NFL Today 1977 Photo Credit: CBS, Historic Vids via X

All fans know the NFL has evolved in recent years to promote player safety and overall a more family-friendly environment.

Yet it’s one thing to hear retired players or longtime fans talk about the sport’s brutal past, and something else entirely to see that history come to life in a 30-second video clip.

The popular X/Twitter account Historic Vids (@historyinmemes), which has 5.3 million followers, generated buzz on Friday when they posted a video of the intro for a 1977 episode of CBS’s flagship The NFL Today show.

“CBS NFL intro from 1977. Almost every clip is a penalty in 2024,” the account noted on social media.

That’s not hyperbole. The video offers an amazing look at plays that would generate controversy today. There is one rather ordinary although iconic image, of Chicago Bears star Walter Payton leaping into the end zone for a touchdown. Then there are the plays that today would draw penalties, and likely even ejections and/or suspensions. Oakland Raiders receiver Cliff Branch gets flipped on his head on a play; Steelers quarterback and now Fox analyst Terry Bradshaw gets slammed into the ground headfirst.

Other players get stepped on, violently clotheslined, or yanked down viciously by their face masks (even that was a penalty back then).

Not surprisingly, fans quickly reacted to the video. And they were seemingly split on whether the sport has changed for the better or not.


While every network has a studio show now, The NFL Today set the standard and was a revolutionary concept when it debuted in 1975. CBS recently aired a documentary on the show, You Are Looking Live: The Show That Changed Sports Television.

[Historic Vids]

About Arthur Weinstein

Arthur spends his free time traveling around the U.S. to sporting events, state and national parks, and in search of great restaurants off the beaten path.