ESPN Sunday Night Football ESPN Sunday Night Football is the ESPN cable network ' s weekly television broadcasts of Sunday evening National Football League ( NFL ) games . The first ESPN Sunday night broadcast occurred on November 8 , 1987 , while the last one aired on January 1 , 2006 . Former NFL Commissioner ( 1989 - 2005 ) Paul Tagliabue credits ESPN with raising the " profile " of the league , from turning " a potential six - or seven - hour television experience into a twelve - hour television experience . " History . ESPN earned broadcast rights to a series of Sunday night NFL games , which were to air during the second half of the season , beginning in the 1987 season . ESPN kept this contract until the 1997 season , by which time the NFL had expanded its Sunday night offerings to the full season and added Turner Sports as a broadcast partner . During the first season of ESPN Sunday Night NFL ( as it was then branded ) in 1987 , the network ' s announcing booth had Mike Patrick , Roy Firestone , and a weekly " guest color commentator . " Joe Theismann took over as lead analyst beginning in 1988 . During the first season , the game between the New York Giants and New England Patriots ( the very first regular season game aired by ESPN ) , had WABC - TV ( the American Broadcasting Company ' s flagship station out of New York City ) produce a completely separate telecast from ESPN ' s ( rather than an over - the - air station simply simulcasting ESPN ' s broadcast in the competing teams ' home markets ) . The reason behind this was that WABC ' s union contract at the time prohibited non - union workers , such as those at ESPN , from producing live events for WABC . The WABC broadcasts involved play - by - play man Corey McPherrin and Frank Gifford and Lynn Swann on color commentary . Beginning in 1998 , ESPN broadcast the entire slate of Sunday night games ( now officially rebranded as " Sunday Night Football " ) , and had exclusive rights to any night game other than the season opener and regular Monday night games , which aired on ABC . Thus , ESPN would usually have a few weekends each season with games on both Saturday ( sometimes Thursday instead ) and Sunday nights . Also in 1998 , Paul Maguire joined Patrick and Theismann in the booth after re - joining ESPN after several years as a color commentator for NBC . Beginning in 1999 , Suzy Kolber , who had recently rejoined ESPN from Fox Sports , served as the sideline reporter ; Kolber replaced Solomon Wilcots , who joined CBS as a color commentator . In 2002 , ESPN ' s " SNF " crew covered the new Thursday , opening night kickoff game . In 2004 , Pat Summerall replaced Patrick for the preseason and for several regular season weeks following Patrick ' s recovery from open - heart surgery . 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 " " broadcasts back to the network and replaced most of the rest of the open weeks with telecasts . Music . From 1987 - 97 , ESPN used various themes for its NFL coverage , reflecting its separate management from sister company ABC Sports ( now ESPN on ABC ) at the time . In 1998 , as Disney began consolidating ESPN and ABC Sports , ESPN ' s NFL coverage began using themes associated with " Monday Night Football " . In - game use of these themes ended after 2000 , in favor of another original theme also referred to as " Sirens " ( for featuring sirens prominently ) . When ESPN gained the Monday night games , they once again began using the traditional " Monday Night Football " themes , but with increased frequency . See Monday Night Football for more info on music used during that package . Significant games . Joe Namath incident . During a game between the New England Patriots at New York Jets on December 20 , 2003 , former Jets quarterback Joe Namath in a sideline interview with Suzy Kolber twice stated that he wanted to kiss her , and " couldn ' t care less about the team strugg - a - ling . " Namath later apologized and blamed the incident on his obvious intoxication . Soon after , Namath entered an outpatient alcoholism treatment program . Namath chronicled the episode , including his battle with alcoholism in his book , " Namath " ( ISBN 0 - 67003 - 329 - 4 ) .