Over the past four years, the NFL has been fully embracing the idea of letting networks create an animated alternate broadcast that might bring a new audience into football. The trend started in January 2021 when CBS unveiled an alternate Nickelodeon broadcast for a wild-card playoff game.
The trend will now be continuing on Monday night during the Bengals-Cowboys game with Disney set to unveil a special alternate broadcast that will feature "The Simpsons." This version of the game, which is being called "The Simpsons Funday Football" will kick off at 8:15 p.m. ET on Disney+ and ESPN+.
If you're wondering how the alternate broadcast is going to work, it's basically going to be like watching "The Simpsons," except you'll be getting three hours of action instead of 30 minutes. The game will even have its own storyline that involves Homer having an NFL-related dream after eating too many hot dogs, according to Michael Szykowny, ESPN's VP of edit and animation.
"That's the beginning of the story, and the story continues through the entire game until Homer wakes up from his dream at the end of the game. It is like a complete story, and the NFL game will happen in between. It's just going to be an amazing presentation with tons of surprises," Szykowny told the Associated Press.
Every player on the field will be recreated using Simpsons animation, and the NFL has already given us a sneak peek at what some of that will look like. In the images below, you can see what Joe Burrow, Ja'Marr Chase, CeeDee Lamb and Micah Parsons will look like.
The animated game will be taking place at the Springfield Atoms' stadium, which is a familiar venue to anyone who watches "The Simpsons."
If you're wondering who to cheer for on Monday night, you could side with Bart (who will be teaming up with the Bengals), or you could go with Homer (who will be siding with the Cowboys).
Marge and Lisa Simpson will also be on-hand as the sideline reporters.
Although Joe Buck and Troy Aikman will be calling the game for ESPN on the network's standard broadcast, the play-by-play will be different in Springfield with Mina Kimes and Dan Orlovsky talking football strategy while Drew Carter handles the play-by-play.
This is the second time that ESPN has put together an alternate broadcast using familiar animated characters. During the 2023 season, the network did an alternate broadcast featuring "Toy Story" characters.
If you're not a fan of "The Simpsons" or if you just like to watch normal football, you'll still be able to do that on Monday night with Bengals-Cowboys kicking off at 8:15 p.m. ET on both ESPN and ABC.