2007 NFL Season on ESPN

EXTENSIVE NEWS, INFORMATION AND ANALYSIS ACROSS TELEVISION, INTERNET, MOBILE PRODUCTS, RADIO, MAGAZINE, DEPORTES AND INTERNATIONAL

ESPN will offer the season’s most comprehensive NFL coverage with programming across television, radio, Internet, cell phones, broadband and magazines.  Led by its dynamic presentation of Monday Night Football, sports television’s most storied series, ESPN’s season-long coverage through Super Bowl XLII in Phoenix, Ariz., will also include coverage on ESPN Deportes and ESPN International.  Highlights:

What’s New in 2007 

• Ron Jaworski joins Monday Night Football team featuring Mike Tirico, Tony Kornheiser, and reporters Suzy Kolber and Michele Tafoya
• NFL’s all-time leading rusher Emmitt Smith, Super Bowl winning receiver Keyshawn Johnson and legendary coach Bill Parcells join NFL studio team
• Trey Wingo to assume new role as NFL PrimeTime host with analysts Merril Hoge, Mark Schlereth (both making their NFL Primetime debut as regulars this season) and Mike Ditka
• ESPNEWS Fantasy Insider hosted by Merril Hoge – a 52-week, Sunday morning series featuring ESPN’s Howie Schwab and ESPN.com’s Matthew Berry
• Monday Night Football “Chalk Talk” Luncheon Series in 12 cities, as ESPN and the NFL honor local organizations for contributions to their communities
• 10-year-old Chicago native Jason Krause to offer commentary on NFL issues each week on Sunday NFL Countdown.
• Parcells, Johnson and Mortensen to host new ESPN Radio PrimeTime Friday nights (7-9 p.m. ET)

NEWS AND INFORMATION – ESPN AND ESPN2

ESPN’s 24-hour-a-day, seven-days-a-week news gathering operation will provide in-depth, up-to-the-minute NFL news, hard-hitting analysis and perspective through highlights, features, interviews and on-site reports.  Highlights: 

• SportsCenter -- Led by Chris Berman and Tom Jackson’s presentation of NFL highlights in “The Blitz” Sundays at 11 p.m., the network’s flagship news program will provide comprehensive daily coverage of the league.  Some of SportsCenter’s NFL-themed segments include Coors Light Cold Hard Facts, Berman’s 2-Minute Drill, Inside the Huddle with ESPN.com senior writer John Clayton, and Four Downs with Sean Salisbury and Clayton. 

• Sunday NFL Countdown (Sunday, 11 a.m. - 1 p.m.) – Berman hosts ESPN’s popular two-hour pre-game show with analysts Jackson, Keyshawn Johnson, Emmith Smith, Mike Ditka, and NFL insider Chris Mortensen.  Reporters Rachel Nichols, Sal Paolantonio, Wendy Nix, Bob Holtzman and Ed Werder will cover team news and the latest updates from stadiums around the league with Greg Garber, Kenny Mayne and Nichols contributing features.  Additionally, the program will debut a new commentary offering a 10-year-old’s perspective on NFL issues by Chicago grade school student Jason Krause. 

• SportsCenter Monday Kickoff (Monday, 6-7 p.m.) – SportsCenter will feature the day’s top stories with the latest updates on the MNF game.  Stuart Scott, Smith and Steve Young will provide live reports from the MNF city. 

• NFL PrimeTime (Monday, 4-5 p.m.) – Host Wingo will host this updated version of NFL PrimeTime with Ditka, Hoge and Schlereth.   

• Monday Night Countdown (7-8:30 p.m.) – Berman will host ESPN’s 90-minute pre-game show from Bristol leading into the Monday Night Football game at 8:30 p.m., joined in Bristol by Ditka, Jackson, Johnson, Mortensen and Bill Parcells.  Scott will host on-site segments with Smith and Young. 

• First Take (weekday, live 10 a.m.-12 p.m.) – ESPN2’s live morning show with co-hosts Jay Crawford and Dana Jacobson, and commentators Skip Bayless, Jemele Hill, Patrick McEnroe and Stephen A. Smith will feature daily NFL-themed segments and analysis from former players. 

• NFL Live (T-F 4 p.m. and on NFL Monday, 3:30-4 p.m.) – Wingo hosts ESPN’s year-round weekday NFL news and information show with a rotation of analysts – Eric Allen, Mike Golic, James Hasty, Hoge, Floyd Reese, Salisbury, Schlereth and Darren Woodson. 

• NFL Match-Up (Sunday, 3 a.m. and 8:30 a.m.) – Paolantonio hosts ESPN’s weekly NFL Xs and Os show with Jarworski and Hoge.

INTERNATIONAL

ESPN International will televise Monday Night Football and Sunday Night Football to more than 137 countries and territories in such regions as Africa, Canada, Europe, Latin America, the Caribbean, the Middle East and the Pacific Rim.  Coverage in these regions will also include select Wild Card Playoffs, the AFC Divisional Playoffs, the AFC Championship Game, and the Pro Bowl. In Europe, North Africa and the Middle East, ESPN International will offer a full slate of Sunday afternoon games as well as the NFC Playoffs. 

