Sunday Night Football on ESPN Trivia Quiz

Answer: New York Giants vs New England Patriots

On November 8, 1987, ESPN televised its very first regular season NFL game. It was a Week Nine contest between the New York Giants and the New England Patriots which the Giants won, 17-10.

Answer: Pat Summerall

Mike Patrick was the voice of Sunday Night Football on ESPN durig its entire series run on the network. However, in 2004, when Patrick missed the first half of the season because he was recovering heart by-pass surgery, it was former player and CBS announcer, Pat Summerall, who filled in for him. Patrick returned to the show in mid-season and continued calling the Sunday night games until the end of its run after the 2005 season.

Answer: 1988

In 1988, Joe Theismann began his broadcasting career as a color analyst on ESPN's Sunday night NFL telecasts. He and Patrick would continue as a two-man team until 1998 when they would be joined by former Buffalo Bill and NBC color analyst Paul Maguire.

Answer: TNT

ESPN broadcast the second half of NFL Sunday night games from 1987-1989. Then, in 1990, the first eight Sunday night games were carried by the TNT network while ESPN continued to carry the second half of the season's games. This bi-network sharing of NFL games continued to until end of the 1997 season when ESPN finally took over the full season of Sunday night games.

Answer: True

From 1987-1997, ESPN had only televised Sunday night NFL games beginning in the second half of the season. Then, in 1998, ESPN carried all 16 NFL Sunday night games until the series ended after the 2005 season.

Answer: Stephone Paige

Stephone Paige was an undrafted free agent wideout from Fresno State who played 10 seasons in the NFL, nine of which he spent with the Kansas City Chiefs; his final year was spent with the Minnesota Vikings. Paige had set his all-time receiving record in 1985, with 309 yards, breaking the old record previously held by former Los Angeles Rams and Chicago Bears wide receiver, Jim Benton, which had stood for 40 years.

During his career, Paige had a streak of 83 straight games in which he caught at least one pass that was a team record until Antonio Gonzalez broke it in 2006. Paige retired at the end of the 1992 season with career stats of 377 receptions for 6,341 yards and 49 touchdowns.

Answer: 250

On December 26, 1999, the San Franscico 49ers (4-11) ran roughshod over the powerful Washington Redskins (9-6) gaining 250 yards on the ground. Normally, with a running attack that successful, a team will win the game; however, this was not the case in the contest.

Although the Redskins ground game was inept, their passing attack, led by Brad Johnson, was amazing. Johnson threw for 471 yards and the 'Skins came back from a 20-10 deficit in the fourth quarter to win the game in overtime, 26-20.

Answer: Colts kicker, Mike Vanderjagt, made two 50+ yard field goals to win the game

With the Colts down to the Denver Broncos, 20-17, with seconds left in the fourth quarter at Invesco Field at Mile High Stadium, Mike Vanderjagt kicked a 54 yard field goal to tie the game at 20-20 and then, moments later in overtime, he booted a 51 yarder to give the Colts a hard-fought 23-20 victory.

Answer: New York Jets vs New England Patriots

During the December 20, 2003, Sunday night game between the New York Jets and the New England Patriots, Joe Namath muttered his ill-advised statement to Suzy Kolber after she asked him his opinion on then-Jets' QB Chad Pennington. He later apologized to her saying that he had made the comment under the influence of alcohol and sought treatment for his problem.

Answer: Dallas Cowboys vs St. Louis Rams

The Rams and the Cowboys closed out ESPN's Sunday Night Football series on January 1, 2006. St. Louis won the game at Texas Stadium, 20-10.