Leaders

Song - Leaders

Artist(s) - Christoph Narholz

Released - 1988

Primetime Usage - 1989-90

Contained on - SON 302 (Leaders, Vol. 2), Sonoton SCD 14 (Leaders 1&2)

Featured Highlight - Bengals @ Raiders, 1990


With the John Colby marathon now over, it was only a matter of time before I'd get back to posting Sonoton stuff.  "Leaders," the only known NFL Primetime track composed by Gerhard Narholz's son, Christoph, uses much the same instrumentation as the other Sonoton songs I've identified.  It is a bit repetitive & bland, comparatively, but ESPN nonetheless used it quite frequently throughout Primetime's Sonoton era (1989-90).  In fact, Leaders is the only Sonoton piece to be used in all eight '89/'90 NFL Primetime episodes I've logged.

The accompanying highlight for Leaders serves as eerie foreshadowing.  As the preview thumbnail shows, Bo Jackson ran for 117 yards on just 8 carries in the Raiders' 1990 regular-season contest against the Bengals.  Jackson also had a breakaway run where he was surprisingly tackled from behind by a Cincinnati defender that kinda previewed his career-ending hip injury against the Bengals in the playoffs later that season.  Just like the following postseason meeting, though, the Raiders came away with a double-digit victory.  Also interesting about 1990 is that it is still, to date, the last time the Cincinnati Bengals won a playoff game (they beat the Jets in the Wild Card).