BY DC CUEVA
This weekend, the sports world will turn its attention to Super Bowl LIV when it takes place Sunday evening in Miami as it hosts the NFL's championship game for the 11th time. The National Football League's 100th season will culminate with the Kansas City Chiefs facing the San Francisco 49ers for its league championship, and a marquee quarterback matchup between Patrick Mahomes and Jimmy Garapalo. But the traditional hoopla that surrounds the biggest event in American sports has been somewhat subdued this time around, as it takes place a week after the tragic helicopter crash that prematurely took the life of NBA legend Kobe Bryant.
Broadcasting and producing the Super Bowl is the pinnacle for those who work in sports television in the world's largest media market and sports superpower. It is, by far, the most watched single day of the entire year in American television in terms of TV ratings and the number of viewers watching, as it brings together this country's favorite sport with stellar entertainment headlined by the halftime show, the always fascinating commercials that air during the game that go for millions of dollars for just a :30 spot, and so much more. And this year, the responsibility of that falls in the hands of the FOX network, televising this event for the ninth time in the history of the modern-day fourth broadcast network, whose stature in the media world comes because of a game-changing move.
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The next year, FOX's parent company, overseas tycoon Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation, ignited a power shift in television sports when they outbid CBS to take the rights it held for almost 40 years to the National Football Conference. As it has many of the franchises that have been in the NFL for decades and which are based in thirteen of the top 15 present-day TV markets, it is more prestigious than its American Conference counterparts. And the news of FOX putting CBS on the sidelines by their $1 billion wager sent shockwaves around the media world as it put the network that brought Bart Simpson to prominence on the map, and led to a number of affiliates of the Eye network to jump ship and join the fledgling network that, until then, was catered to a much younger audience.
When FOX Sports unveiled its plans for its inaugural season of NFL coverage in 1994 - the league's 75th anniversary season, it distributed a press guide to the media to outline the way it would televise the games. There, they promised to change the game in how fans got to see and hear their favorite sport, and it helped to change the way football was televised and whose innovations are now taken for granted a quarter of a century later.
The letter to the media that opened that booklet (pictured above with the hat of the network's present NFL logo - and give credit to me if you use it), written by Murdoch, Fox Television chairman Chase Carey and sports division president David Hill read the following:
"The NFL is both sport and religion to millions of Americans who plan their weekends around watching and cheering their favorite teams and players. Broadcasting the NFL has become a sport and religion to us at FOX. Pulling together the talent, executives, technical personnel and staff to put forth an exceptional product, which our predecessor honed over 38 years, has truly been a Herculean task. In football terms, one might compare it to seven months of two-a-day training camp sessions in Texas' July heat.
"We will be holding ourselves to our own criteria of excellence. Our belief is that we'll be become the benchmark to which others are compared. That's the challenge we've given ourselves, and the standard for which we strive. Same Game...New Attitude!"
Given his experience of having headed FOX's then-sister network in the United Kingdom, Sky Sports from when it became the exclusive home of live Premier League football, along with him leading the Nine Network's sports division in Australia (and its coverage of cricket and rugby league), Hill was hired by FOX to spearhead its NFL coverage, and eventually the sports division's expansion to encompass Major League Baseball, the NHL and NASCAR. It hired away most of those who worked for CBS' NFL coverage who made up the foundation of their NFL coverage, making sure that, with the many things that were new, they had to make sure that familiar voices would make the transition to their new home a smooth one in the booth.
As the game's most beloved analyst, John Madden was the division's first talent hire... followed by, among others, his longtime partner Pat Summerall, their CBS colleagues Terry Bradshaw and James Brown, future CBS & Turner voice Kevin Harlan, and a then 25-year-old Joe Buck, who became the youngest lead caller of a full NFL slate in network TV history. They were joined by Howie Long, Jimmy Johnson, Dick Stockton, Kenny Albert and Thom Brennaman - all of whom are still on the FOX team all these years later, along with producer & director duo Artie Kempner & Richie Zynotz, who succeeded Pat & John's longtime battery of Bob Stenner & Sandy Grossman as the top production team in the truck covering its lead game and the Super Bowl.
On the production side, FOX looked to how Sky Sports (now owned by NBC's parent Comcast after its takeover last year) revolutionized Premier League football coverage overseas, including the constant on-screen display of the match's scoreline and time elapsed. After it made its debut during ESPN & ABC's 1994 World Cup coverage, the Fox Box score bug was introduced the following fall - and after initial complaints at first it's now become standard practice in practically every broadcast of a major sporting event ever since.
The Fox Box was the icebreaker to the game coverage itself, where FOX made an investment to up the ante in the amount of equipment deployed to cover each game. The lead game in season 1 (with Summerall & Madden) had twelve cameras: the 50, both 25 yard lines, both end zones, two hand-helds, a reverse-angle, and in the corner, including two super slow-motion angles and eight replay machines. The network also made history that year audio wise in having its entire NFL schedule air in Dolby surround sound, a decade before it transitioned entirely to high definition.
Up until the 90's, The NFL Today on CBS was the benchmark for pregame studio shows, and whose producer Mike Pearl later brought his magic touch to Inside The NBA when he ran Turner Sports in the 90s. The newcomer's approach to kicking off their coverage was FOX NFL Sunday in bringing together J.B., Terry, Howie and former Dallas Cowboys coach Jimmy for network TV's first hour-long NFL pregame show taking place in Los Angeles. And its more carefree and irrelevant approach has seen it remain undefeated in the Sunday noontime/late morning ratings ever since, being joined later by Michael Strahan, Curt Menefee and insider Jay Glazer.
And lastly, there's that theme. The press guide wrote, "David Hill had something very special in mind... a powerful composition that would surely become a signature for Fox Sports. The composition is a unique combination of musical genres, giving it a driving rock 'n' roll sound with an aggressive, macho, gothic feeling." The six-note signature theme would become just that... enough for it to eventually become used across FOX Sports' entire portfolio, and being just as recognizable to sports TV viewers as John Tesh's Roundball Rock (which FOX uses for its college hoops coverage), Monday Night Football's Heavy Action, the Bugler's Dream Olympic fanfare, and many others.
For a network that loves to be innovative, their Super Bowl coverage will see it be the first one to be produced entirely in Ultra High Definition -- the highlight of their technical deployment of over 100 cameras (some in 4K/8K), 70 microphones, and millions of viewers watching... not to mention, the postgame entertainment will be provided by the season 3 premiere of The Masked Singer. It's the latest chapter for a network whose rise to prominence came because of the NFL, and who has built its entire sports legacy around a sport it helped change the way, better or worse, of how we get to experience our favorite sport. They're Crazy Like A Fox, aren't they?
For more on how FOX pulled off one of the biggest deals in sports media history, check out The Ringer's oral longform on The Great NFL Heist at theringer.com, including interviews with those involved in that game-changing deal in 1993. And, check out our DCBLOG look at the marriage of Football and Television from before Super Bowl 50 at the link above.
- I AM DC
#DCBLOG
Bibliography: "NFL on FOX 1994-1995 Broadcast Guide, Premiere Edition", Courtesy FOX Sports and FOX Corporation.
