About 3 and a half weeks ago, I created a post of NFL Theme music for all the major network and streaming content providers of NFL football games. So far, ABC/ESPN’s Monday Night Football theme, Heavy Action, is the front runner.
When I ran this poll back in 2012 (which had 4 choices- as Amazon Prime was not in the business of broadcasting football games at that time), Heavy Action was the clear winner. However, engagement on this poll was more than double this one.
I have no plans to close this poll, so feel free to check out the post and vote whenever you come across it. I will say that if you are just a fan of music but not football, check out the post! I have links to each piece.
Happy September! I’ve been waiting for the start of this year’s football season to revisit a post I did back in 2012 on my now defunct NMNPHX blog. As a fan of both (American) football AND music, I thought it would be fun to examine the various instrumental themes that have been produced or adapted by media networks for NFL telecasts.
NOTE: IF you are NOT a fan of American football, but ARE a fan of music- please keep reading! I assure you as a music fan you will like this one.
When I did this post back in 2012, there were 4 theme songs. Fast forward to 2024 and there is a 5th as a few years ago, Amazon Prime snagged the rights to air Thursday Night Football.
Listen to each piece below, then vote for your favorite!
ABC/ESPN- “Heavy Action”:
Heavy Action, composed by Johnny Pearson in the early 1970′s, made it’s first television debut as the theme song for Superstars, a sports themed showed on the BBC. By 1978, ABC acquired the rights to develop Superstars in the U.S. The network opted to use Heavy Action to introduce MNF. It wasn’t until 1989 that Heavy Action was proclaimed the official theme of MNF. When MNF made the move to ESPN in 2006, Heavy Action moved with it. The piece has be rearranged several times over the years, but the first 20 seconds of the piece is perhaps one of the most recognizable themes in sports
CBS commissioned the group, E.S. Posthumus, composed of classically trained brothers Helmut and Franz Vonlichten, to come up with a theme for their NFL telecasts. This has been CBS’s football theme since 2003.
Composed in 1994, it is more synthetic sounding than the music of the other networks. It begins with a trumpet solo and a piece of the theme sounds very similar to the classic Christmas tune Sleigh Ride.
In 2022, Amazon unveiled their Thursday Night Football theme music composed by Pinar Toprak who also composed the music for the movie “Captain Marvel”.
Now that you’ve all 5 themes, vote in the poll below or drop your vote into the comments! Also- be sure to click on the word ‘Submit’ under the poll options to record your answer if you use the polling function.
unfrazzled analyst 