In addition to the games, ESPN International will carry ancillary NFL programming including Sunday NFL Countdown, NFL Primetime and Monday Night Countdown in select regions.  NFL coverage across ESPN networks will be highlighted by a live telecast of the Super Bowl in Europe, Sub-Saharan Africa and New Zealand.  ESPN networks in the Middle East and North Africa will offer the Super Bowl on delay.

ESPN MONDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL CHALK TALK LUNCHEON SERIES

ESPN will host a luncheon series in 12 Monday Night Football cities.  John Seibel, host of ESPN Radio’s SportsBash and Monday Night Countdown, will emcee 11 of the luncheons with participation from among various ESPN personalities, including Jaworski, Kolber, Tafoya, Tirico, Scott, Smith and Young.  Prominent NFL alumni will also take part in panel discussions, along with executives and other key figures representing ESPN, the National Football League, participating teams, local civic and business leaders, and sponsors. 

As part of the series, Team ESPN, the corporate outreach program of ESPN, will join the host NFL team and national sponsor Dick’s Sporting Goods in recognizing select non-profit organizations at each MNF luncheon event with the “Fans Helping Fans Award,” highlighting their team support and commitment to making a positive impact in the community.

ESPNEWS

ESPNEWS, the nation’s only 24-hour sports news network, will cover the league featuring breaking news coverage, in-depth analysis, live press conferences and live interviews with NFL newsmakers.  ESPNEWS shows – The Hotlist (weekdays, 3-6 p.m.; noon – 6 p.m. on NFL Monday) and the weekday primetime ESPNEWS Pregame (weekdays, 7-8 p.m.) and ESPNEWS Gametime (8 p.m. – 12 a.m.) – will regularly include NFL segments throughout the season.  Other highlights include:

• ESPNEWS Fantasy Insider (Sunday at 11 a.m.), hosted by Merril Hoge and featuring ESPN’s Howie Schwab and ESPN.com’s Matthew Berry, will anchor the network’s coverage of football action.  The hour-long program will provide fans up-to-the-minute fantasy insider news, stats, weather updates and analysis.
• Football Friday with Stan Verrett and Salisbury (Friday 8 – 9 p.m.) – a hard-hitting highlights, analysis and prediction program previewing the weekend’s matchups.   Now a year-round program, the one-hour show also previews college gridiron action
• The Blitz (Sunday from 1 p.m. through the last game) – a 12-hour window of live NFL news, highlights, analysis, scoring and injury updates and post-game press conferences, along with news and updates from other sports including NASCAR and Major League Baseball.
• On Mondays, the network will present a special five-hour special edition of The Hotlist featuring weekly coaches’ press conferences, live guests and reports from the site of that night’s Monday Night Football game, and other sports news.  ESPNEWS will also feature pre- (7-8 p.m.) and post-game (midnight) MNF shows.
• On Friday evenings (7-8 p.m.), ESPNEWS will simulcast ESPN Radio PrimeTime with Parcells, Johnson and Mortensen.

ESPN Mobile Products

ESPN will offer comprehensive mobile text and video coverage of NFL news and information, from week one through the Super Bowl, capitalizing on ESPN’s talented team of analysts and personalities.

Text Content:

• From a single scoreboard, ESPN will provide up-to-the-minute scores for all the games along with direct access to previews/recaps, in-game box scores, stats and multimedia content.
• ESPN’s industry-leading WAP site and ESPN MVP application, available exclusively as part of V CAST Vpak from Verizon Wireless, will feature access to ESPN.com’s top columnists and contributors, such as Clayton, Len Pasquarelli, Mortensen and Michael Smith.
• Extensive Fantasy Football news coverage, complete with the latest injury news, depth chart changes, coaching decisions and weather possibilities. Verizon V CAST users with the ESPN MVP application will receive custom content featuring the latest analysis and breakdowns from Berry and Nate Ravitz.

Video Content:

• Sunday Morning Updates – The service will feature a series of mobile-exclusive 60-second video updates that will touch on latest injury news, position battles, weather and ESPN.com predictions.
• ESPN MVP will offer exclusive mobile video clips fromESPN’s digital media fantasy football show, Fantasy Focus, as well as expert analysis and NFL news updates from ESPN veterans such as Wingo, Salisbury,Schwaband Clayton.

ESPN.COM

ESPN.com will bring fans complete coverage throughout every week of the season with news, analysis, video, audio and interactive media.

