Here are a few of the celebrations and special projects the NFL has in store this season.
Fantennial Events
A cornerstone of this season’s celebrations will be fan-facing festivals held by each team on the weekend leading up to a home game. Each team will hold a “Fantennial” weekend that will generally include “fan fest” activities: fan voting for greatest team players and plays, appearances by former players and community service components.
All-Time Team and 100 Greatest Series
A panel of former NFL players, coaches, front-office members and media helped select the 100 greatest players and 10 best coaches in NFL history. This All-Time Team will be presented in a six-part series on NFL Network, set to be hosted by Rich Eisen, Cris Collinsworth and Bill Belichick. The 100 Greatest series will cover the best plays, characters, games and teams of the NFL’s 100 seasons. The air times have not been set.
“Peyton’s Places”
Another series centered around NFL100 is Peyton Manning’s ESPN and NFL Films project, “Peyton’s Places.” In it, Manning visits with prominent NFL figures (Joe Namath, Cris Carter and Roger Staubach, to name a few) to discuss the league’s history. Manning also visits league historical sites, such as the field in Dayton, Ohio, where the first NFL game was played. Manning’s 30-part series is available on ESPN+, with new episodes posted every week.
College Football 150
This year is also the 150th anniversary of the first college football game, Rutgers vs. Princeton, on Nov. 6, 1869. To celebrate the shared anniversaries, the Giants, who host the Cowboys on “Monday Night Football” on Nov. 4, will incorporate college aspects to the game. Activations include alumni tailgates, local college coaches handling the pregame coin toss and the players wearing a commemorative CF150 sticker on their helmets.
Experience of a Lifetime
As part of their longtime partnership with the NFL, Endeavor has put together a package of “Experiences of a Lifetime.” These fan-facing experiences, such as winning tickets for the next 100 years or having Commissioner Roger Goodell host your fantasy football draft, help the league showcase its accessibility to fans. Other “Experiences of a Lifetime” will continue throughout the 100th season and Super Bowl LIV, guided by Endeavor and the NFL.
Pete Abitante, NFL special assistant to the commissioner, has led the league’s NFL100 project since planning began in 2016. He said the league focused on celebrating a shared love of football. “We used the term ‘football’ because we wanted to be able to go up and down this vertical from youth to high school to college to pro.”
— Compiled by John Aceti, Sports Business Daily.
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