As an expanded lead-in of sorts to the Big Game, NFL Network over the next two weeks will encore 10 Super Bowls past, including previous contests featuring this year’s participants, the New England Patriots and New York Giants. There are also two replays of this year’s regular-season matchup between the Super Bowl XLII combatants.
NFL Network’s “Super Bowl Classics” lineup calls for 10 games, five of which will be rebroadcast in their entirety with the original announcers for the first time, according to the pro football league’s service.
The network kicked off its “classics” contests, some of which include halftime performances from the likes of U2, Prince and Paul McCartney, with re-airs of Super Bowl XXII, the Washington Redskins-Denver Broncos contest, and last year’s XLI version, in which the Indianapolis Colts vanquished the Chicago Bears.
On Wednesday Jan. 23 at 8:30 p.m. (ET), NFL Network will encore all of the Bears-Patriots in Super Bowl XX for the first time.
In what was the NFL’s first-ever tri-network simulcast with CBS and NBC, NFL Network will go it alone by encoring the 2007 week 17 Pats-Giants game, won by New England 38-35, on Jan. 24 and Feb. 1, both at 9 p.m.
Back on the Big Game beat, the Jan. 27 presentation of Super Bowl XXXI, the Pats-Green Bay Packers at 4 p.m., marks the first time that game will be fully featured as an encore; it will be followed by Super Bowl XXXVIII, Pats-Carolina Panthers at 8 p.m.
The initial full re-airing of Super Bowl XXI, the Giants-Denver Broncos, is slated for Jan. 28 at 8:30 p.m., while the Pats-St. Louis Rams relive Super Bowl XXXVI the next night at the same time.
Scott Norwood’s nightmare lives on for the network’s 43 million subscribers to see Jan. 30 at 9 p.m. with the Giants-Buffalo Bills in Super Bowl XXV. In NFL Network’s fourth full encore, the Pats-Philadelphia Eagles are on center stage with Super Bowl XXXIX the next night in the same timeslot.
Finally in the channel's final full revisit, fans will get a chance to see what New England is looking to surpass with its 19th straight victory -- the 17-0 perfection the Miami Dolphins attained with their 14-7 win over the Washington Redskins in Super Bowl VII at 9:30 p.m.
