The town of Springfield is set to host a National Football League game in December at Atoms Stadium, though neither the Springfield Atoms nor the Shelbyville Sharks will participate. Instead, the Bengals-Cowboys game on December 9 will be transformed into the universe of television’s longest-running sitcom, The Simpsons, for a special edition of Funday Football on Monday Night Football. This special Simpsons-themed broadcast will be available on the ESPN+ and Disney+ streaming services and the NFL+ mobile app. The regular broadcast of the game will be aired on ESPN, ESPN+, ABC, ESPN2, and ESPN Deportes.
The broadcast will utilize tracking technology to convert the players on the field and ESPN commentators Mina Kimes, Dan Orlovsky, and Drew Carter into characters from The Simpsons. Kimes, Orlovsky, and Carter will use Meta Quest Pro headsets to experience their virtual environment. The transformation of the quarterbacks will depict Bart as representing the Cincinnati Bengals and Homer as representing the Dallas Cowboys, achieved through the use of AI data analyzers and sports tracking technology from Beyond Sports and Hawk-Eye Innovations, as detailed in a Disney press release.
Additionally, the game will feature various characters and pre-animated scenes from the original cast of the show, including Hank Azaria, Nancy Cartwright, Dan Castellaneta, Julie Kavner, and Yeardley Smith, as well as some surprise sports cameos. Characters such as Lisa, Krusty the Clown, Carl, Lenny, Moe, and Milhouse will be shown on the sidelines supporting their respective teams. The announcement does not mention Harry Shearer, indicating that characters like Mr. Burns or Smithers may not be present at the event.
This event follows a previous collaboration where ESPN, Disney, and the NFL transformed an October game between the Atlanta Falcons and the Jacksonville Jaguars into a Toy Story-themed showcase, turning London’s Wembley Stadium into Andy’s room. Nickelodeon has also been known to air NFL games for its NFL Slimetime broadcasts, featuring live commentary from animated characters such as SpongeBob, voiced by Tom Kenny, and Patrick Star, voiced by Bill Fagerbakke, along with virtual slime effects in the end zones after touchdowns.