NFL On CBS Music - 1980s

1980s

Starting in 1980, CBS frequently used the beginning guitar riff of Heart's "Crazy on You" when they went to commercial.

In 1981, CBS changed the game opening music and kept it through the 1985 season. The 1981-1985 NFL on CBS theme was a peppy, fanfare-styled theme. The patriotic-like opening graphic showed the Stars and Stripes morphing into the words "National Football League."

For their Super Bowl XVI coverage at the end of the 1981 season, CBS' theme music eventually became the theme for CBS Sports Saturday/Sunday. The music itself, could be considered a hybrid of the then, NFL Today theme and their original college basketball theme.

Beginning in 1986, CBS adapted a theme that has affectionately been referred to as the Pots and Pans (because of the background notes often resembled the banging of pots and pans) theme. This particular theme was an intense, kinetic, synthesizer-laced theme. In 1989, the Pots and Pans theme was revamped to give it a more smooth, electronic style. This theme was also known for integrating the play-by-play announcer's voice-over introduction into the theme, it integrated three voice-over segments, one for the visiting team, home team, and game storyline to set the game storyline into the broadcast. This practice was common with CBS Sports themes of the 1980s.

For CBS' coverage of Super Bowl XXI at the end of the 1986 season, CBS featured an intensely bombastic, highly energetic and catchy theme. This theme (composed by Lloyd Landesman) ultimately became the theme used for CBS' college football coverage (which was also the case for the theme CBS used from 1984-1986 after debuting it for Super Bowl XVIII) for the 1987 season (this theme was actually loosely based on the Pots and Pans theme). The postshow for Super Bowl XXI was supposed to feature the song "One Shining Moment" but due to postgame interviews taking so long, CBS never aired it. They ultimately changed the lyrics from "The ball is kicked" to "The ball is tipped", and now airs it at the end of their NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championship coverage.

For CBS' coverage of Super Bowl XXIV at the end of the 1989 season, they introduced a brand new theme. The theme was a considerably more traditional and standard (but still peppy and bombastic), theme than the one of the past four seasons. The theme was used until the 1991 NFC Championship Game.