At a time when Sunday Ticket and Red Zone Channel make it possible to watch every NFL game, and big plays instantly get tweeted as GIFs, it’s easy to forget just how big an innovation NFL Primetime was.
Primetime, which aired Sunday evenings on ESPN beginning in 1987, was the one and only way for NFL fans to see all the best highlights from the day’s NFL action. Before Primetime, most fans only got to see a couple of games shown on their local network affiliates, and then maybe a few minutes of highlights from other games. Primetime was a full hour of highlights. You didn’t just see the touchdown, you saw the two third-down conversions that kept the drive alive before the touchdown. You didn’t just see the sack, you saw another angle that showed why the quarterback couldn’t find an open receiver. When you watched Primetime in those pre-Internet, pre-DirecTV days, you felt like a whole new world of football had been opened up to you.
And you heard expert analysis that ventured far beyond the ordinary highlight-reel shtick. That expert analysis, provided by former Broncos linebacker Tom Jackson, may have been the best thing of all about NFL Primetime. Jackson, who has just been named as the recipient of the Pro Football Hall of Fame’s Pete Rozelle Award, could be overshadowed at times by Primetime host Chris Berman, whose boisterous personality and array of nicknames made him ESPN’s first star. And Primetime had other co-hosts as well, including Pete Axthelm, Robin Roberts, Bill Pidto, and Stuart Scott. But it was Jackson’s steady hand that kept Primetime focused. Jackson had fun with the highlights while also remembering that the types of people who were watching Primetime were hard-core football fans who didn’t need to be entertained by anything other than football.
Eventually, Primetime faded away (although it still exists, in a different format as a Monday follow-up show) because a pure highlights show just isn’t necessary anymore. Jackson, however, remains a staple of ESPN’s NFL programming, having been there for 28 years -- twice as long as his 14-season career with the Broncos. The Rozelle Award, which the Hall of Fame awards each year to recognize longtime exceptional contributions to radio and television in professional football, couldn’t go to a more deserving recipient.
