NFL's 'Toy Story' broadcast was a wonderful fever dream

Sports matches are better when they’re delightfully weird like this.

Credit: Disney/ESPN

On Sunday, the Jacksonville Jaguars and the Atlanta Falcons met for the NFL’s annual London game at Wembley Stadium. Normally, fans at home could watch the broadcast live on ESPN+, but this time viewers had a choice: watch the lame, regular game or watch the Toy Story broadcast, fully animated in real-time live from Andy’s room.

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As part of an alternate telecast, the NFL has teamed up with Disney and Pixar for Toy Story Funday Football. Everything in the game was on-theme, from the graphics to the announcers. The game is animated in real-time, made possible by chips in the players’ football pads, and combined with an overhead tracking camera on the field.

This is not the first time the NFL has collaborated for themed broadcasts. In 2022, the league partnered with Nickelodeon to air a Wild Card playoff game between the San Francisco 49ers and Dallas Cowboys (there was more than enough slime to slimed). That averaged over 41 million viewers between CBS and Nickelodeon. The NFL has collaborated with Nick multiple times since then, giving us such wonderful moments like the first-ever NVP (Nickelodeon Valuable Player) winner, Mitch Trubisky, and whatever is happening here. The goal of this, of course, is to entice young kids to watch football — the more kids that watch, the more who will go on to play and buy merch. That may sound cynical to say, but it’s true and it works.

The actual broadcast was bizarre, to say the least. But it was fun and extremely well put together — bar a couple of glitches. And do you know who loves bizarre and weird stuff? Social media does.

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There was even a Duke Caboom halftime show. It was amazing.

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The Falcons had the unfortunate pleasure of losing to the Jags 23-7. Falcons fans were not happy (and historically, they never are).

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Assistant Editor, General Assignments

Currently residing in Austin, Texas, Chance Townsend is an Assistant Editor at Mashable. He has a Master’s in Journalism from the University of North Texas with the bulk of his research primarily focused on online communities, dating apps, and professional wrestling.

In his free time, he’s an avid cook, loves to sleep, and “enjoys” watching the Lions and Pistons break his heart on a weekly basis. If you have any stories or recipes that might be of interest you can reach him by email at [email protected].

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