Each week, ESPN.com’s award-winning lineup of writers, reporters, analysts, columnists and bloggers will bring expansive coverage of the latest news, matchups, rumors and happenings. Among the contributors:  ESPN.com’s Clayton, Pasquarelli, Mike Sando, Jeff Chadiha, Hashmarks blogger Matt Mosley and ESPN The Magazine writer and blogger Seth Wickersham, ESPN’s Parcells, Mortensen, Tafoya, Jaworski, Schlereth, Mel Kiper, Joe Theismann, Werder, Paolantonio, Nichols and Reese.

ESPN.com’s Page 2 section will feature regular contributions from “The Sports Guy” Bill Simmons (The Sports Guy’s World) and “Tuesday Morning Quarterback” Gregg Easterbrook – again bringing their distinctive voices and one-of-a-kind insights to readers.

Countdown Daily, ESPN.com’s new daily, original online program (premiered Sept. 3), is hosted by Wingo and is a daily, digital video companion to count fans down to the games.  Ranging from 12-15 minutes in length, Countdown Daily features news and information about the league, the players and the week’s match ups.

Monday Night Surround returns to for its second season on ESPN.com as the destination for all online content relating to each week’s Monday Night Football game and home for the Monday Night Surround Fan Challenge -- a multi-faceted interactive “game-surrounding-the-game” at the center of the multi-platform initiative.  In its debut last season, the Monday Night Surround initiative helped drive increased traffic to ESPN.com NFL content, generating an average of 24 million page views on Mondays, an increase of 52 percent over the previous year.

On Sundays, Primetime HQ returns for a fifth year, transforming ESPN.com into an interactive, two-screen experience.  Fans will get the day’s important information – stats, results, stories and fantasy scores and can chat live throughout the day with Primetime HQ host and ESPN Football Insider Jeremy Green and other ESPN football analysts.

ESPN Scouts Inc. will provide in-depth information to fans.  Through the Super Bowl, one of ESPN Scouts Inc.’s scouts will be assigned to each of the NFL's eight divisions to explain injuries, roster moves and strategic decisions.  Each scout also will provide matchup breakdowns for every NFL game, as well as “Take 2” previews (observations culled from a week of film work and research) of the weekend's action.

ESPN’s SportsNation will feature daily live chats with NFL experts, reporters and writers and well as NFL-focused SportsNation polls and surveys reflecting the attitudes and opinions of sports fans nationwide

RADIO

ESPN Radio PrimeTime:  Friday, 7 - 9 p.m. (ESPN Radio)

Johnson, Mortensen and Parcells host this new Friday radio show with regular visits from insiders around the NFL. (Mortensen will host 8-9 p.m. window)

Countdown to Kick Off:  Sunday, 11 a.m. - 1 p.m. (ESPN Radio)

ESPN Radio’s weekly NFL preview show will be hosted by Joe D'Ambrosio.

The NFL on ESPN Radio:  Sunday, 1 - 8 p.m. (ESPN Radio)

ESPN Radio’s seven-hour coverage will be hosted by Siebel with analysts Jeremy Green, Salisbury and other ESPN NFL experts. The show will include interviews and reports from around the league.

Monday Night Countdown:  Monday, 4 – 8:35 p.m. (ESPN Radio)

The weekly MNF edition of SportsBash will feature various ESPN analysts and other NFL guests.  The program will originate from the MNF city in select weeks during the season and will offer an extra hour and 35 minutes of NFL-centric coverage (7-8:35 p.m.) leading up to the MNF kickoff time.

ESPN DEPORTES

ESPN Deportes will feature its own Spanish-language production of Monday Night Football again this year starting with the season-opening doubleheader – Baltimore Ravens at Cincinnati Bengals (7 p.m.) and Arizona Cardinals at San Francisco 49ers (10:15 p.m.).  ESPN Deportes’ Monday Night Football telecasts will feature Super Bowl-winning kicker Raúl Allegre as analyst with play-by-play commentator Álvaro Martín and sideline reporter John Sutcliffe.  In addition, ESPN Deportes will present NFL Esta Noche (Monday, 8-8:30 p.m.), a half-hour pre-game show leading into the network’s presentation of MNF.

Throughout the season on Fridays at 10:30 p.m., ESPN Deportes will also feature NFL Semanal, ESPN’s weekly NFL preview program with Martín, Allegre and Eduardo Varela.  ESPNdeportes.com, the leading Spanish-language sports website in Latin America and the U.S., will also provide – NFL news and information throughout the season, featuring two NFL fantasy games, real-time scores and statistics, columns and chat sessions – by on-air personalities, GameCasts with real-time data of all games, photo galleries and much more.

ESPN CLASSIC

ESPN Classic kicked-off its 2007 NFL season coverage an eight-hour marathon of pro football-related programming Saturday, Sept. 2, beginning at 12 noon.

ESPN THE MAGAZINE

Both in- and off-season, ESPN The Magazine covers the NFL with thoughtful, provocative and forward-looking insight.  The Magazine's 2007 NFL preview issue, on sale now, features more than 40 pages of NFL content, including scouting reports on all 32 teams.  LaDainian Tomlinson is featured on the cover.

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