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).
CBS NFL intro from 1977. Almost every clip is a penalty in 2024 pic.twitter.com/Jg60xF8zOd
— Historic Vids (@historyinmemes) May 3, 2024
Not surprisingly, fans quickly reacted to the video. And they were seemingly split on whether the sport has changed for the better or not.
Hahaha… check out this NFL Today intro. Half these guys would be suspended for these hits today….#oldschool https://t.co/y9NiajVoRL
— Shawn Bryant (@shawnbryant50) May 3, 2024
Someone needs to edit it with penalty whistles https://t.co/QyqdZ8aB0Y
— Moisés Aloucard (@alecfales) May 3, 2024
It’s such a different ball game. 🤯🏈
I’m glad it’s safer now, but you can see how much harder it was for offense then https://t.co/0epug4xvhQ
— Kirsten Tanis (@kct2020) May 3, 2024
The @NFL will lose viewers because they are favoring “entertainment” over “sport.” There was a time where it was a gladiator event of masculine prowess. Today it’s all glitz and glamour. Boys, not men, on and off the field. They even dance when they score. https://t.co/RICLuvdVSd
— Vox Populi (@estvoxpopuli) May 3, 2024
Some of them would have been penalties back in the day too. But the most interesting of this clip is that they were part of a program intro – which is something they won’t do now. https://t.co/C6xebKQNvZ
— Albert Loo (@AlbertCLoo) May 3, 2024
They literally tried to kill and maim people in those days… And we loved it! https://t.co/GDpooiAthZ
— Paul Berger (@PaulBrrGrr) May 3, 2024
This is amazing! Wow, how things have changed. 😀 https://t.co/YVLcmy97rD
— Ed Kengerski (@EdUofM) May 3, 2024
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.