Norman Julius "Boomer" Esiason is an American former football quarterback who played in the National Football League (NFL) for 14 seasons, primarily with the Cincinnati Bengals. He was selected in the second round of the 1984 NFL Draft by the Bengals, where he spent 10 non-consecutive seasons. Esiason was also a member of the New York Jets and Arizona Cardinals.
Robert John Riggins, nicknamed "Riggo" and "Diesel", is an American former professional football player who was a fullback in the National Football League (NFL) for the New York Jets and Washington Redskins. He played college football for the Kansas Jayhawks. Riggins was known for his "bell cow" running style and productivity well into the later years of his career. In the 1983 season, at age 34, he rushed for a then-NFL record of 24 touchdowns, a record which stood for almost 20 seasons. Riggins again led the league in rushing touchdowns during the 1984 season at age 35. Although he earned only one Pro Bowl appearance in his career, Riggins had his greatest success in the postseason and was named MVP of Super Bowl XVII where he scored one touchdown and rushed for 166 yards in a 27–17 win for the Washington Redskins over the Miami Dolphins. Riggins was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1992.
Matthew George Millen is an American former professional football player and executive in the National Football League (NFL). Millen played as a linebacker for 12 years for the Oakland and Los Angeles Raiders, San Francisco 49ers, and Washington Redskins, playing on four Super Bowl-winning teams and winning a Super Bowl ring for each of the three franchises for which he played.
David Aldridge is an American sports journalist who works as a writer for The Athletic. He was previously a reporter for Turner Sports, contributing to their NBA and MLB coverage. Other outlets that Aldridge has written and contributed for include ESPN, NBA TV, NBA.com, The Washington Post, The Philadelphia Inquirer, and TBD. In 2016, he was awarded the Curt Gowdy Media Award by the Basketball Hall of Fame.
WTEM is a commercial sports radio station licensed to serve Washington, D.C. Owned by Audacy, Inc., the station services the Washington metropolitan area as the flagship station of the Washington Wizards. WTEM is also the co-flagship station of the Maryland Terrapins, and is the Washington affiliate of Fox Sports Radio.
Brian Keith Mitchell is an American former professional football player who was a running back and return specialist in the National Football League (NFL). He was selected by the Washington Redskins in the fifth round of the 1990 NFL Draft. He played college football at Louisiana where he was a quarterback. Mitchell is considered one of the greatest return specialists in NFL history.
Mark Fremont Schlereth is an American former professional football player who is a television and radio sportscaster. Schlereth played guard in the National Football League (NFL) for 12 seasons (1989–2000) with the Washington Redskins and Denver Broncos. He is currently a football analyst for Fox Sports, appearing on FS1, and other programs. He also co-hosted Sedano & Stink with Jorge Sedano from 7–10 p.m. ET on ESPN Radio until late March 2015 when he left the program to pursue other broadcast opportunities. He also appeared on the soap opera Guiding Light, and 2012's Red Dawn remake.
The NFL on Westwood One Sports is the branding for Cumulus Broadcasting subsidiary Westwood One's radio coverage of the National Football League. These games are distributed throughout the United States and Canada. The broadcasts were previously branded with the CBS Radio and Dial Global marques; CBS Radio was the original Westwood One's parent company and Dial Global purchased the company in 2011. Dial Global has since reverted its name to Westwood One after merging with Cumulus Media Networks.
Michael Francis Mayock is a former American football executive and former player who served as the general manager of the Las Vegas Raiders of the National Football League (NFL) from 2019 to 2021. Mayock was a safety with the New York Giants of the NFL, a draft analyst for the NFL Network, and a game analyst for NBC's coverage of Notre Dame football.
Tim Brant is a retired American sportscaster. Brant most recently worked for Raycom Sports and was formerly Vice President, Sports for WJLA-TV in Washington, D.C. He has spent more than forty years covering sports nationally, including for CBS and ABC.
Solomon Wilcots is a former American football free safety in the National Football League (NFL), a current national television analyst and broadcaster as well as a head coach in Your Call Football. Wilcots played six seasons in the NFL for the Cincinnati Bengals, Minnesota Vikings and Pittsburgh Steelers.
D'Marco Marcellus Farr is an American former professional football player who was a defensive tackle for the Los Angeles/St. Louis Rams of the National Football League (NFL). He played for the Rams from 1994 to 2000 and recorded 36.5 career sacks. He was a member of the Rams team that won Super Bowl XXXIV. He became a sideline reporter for the Los Angeles Rams.
Thursday Night Football is the branding used for broadcasts of National Football League (NFL) games that broadcast primarily on Thursday nights. Most of the games kick off at 8:15 Eastern Time.
Sports USA Media is the largest independent sports broadcasting radio network in the United States, specializing in live broadcasts of American football, specifically of the NCAA football Division I-A and National Football League (NFL). In 2018, more than 450 radio stations across the United States carried NFL and NCAA football games from Sports USA.
Bram N. Weinstein is an American sportscaster who is the play by play broadcaster for the Washington Commanders of the National Football League (NFL). He previously worked at ESPN from 2008 to 2015, most notably as a host for SportsCenter.
Nationally television broadcasts of National Football League (NFL) games first aired on ABC from 1948 to 1951. Between 1970 and 2005, Monday Night Football aired exclusively on ABC. In 2006, ESPN took over as the exclusive rights holder to Monday Night Football, and the ABC Sports division was merged into ESPN Inc. by parent company Disney. Afterward, ABC did not broadcast any game from the NFL, whether exclusive or a simulcast from ESPN, until they simulcasted an NFL Wild Card playoff game in 2016. ABC would then return to Monday Night Football in 2020, when they aired three games as simulcasts from ESPN.
The following article details the history of Monday Night Football, the weekly broadcast of National Football League games on U.S. television.
NBC made history in the 1980s with an announcerless telecast, which was a one-shot experiment credited to Don Ohlmeyer, between the Jets and Dolphins in Miami on December 20, 1980), as well as a single-announcer telecast, coverage of the Canadian Football League during the 1982 players' strike, and even the first female play-by-play football announcer, Gayle Sierens.
On March 12, 1990, at the NFL's annual meeting in Orlando, Florida, the league new ratified four-year television agreements for the 1990 to 1993 seasons involving ABC, CBS, NBC, ESPN and TNT. The contracts totaled US$3.6 billion, the largest package in television history. This contract saw each network having rights to one Super Bowl telecast as part of the package. The fourth Super Bowl (XXVIII) was up for a separate sealed bid. NBC won the bid, and since they were last in the rotation for Super Bowl coverage in the regular contract, ended up with two straight Super Bowls. CBS is the only other network to televise two Super Bowls in a row. NBC, which had held XXVII, was the only network to bid on XXVIII. Previously, the league alternated the Super Bowl broadcast among its broadcast network partners, except for Super Bowl I; CBS broadcast Super Bowl II, then the league rotated the broadcast between CBS and NBC until 1985 when ABC entered the rotation when that network broadcast Super Bowl XIX.
