Sunday’s international NFL game from London, featuring the Atlanta Falcons and Jacksonville Jaguars, has its main broadcast on ESPN+ (plus local stations in the team’s home markets). But it also has another alternate broadcast on ESPN+, the Toy Story Funday Football broadcast. And that one drew a lot of attention Sunday, from a look at broadcasters Drew Carter and Booger McFarland’s motion-capture setup through a number of highlights:
https://twitter.com/ESPNPR/status/1708477672676860301
"I look good animated."@ESPNBooger and @Drewdle25 give us a sneak preview on the animated play-by-play booth for the Toy Story broadcast pic.twitter.com/RJ7FLqM8s7
— ESPN (@espn) October 1, 2023
https://twitter.com/NFL/status/1708475549440671986
On the NFL’s alternate ‘Toy Story’ telecast, “The Claw” will be spotting the ball and Slinky is the first down marker: pic.twitter.com/ubDGo2551W
— Front Office Sports (@FOS) October 1, 2023
Jaguars score first in Andy's Room‼️#ATLvsJAX | Toy Story Funday on @ESPNPlus: https://t.co/dTahXfHr11 pic.twitter.com/TMSm9Zwqnh
— ESPN (@espn) October 1, 2023
https://twitter.com/espn/status/1708480457451483634
Bijan’s juke is even nastier on the Toy Story broadcast pic.twitter.com/HIfg17CPy7
— Yahoo Sports (@YahooSports) October 1, 2023
https://twitter.com/SportsCenter/status/1708484684978524207
The Toy Story alternate broadcast of Falcons-Jaguars even comes with Zurg Vision: pic.twitter.com/QmhzpUTKUE
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) October 1, 2023
But it also hit some technical difficulties:
It took less than a minute for the Toy Story broadcast to break pic.twitter.com/9jYDm8CyUF
— Timothy Burke (@bubbaprog) October 1, 2023
Not going to lie the Toy Story NFL game is experiencing some technical difficulties
— RedditCFB (@RedditCFB) October 1, 2023
Live look at the Toy Story broadcast truck pic.twitter.com/5sWh9PzyCw
— RedditCFB (@RedditCFB) October 1, 2023
they definitely need to work some kinks out in this toy story broadcast lol
— alex (@highlightheaven) October 1, 2023
#59 is unknown apparently pic.twitter.com/nuD6RcUJpl
— alex (@highlightheaven) October 1, 2023
Good to see the Notre Dame-Navy cameraman made it over from Ireland pic.twitter.com/kPDPCzrl1b
— RedditCFB (@RedditCFB) October 1, 2023
Overall, the first quarter of the broadcast received some very positive reviews, but also a few less positive ones.
We love it. #ToyStory pic.twitter.com/oJR8tYrd2o
— Kay Adams (@heykayadams) October 1, 2023
My boys are absolutely losing their minds right now watching this Toy Story NFL broadcast. This is amazing.
— Dianna Russini (@DMRussini) October 1, 2023
Slinky being the chains is actually hilarious pic.twitter.com/o5UKPD0VK0
— alex (@highlightheaven) October 1, 2023
how it feels watching jaguars-falcons on the toy story broadcast meant for kids pic.twitter.com/JNU0ARYfBv
— Tej Seth (@tejfbanalytics) October 1, 2023
https://twitter.com/SaintsForecast/status/1708478848201892056
the Toy Story broadcast experiment pic.twitter.com/KPg6z1wLZQ
— Warren Sharp (@SharpFootball) October 1, 2023
All in all, though, this certainly seemed to draw positive reviews from people watching with kids, despite some of the technical challenges. And that’s the main thing ESPN is going for here (and helps differentiate this from other themed broadcasts), and may help bring in a new audience.
And ESPN is definitely putting a lot of resources into this particular alternate feed. And it’s generating a lot of discussion, with even SportsCenter anchors Gary Striewski and Randy Scott dressing up as Buzz Lightyear and Sheriff Woody Pride for a segment on that show Sunday morning. We’ll see how the broadcast winds up being received overall and if this is something we see more of down the road, but it definitely got people talking.
[Image from @highlightheaven on Twitter]
About Andrew Bucholtz
Andrew Bucholtz has been covering sports media for Awful Announcing since 2012. He is also a staff writer for The Comeback. His previous work includes time at Yahoo! Sports Canada and Black Press.