Carrie Underwood Returns with New ‘Sunday Night Football’ Opening

"The opening is set in different football towns, and we have all these different stars in their element," Underwood says of the new clip. 

Written by Sydney Smith
Carrie Underwood Returns with New ‘Sunday Night Football’ Opening
Carrie Underwood; Photo by Paul Drinkwater/NBC Sports

The 2017 NFL season is officially underway, and NBC kicked off its Sunday Night Football coverage with a rockin’ opening number by the one and only Carrie Underwood.

For the fourth consecutive year, Underwood welcomes sports fans to the weekly football game with an uptempo performance of the opening theme. Clad in a sparkling red mini dress, Underwood, accompanied by various NFL players, struts her way through a number of football towns such as New York City, Atlanta and Pittsburgh, pumping up the fans before the big game starts.

The end of the intro includes a massive performance with Underwood and the NFL players onstage under flashing lights, setting the precedent for a high-energy football game.

“It’s really cool to be a part of Sunday Night Football,” Underwood says. “The opening is set in different football towns, and we have all these different stars in their element. I go through these scenarios and everybody follows me and we all end up together.”

Underwood stuck with the “Waiting All Day For Sunday Night” theme song until last year when she turned her “Somethin’ Bad” collaboration with Miranda Lambert into the football anthem “Oh, Sunday Night.” Songwriters Chris DeStefano, Brett James and Priscilla Renea re-worked the hit country tune to fit the football theme.

“Oh, Sunday Night” remains as this season’s opening number, but Underwood notes that they make tweaks to the song and film a new video to make sure that fans get something fresh every year.

The NFL’s Sunday Night Football on NBC will air the opening number weekly with the video and song fine-tuned to mention the teams that will be going head-to-head each Sunday night.