NBC’s graphics for Sunday Night Football still include the talking player introductions, a weekly race against the snap the production crew tends to lose. Along with the, uh, interesting opening theme song, it’s probably the signature of the broadcast.

Early in tonight’s game, with the Giants backed up to their own end zone, Eli Manning took the snap while the introduction package was still running. And as the offensive line talking heads scrolled by, their real-life counterparts blew a protection on third down, resulting in Eli Manning eating a sack inside the Giants five yard line:

That’s unfortunate timing, from a Giants perspective. Glorious timing, from the perspective of everyone else.

It’s been a slow opener tonight, with the Giants trailing 3-0 in Dallas. But not slower than the NBC player introductions, which at this point should probably be scrapped, for multiple reasons. Teams are quicker between snaps, and the starters matter less with the various substitution packages teams run. The novelty of the Harry Potter-like moving images is gone, as is the humor of various high schools or made up schools listed by players.

Just scroll the names.

About Jay Rigdon

Jay is a columnist at Awful Announcing. He is not a strong swimmer. He is probably talking to a dog in a silly voice at this very moment.