History
The show started in 1984 as Monday Night Matchup with Chris Berman as host with Allie Sherman, former Giants coach, and Steve Sabol of NFL Films providing analysis.
From 1993 to 2003, it was hosted by Mark Malone, SportsCenter anchor Stuart Scott and finally, ESPN sideline reporter Suzy Kolber, who became the first female to host an NFL show.
Since the 2004 season Sunday NFL Countdown and SportsCenter correspondent Sal Paolantonio has served as the host. Alongside him are Ron Jaworski and Merril Hoge. Jaworski, who also appears on ESPN's Sunday NFL Countdown, joined ESPN in 1990 after a 17 year career as a quarterback, most notably with the Philadelphia Eagles. The show fits Jaworski style of breaking down the X's and O's of the football gridiron game.
Hoge joined ESPN in 1996, where he serves as an analyst on NFL Live and ESPNews Football Friday, as well as NFL Matchup. He is a former fullback and an eight-year veteran, serving five of those years as a starter for the Pittsburgh Steelers. Television tape was used until 1994, when game film was used.
The program converted to a high definition presentation for the 2011 season, though some game footage camera angles (which are mainly used by coaching staffs, and rarely by television networks during game broadcasts except in a few circumstances) remain provided to ESPN by the NFL in 480i standard definition. With Jim Rome is Burning, which ended at the end of January 2012 never converting to HD, NFL Matchup was both the final ESPN program to convert to HD and the only one still utilizing some SD presentation outside of SD SportsCenter highlights.
Read more about this topic: NFL Matchup
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