For nearly 20 years, NFL football fans could feast on Sunday games and then flip on ESPN for a complete wrap up on NFL Prime Time hosted primarily by Chris "Boomer" Berman and Tom Jackson. It was a staple. Then in 2005, ESPN dropped the show.

Now, it's coming back (sort of) and in addition to Boomer and Jackson, John Saunders will be rejoining them, re-creating the original troika from 1987. The essence of NFL Prime Time will be found in the 7 p.m. ET edition of SportsCenter each Sunday during football season. Essentially, they'll be doing what they did on NFL Prime Time, and in doing so, they'll be taking aim at NBC's Football Night in America, that network's lead in show for the Sunday Night Football game.

This should be really interesting because the NBC pre-game show is like Thanksgiving dinner -- loaded with stuffing. They have stars galore, including the recently added, former ESPN stalwart, Dan Patrick.

Keith Olbermann, who is matched up with Patrick on the pre-game, which is a re-teaming from their ESPN SportsCenter days, has joked about how stuffed the program is, wondering who's the next name to be added to the roster. Currently, the line up includes Jerome Bettis, Tiki Barber, Peter King, Bob Costas, Cris Collinsworth, Olbermann and Patrick.

ESPN is taking on the NBC all-star power with three stars of their own, as well as a promise of all-sports coverage within the SportsCenter format. ESPN is betting that their familiar format will be the go-to place for football fans, especially fantasy football freaks who are searching for stats and data. Like ESPN's NFL draft coverage, the network intends to present a compressed format. That's code for lots of information all over the screen while the guys are talking meat-and-potatoes about the games. Oh, and they are saying that they'll be previewing the Sunday night primetime game, too.

The choice, then, will be clear and it will likely come down to preference. The NBC production is splashy and loud and aggressive. ESPN, while hardly subdued, is going to be sticking with their brand of jock-u-journalism.