Composed by Randy Edelman, the distinctive theme music gained recognition beyond the show's following; in the mid-1990s, NBC Sports had commissioned Edelman to compose theme music for its NFL coverage. At the time, NBC had often used excerpts from film scores as theme music for its sports broadcasts, and had used a portion of Edelman's "Gettysburg" score for the Breeder's Cup. A portfolio Edelman sent NBC included the "Brisco" theme, and by 1996 it was being used during coverage of the Olympics; the theme would be retired after the 2016 games. NBC used it again as the theme for their coverage of the 1997 World Series. Edelman said, "It was original, and it seemed to have the right spirit. It's got a very flowing melody, it's triumphant, and it has a certain warmth. And it has at the end of it, what all television things like this have, a 'button', an ending flourish that works really well if they need to chop it down into a 15-second thing."