THE NFL ON CBS, home of Super Bowl XXXVIII, will have a new sound backing up its game coverage to go along with its new-look animation and graphics during the CBS Television Network's coverage of the 2003 NFL season.

The new music, to debut during Week 1 of the Network's 2003 NFL broadcast schedule on Sunday, Sept. 7 (12:00 Noon, ET), will feature a more powerful, bigger and bolder, harder hitting sound that will accompany the new-look animation and graphics as part of the pre-game show, THE NFL TODAY, game coverage, as well as openings, teases, bumpers in-and-out of commercials, breaks and billboards.

Los Angeles-based band ES Posthumus composed and recorded the new music that will be heard backing up THE NFL ON CBS's coverage throughout the season. Brothers Helmet and Franz Vonlichten composed the new sound using "a pallet of orchestrally-fused sounds with contemporary technology to produce a more powerful and energetic sound." Twelve French horns, six trumpets, digitally processed electric guitars and symphonic string sections, as well as contra base drums, tyco drums and kodo drums, which provide the driving percussive sounds, were some of the instruments used that make up THE NFL ON CBS's new sound. The brothers also recorded sound design samples that included hammers hitting anvils and used them, along with numerous analog synthesizers, to create the new sound.

In addition to the new music backing the Network's NFL coverage, THE NFL ON CBS will have a new animation and graphics look this season that incorporates a more realistic sense of the NFL that will also debut on Week 1. Weaved throughout the broadcast will be animation involving game and player imagery that includes actual game footage, as well as dramatic player and football-textured images. Graphics will incorporate a more easily read font, deeper blue, along with grayish-platinum colors that are combined in new "baseball card" player bio introductions, as well as all insert graphics, statistical updates, scores and game information. A flaming NFL ON CBS logo accents the openings, teases, bumpers and billboards throughout the broadcast. The Vince Lombardi Trophy, helmets, footballs and other various game-related images will be used as transitions between various elements including scoreboards, recaps and highlights, and sponsored segments.