Carrie Underwood Hits the Big Screen for ‘Sunday Night Football’
Sunday Night Football may not return to NBC until September, but Carrie Underwood fans will soon get a look at the singer’s latest version of the theme song.
100 Greatest Country Songs of All Time: “Before He Cheats”
SNF coordinating producer Fred Gaudelli announced to reporters this week in Beverly Hills that Underwood and about a dozen NFL players (including San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick and the Philadelphia Eagles’ LeSean McCoy) recently convened in L.A. to shoot a new sequence for “Waiting All Day for Sunday Night.” “There’s a two and a half minute trailer that’s going to debut in 19,000 movie theatres across America starting July 25th,” said Gaudelli.
The producers ran a short clip of the behind-the-scenes special with Underwood and the athletes goofing around. Guadelli noted, “As you can see, the players had a great time. We were out here for five days. We shot the open for the regular season. We shot the open for Super Bowl XLIX, which will also star Carrie.”
Game analyst Cris Collinsworth, for one, confessed he was a fan of the tune — a reworking of Joan Jett’s “I Hate Myself for Loving You” that has previously been performed by Faith Hill and Pink — which played as he, partner Al Michaels, sideline reporter Michele Tafoya, and Gaudelli took the stage at the press conference.
“I don’t know, Al, if it strikes you the same way, but every time I come in [to this event] and I hear Carrie sing the song, I get that same burst of energy that I get in the booth right before we come on the air. Clearly, one of my favorite parts is when they say our name, which is great for me. But you come out and I find myself just singing along to the song and doing the whole thing,” said a clearly jazzed Collinsworth breaking into the tune. “And then we come out of it and you almost have to go, ‘Oh, yeah, what am I supposed to say again?’ I just kind of get myself so completely into it.”
Collinsworth and the rest of the U.S. will be able to get into it starting July 25th. The trailer will run for two and a half weeks. Sunday Night Football premieres September 7th with a game between the Indianapolis Colts and Denver Broncos.