Is This Pedal Steel Cover Of FOX’s NFL Theme The Best Of All The NFL Theme Songs?

Football is BACK.

After waiting for over six months for football to make its glorious return, the football season is officially upon us. We’ve already had some wild games at both the college and professional level, and we’re only a couple of weeks into this whole thing. It’s a beautiful thing knowing that we’ve got football every single week (and every Sunday) all the way until a Super Bowl champion is crowned.

We all love watching the game (duh) but one of the most underrated parts of the game experience: each game provider’s football theme music. Now let me go ahead and put out a disclaimer that you won’t see Carrie Underwood’s “Waiting All Day For Sunday Night” or Hank William’s Jr’s “Are You Ready For Some Football?” on this power ranking.

Though I greatly appreciate both of those songs, and they add (or used to add) much to the football watching experience, this list is strictly the instrumental musical productions that each network that carries football has…for some unexplained, inexplicable reason. I don’t ask why all the networks have their own NFL theme music… I just appreciate that they do.

And I also appreciate that some musicians love football so much that they learn how to cover NFL theme music on the pedal steel guitar… but more on that later.

I also have to mention that Netflix has even entered into the sphere of NFL broadcasting. They inked a three-year deal last year to be the exclusive home of the NFL’s Christmas Day games (which I’m not a fan of… I’ve got too much to do on Christmas). From what I understand, they don’t have their own NFL theme music… yet. Once they present that to the world, I’ll make sure to include it in my power rankings.

But for now, let’s get to the already established NFL theme songs, shall we?

7. Amazon Prime Video Thursday Night Football

Prime Video’s football theme is respectable, but it just doesn’t carry the same musical enthusiasm as the others do.

Amazon is the most recent entrant into the NFL provider space (if you don’t count Peacock since it’s a part of NBC, or Netflix), so being late to the game and joining the ranks with so many other well-established theme songs had Jeff Bezos doomed from the start. There’s certainly room for improvement with this one.

6. NFL RedZone

Gotta throw this one in there for the die-hard NFL RedZone fans out there. Even though RedZone has been in the news lately for not being what it used to be (they are adding commercials into the whip-around coverage, in case you missed that), it’s still a beautiful product.

All you have to do is sit on your couch, while RedZone host Scott Hanson enthusiastically shouts things like “octobox” and “witching hour” while bouncing around from game to game, and touchdown to touchdown. The countdown clock they feature is a beauty as well, and their theme song is worthy of being on the list.

5. NFL on CBS

You might be scrolling through and be surprised to see that this one comes in at number five. It is solid, don’t get me wrong, but hopefully you’ll agree with my placement as we continue on through the list.

The CBS theme song packs a punch, and is definitely the most “rock themed” of the entire list. There’s really nothing wrong with it at all, but it just fails to top any of the remaining three in the rankings.

4. NBC’s Sunday Night Football Theme

When you’ve been waiting all day for Sunday night, this song absolutely brings the heat. The build up is everything, and NBC’s NFL theme music is a beautiful orchestra that welcomes in fans for the last game of football’s oh-so-beautiful Sunday slate (and select games that air exclusively on Peacock, much to my chagrin).

Pair it with the Cris Collinsworth slide-in (hopefully they bring that back at some point) and you’ve literally got yourself a ball game.

3. ESPN’s Monday Night Football Theme

ESPN’s Monday Night Football song and NBC’s Sunday Night theme are both so good, which made it incredibly hard to pit them against one another.

However, ESPN’s NFL theme gets the edge in my power ranking because of the climax of the song where it goes “dun, dun, dun, dun, DUN.” For some reason, it just means more. Big time football fans know exactly what I’m talking about.

2. NFL on FOX

The number two spot firmly belongs to this all-time anthem, which is FOX’s “turn the volume all the way up” NFL theme. I don’t know about you, but this song makes me want to run through a brick wall.

Hearing it right as the FOX broadcast begins (usually overlayed over futuristic FOX football robots running and spiking footballs on a Tron-esque football field) pumps you up enough to make you finally go for that 5-team parlay.

1. This pedal steel cover of the NFL on FOX Theme

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A post shared by Mike Drassler (@drasssounds_)

Call it recency bias if you want, but this countrified NFL on FOX theme EASILY takes the number one spot on this list. Mike Drassler, who calls himself a “Nashville Picker,” rolled out this version of an NFL theme song yesterday and I (and many others) quickly fell in love with it.

NFL on FOX on the pedal steel guitar? That’s beautiful. That’s magnificent. That’s something that I had no idea I needed. And I love that he referred to it as “our nation’s other National Anthem.” You best believe this country loves it some football, and if I were FOX… I’d be sliding this theme song in as an alternate. It’s that good.The post Is This Pedal Steel Cover Of FOX’s NFL Theme The Best Of All The NFL Theme Songs? first appeared on Whiskey Riff.