the 2005 season, ESPN ended this package in favor of picking up the broadcast rights to Monday Night Football from ABC. NBC picked up the rights to ESPN's Sunday night games. To replace Sunday Night Football ESPN moved its late-season Sunday Night Baseball broadcasts back to the network and replaced most of the rest of the open weeks with NBA telecasts.
As part of their 2011 rights agreement, ESPN was given the exclusive rights to the Pro Bowl from 2015 through 2022.[7] Since 2018, the game has been simulcast on ABC.
On April 22, 2014, the NFL announced that it had exercised an option in ESPN's recent contract extension for Monday Night Football rights to air a first-round Wild Card playoff game on the channel after the conclusion of the 2014 season. This was the first time that an NFL playoff game was ever broadcast exclusively on cable television in the United States, in lieu of any of the league's broadcast network partners.[7][8][9] The MNF broadcast team of Mike Tirico, Jon Gruden and sideline reporter Lisa Salters called the game, the first of the 2014–15 NFL playoffs. The NFC South Champion Carolina Panthers defeated the Arizona Cardinals 27–16.[7][8] As with all MNF games, the matchup was simulcast on local affiliates WJZY (a Fox affiliate) in Charlotte and KASW (a CW affiliate) in Phoenix. This was because of the NFL's rule that requires local affiliates to allow viewers over-the-air access to the game. However, the cable-only playoff game experiment would only last one season, as on May 11, 2015, it was announced that ABC would simulcast ESPN's Wild Card playoff game for the 2015 season.[10] This was the first NFL game broadcast nationally on ABC since MNF left the network at the end of the 2005 season. The game, announced by the broadcast team of Tirico, Gruden and Salters, was the first of the 2015–16 NFL playoffs. The Kansas City Chiefs defeated the Houston Texans 30–0. The ESPN/ABC simulcast has continued ever since.[11][12]
Since 2018, ABC has simulcast ESPN's coverage of the final day of the NFL Draft. Beginning in 2019 and every year since, ABC has aired a College GameDay branded version of the Draft on the first two days, separate from ESPN's coverage.[13]
On March 18, 2021, the NFL announced that ESPN had renewed its rights to Monday Night Football. Under the new deal, ESPN will gain a Saturday doubleheader on the final weekend of the season beginning in 2021 (which will be simulcast by ABC), As a result of this change ESPN will no longer air a NFL Doubleheader on NFL Kickoff Weekend. And beginning in 2023, it will gain four additional regular season games (with three airing on ABC as Monday doubleheaders, and one Sunday morning NFL International Series game exclusive to ESPN+), flex scheduling beginning in Week 12, the ability to feature up to four teams twice per-season, as well as produce many alternate broadcast feeds of select games, under their Megacast series. All MNF games will stream on ESPN+, and ESPN will also gain rights to a divisional playoff game, and two future Super Bowls for them and ABC.[1][14]
In January 2024 it was reported that the league were in advanced stages of discussion with The Walt Disney Company to acquire a stake of ESPN in exchange for NFL media (which includes NFL Network and NFL RedZone) coming under control of The Walt Disney Company. If enacted the acquisition will have to approved by a majority of NFL owners to be enforced.[15]
