Football: It’s good! On Thursday night, the National Football League will return to our televisions, with games taking place on Thursday, Friday, Sunday, and Monday to get us back into the swing of things with professional football. The day there isn’t NFL football? Well, that’s college football Saturday. Lotta football! I am very happy about this, and if you clicked on this, I presume you are very happy about this, too.
With the NFL coming back, we wanted to take some time to look at something near and dear to all of our hearts: The music that is inseparable from broadcasts. All of the networks that put the NFL on our televisions have distinct songs that are crucial parts of their broadcasts — for fans of the sport, there’s such a sense of familiarity from hearing them.
To celebrate things kicking off on Thursday night when the Baltimore Ravens travel to Kansas City to take on the Super Bowl champion Chiefs, we ranked all nine of the songs that are inextricably linked to the football watching experience.
(Ed. Note: This is just songs that air on game broadcasts, which means the objectively correct answer for the best football songs, the ESPN NFL Primetime music, is not included.)
9. That cover of “In the Air Tonight,” ESPN
I’m just not a fan. It tries to do too much, with Chris Stapleton spearheading a cover of the classic Phil Collins song (which I would probably like on its own if I came across it on Spotify or something) with a verse from Snoop Dogg that screams “we were able to get Snoop to record a verse here.” Its biggest problem, in my humble opinion, is that this doesn’t feel like a song for a football game, primarily because “In the Air Tonight” was, uh, not made to be a song for a football game.
8. NFL RedZone theme, NFL RedZone
Obviously, when the RedZone song hits on Sunday afternoon, I get the zoomies like I’m a dog that is about to get a treat, as Scott Hanson is about to bless me with seven god damn hours of some god damn commercial free football. Having said that, this sounds more like a song that plays in the montage in a Bond movie than a song that, in any other context, would make me think I’m about to watch football.
7. Thursday Night Football theme, Amazon
It’s not bad! The problem is it’s so new to the NFL music game that it lacks the inherit gravitas that the other five NFL network theme songs have, which is totally fine. Amazon is still getting into a groove here, but they have a song that is solid — I think you can make the case it sounds more like the song that plays on the home page for an old college football video game, but that’s more because it’s going up against some real giants.
6. The Monday Night Football theme, ESPN
Here’s the thing with 3-6: They are all interchangeable based on about a million different factors. They’re all iconic in their own ways, and I am putting MNF down here for really no reason other than I like the other ones more on the day that I am writing this up. Those horns at the very beginning are terrific, though, and the way the song builds and builds is great.
5. The Sunday Night Football theme, NBC
Just my opinion, but more places should pay for John Williams to make the theme song for their football game. The drums and strings at the top of this one are sensational, and when the full arrangement comes in, god, it’s so good. It would be higher if not for two things: 1. The 3 and 4 on this list are, for me, untouchable themes in all of sports and, 2. NBC has a song I like more. We’ll get to that second one in a moment, but for now…
4. The NFL on FOX theme, FOX
The best use of a horn section among all four of these. The very beginning of this theme is unmatched, with those horns blaring and announcing Fox’s NFL broadcast, and it continues to be spectacular as the rest of the arrangement comes in. Plus, come on, there’s just something really special about settling into your couch at 1:05 p.m. on a Sunday and hearing this. Also: It will not be the last Fox song that appears on this list.
3. The NFL on CBS theme, CBS
The full arrangement before the guitar comes in, man, nothing like it. Since my formative years as a football fan largely revolved around the balance of power in the sport being in the AFC (i.e.: The Brady and Manning years in New England and Indianapolis), I so closely associate this with the biggest football game in a given week. This is 100 percent a me thing, and I’ve gone back and forth on this and FOX about a million times, but in terms of the network theme songs, nothing tops CBS.
2. The FOX injury music
It has never once been clear to me why this song exists. I could have someone from Fox sit down and explain the thought process behind it to me in detail and I will still have no clue why it exists. Having said that, it is so weird, it is so absurd, it is so unique that it absolutely has to be high up on this list. It, obviously, only plays in unfortunate circumstances, which can knock it way down this list if you want. But I am trying to strip it from that context and judging it as a song, and as such, I’m giving it high marks for how unique it is. It’s got a pretty good groove to it when you listen to it on its own, and I would like to hear The Alchemist chop this up and turn it into a beat for Action Bronson or something.
1. “Waitin’ All Day for a Sunday Night,” NBC
While I really dinged the “In the Air Tonight” cover for not being a football song, this is a football song through and through — even if it is a play on Joan Jett’s “I Hate Myself for Loving You” — and the three people who have sang it over the years (Pink, Faith Hill, and Carrie Underwood) seem to have fun with it, even if it has been parodied over the years. There were a few years where they went in a different direction with Underwood’s theme and it just wasn’t as good, but they changed that and went back to “Waitin’ All Day for a Sunday Night.” It’s incredibly corny, but I do not care, because every week, I am, indeed, waitin’ all day for a Sunday night.
