ESPN to open Monday Night Football with a nostalgic film from Pony Show’s Peter Berg
Pony Show director Peter Berg has created an old-school NFL film for the 80-second opening for ESPN’s Monday Night Football (MNF).
The spot, which will not be revealed until the September 9 kickoff game, leads fans through the infancy of MNF up to the present, featuring a patriotic timeline of iconic football moments and landmark events in pop culture, history, television, film and music.
It opens with clips from 1970, the year that MNF debuted and cycles through archival footage of various football stars scoring touchdowns and other historic moments before it concludes with a series of MNF logos through the years shuffling like a deck of playing cards. The ESPN, NFL and launch sponsor GMC logos close out the spot.
Berg explained his creative thought process for the film, saying: “I tried to position MNF in a unique way so it distinguished itself from a more slick, graphic opener that is more common.
“With such an iconic brand, I wanted to revisit MNF from 1970 to now and present it as something that was classic and informative. Not just about the sport, but about the American portrait behind it.”
Berg worked with ESPN creatives and the VFX team at Ignition for the film.