NFL Network Gets Ready for Opening Kickoff
Special Programming Leads to Start of Regular Season
By Larry Barrett -- Multichannel News, 8/29/2008 5:41:00 AM
Football fans impatiently awaiting the start of the National Football League’s regular season next Thursday can still get their fix this week by relieving the New York Giants’ improbable run to the championship on the NFL Network.
On Tuesday, Sept. 2 at 8 p.m. ET, the league-owned network will air an encore presentation of last year’s Super Bowl XLII between the heavily favored and then-undefeated New England Patriots and the Eli Manning-led New York Giants.
Along with every snap of the Giants’ shocking 17-14 victory, the rebroadcast will also include Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers performance during the halftime show.
Super Bowl XLII was the second-most watched television program ever with an average of 97.5 million viewers.
NFL Network on Wednesday, Sept. 3 at 9 p.m. ET will air America’s Game, an original series that features the players, coaches and fans of championship teams throughout the years. This week’s episode will bring fans closer to the 2007 New York Giants and their magical run to Super Bowl XLII.
James Gandolfini (Tony Soprano from The Sopranos) will narrate.
The episode includes exclusive video and sound of the Giants team meetings, practices, road trips and inside the locker room on the road to Super Bowl XLII. The story of the 2007 Giants is told through the eyes of Tom Coughlin, Eli Manning and Michael Strahan, who provide an intimate portrait of how they became Super Bowl champions.
Finally, in the hours leading up to the Thursday, Sept. 4 start of the NFL season, the network will telecast NFL Total Access Kickoff 2008 live from the league’s annual NFL Kickoff event in New York City’s Columbus Circle at 3:30 p.m. ET.
The three-and-a-half hour program will be hosted by Rich Eisen, Steve Mariucci, Deion Sanders and new analyst Warren Sapp. Marshall Faulk and Adam Schefter will be on location at Giants Stadium with up-to-the-minute reports as the Super Bowl champion New York Giants prepare to begin the season versus the Washington Redskins.
The telecast will include performances by Grammy Award-winning artists Usher and Keith Urban, as well as Grammy-nominated Natasha Bedingfield.
Portions of the pregame telecast will be streamed on NFL.com.
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