regular season and playoff games from the conference starting with the 1994 NFL season (which it continues to this day). The deal stripped CBS of NFL telecasts following the 1993 NFL season after 38 years; as a result, The NFL Today ended its original run and CBS aired its final NFC telecast on January 23, 1994. After CBS lost the NFL rights, Greg Gumbel went to NBC Sports, Terry Bradshaw left to become an analyst for Fox's new pre-game show Fox NFL Sunday and Lesley Visser joined ABC as a sideline reporter for Monday Night Football; Gumbel and Visser eventually returned to CBS. CBS reacquires rights (1998–present) The NFL Today made its return to CBS in 1998, after the network signed a contract with the NFL to acquire the broadcast rights to televise games from the American Football Conference (AFC) effective with that year's NFL season, taking over the rights from NBC. Under Jim Nantz (1998–2003) In the months before CBS began its AFC broadcast contract, former NFL Today host Greg Gumbel rejoined CBS from NBC to serve as the lead play-by-play announcer for the NFL game; while Jim Nantz was named as the studio host for The NFL Today (incidentally, during the 1993 season, Nantz filled in for predecessor Gumbel on the program, as the latter was helming the broadcast team for Major League Baseball on CBS' coverage of the American League Championship Series alongside Jim Kaat). Newcomer Bonnie Bernstein joined CBS as a reporter for The NFL Today, before being moved to a sideline reporting role for the 1999 NFL season. Bernstein eventually returned to the show in 2004, before leaving again in 2005. The NFL Today returned on September 6, 1998, 1,687 days since the program's last broadcast under the previous NFL contract, with Nantz welcoming back viewers to CBS for its coverage of the National Football League. In addition to Nantz as host, the relaunched program's original lineup of studio analysts consisted of Marcus Allen, Brent Jones and George Seifert. All three were let go following the 1998 season, with Craig James (a former studio analyst for CBS' SEC on CBS pre-game show), Randy Cross (a former color commentator for CBS and NBC) and Jerry Glanville (a former analyst for Fox NFL Sunday) joining lone holdover Nantz on the pre-game show the next season. During this time, the program introduced new segments such as Chalk Talk