SportsCenter anchors dress as Buzz and Woody to promote Toy Story NFL broadcast

The latest example of Disney corporate synergy comes around the Toy Story Funday Football alternate broadcast of Sunday’s international NFL game (Atlanta Falcons-Jacksonville Jaguars) on ESPN+. (There will also be a standard broadcast of it on a different ESPN+ feed and on local stations in the teams’ markets). Ahead of that game Sunday, SportsCenter anchors Gary Striewski and Randy Scott donned Buzz Lightyear and Sheriff Woody Pride costumers for a “Sunday Funday” segment of their broadcast focusing on silly sports moments:

Gary Striewski and Randy Scott donned Buzz Lightyear and Sheriff Woody Pride costumes on SportsCenter. “They thought that just because they didn’t animate us that we wouldn’t get in on this.” “We sure would have liked to, but we’ll be the real deal Holyfield.” pic.twitter.com/vjqPUp65Ap

— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) October 1, 2023

“They thought that just because they didn’t animate us that we wouldn’t get in on this.” “We sure would have liked to, but we’ll be the real deal Holyfield.” “They were wrong, pardner. …I sound more like Marty Smith than Sheriff Woodrow.”

That’s pretty funny, and a clever way to promote this Disney movie version of a NFL broadcast. And they even work another Toy Story reference into the broadcast when discussing the power blackout at the Fresno State Bulldogs game Sunday, with Scott noting “I think Spike was a bulldog? Next door?”(It’s actually Scud, and he’s a bull terrier, but close enough.)

This Toy Story broadcast is just the latest alternate broadcast from ESPN, and perhaps comes closest to the Big City Greens animated version of a NHL game they did this March. It also fits in with the wildly-successful younger-audience-focused NFL on Nickelodeon broadcasts CBS has done, which we’ll even see at the next Super Bowl. And it fits into a long line of ESPN broadcasts promoting other Disney properties. We’ll see how it’s received.

[Awful Announcing on Twitter]