The NFL Today
The program features commentary on the latest news around the NFL from its hosts and studio analysts, as well as predictions for the day's games and interviews with players and coaches.
Since 2024, the crew consists of longtime sportscaster James Brown, who has served as the host of The NFL Today since 2006; former Pittsburgh Steelers head coach Bill Cowher; former Seattle Seahawks, Minnesota Vikings, and Detroit Lions wide receiver Nate Burleson; Houston Texans former defensive end J. J. Watt; and Atlanta Falcons former quarterback Matt Ryan serving as analysts.
In 1971, Jack Whitaker and Pat Summerall took over hosting duties on the program from Gifford, who left CBS to call play-by-play on ABC's Monday Night Football.
The program's hosts were Whitaker (who was brought into the studio after quite a few years serving as a play-by-play announcer for the network's NFL broadcasts) and Lee Leonard.
The program also no longer featured a third member of the on-air crew stationed at CBS Control to provide scores, halftime information and – time permitting – post-game interviews, a position often held by Dick Stockton during his early days at the network.
Musburger announced Snyder's dismissal on The NFL Today prior to the Minnesota Vikings-Washington Redskins NFC Championship Game the next day.
After the 1989 NFL season, Musburger was abruptly fired on April 1, 1990, following a power shift at CBS (he later resurfaced at ABC), while Cross was demoted to the position of game analyst.
[6] They were replaced by former ESPN football analyst and WFAN morning host Greg Gumbel (brother of then-Today co-host Bryant Gumbel), legendary former Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Terry Bradshaw and longtime sportswriter Lesley Visser, bringing a female reporter back to The NFL Today for the first time since Super Bowl XVIII.
After CBS lost the NFL rights, Greg Gumbel went to NBC Sports, Terry Bradshaw left to become an analyst for Fox's new pre-game show Fox NFL Sunday and Lesley Visser joined ABC as a sideline reporter for Monday Night Football; Gumbel and Visser eventually returned to CBS.
[9] In the months before CBS began its AFC broadcast contract, former NFL Today host Greg Gumbel rejoined CBS from NBC to serve as the lead play-by-play announcer for the NFL game; while Jim Nantz was named as the studio host for The NFL Today (incidentally, during the 1993 season, Nantz filled in for predecessor Gumbel on the program, as the latter was helming the broadcast team for CBS' coverage of the American League Championship Series alongside Jim Kaat).
In addition to Nantz as host, the relaunched program's original lineup of studio analysts consisted of Marcus Allen, Brent Jones and George Seifert.
As a prelude, James and Cross joined Nantz, Jones, and Allen for the pregame show before the AFC Championship Game during the previous season.
For the 2000 NFL season, the program moved part-time from the CBS Broadcast Center to a new outdoor studio on the site of the General Motors Building, on Fifth Avenue and 59th Street in Manhattan.
With Nantz moving to the lead broadcast team alongside Phil Simms, Gumbel returned to the studio to replace him on The NFL Today.
Lesley Visser returned to The NFL Today after a two-year hiatus in her previous role as feature reporter, a position she continues to hold to this day; meanwhile, Bonnie Bernstein left the network to pursue other broadcasting opportunities.
In 2012, following the murder-suicide of Kansas City Chiefs linebacker Jovan Belcher and his girlfriend, Brown digressed on the program about the role that men needed to take in the fight against domestic violence.
On February 18, 2014, CBS Sports announced that Sharpe and Marino were being relieved of their duties as on-air commentators, to be replaced by Tony Gonzalez and Bart Scott.
During the first Thursday edition of The NFL Today on September 11, 2014, in the wake of the domestic violence controversy involving Baltimore Ravens running back Ray Rice, Brown spoke via satellite to CBS News anchor Scott Pelley and spoke face-to-face with CBS News correspondent Norah O'Donnell, who had interviewed NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell days before.
For the 2020 season due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the set was modified to allow for social distancing, which resulted in the temporary removal of the desk, and instead Brown, Burleson, Cowher, Esiason and Simms were seated on stools.
