The "Sunday Night Football" soundtrack is nothing without Carrie Underwood.
For over a decade, the famed country singer has been the lone voice ringing in every week's penultimate matchup during each NFL season. When "I've been waitin' all day for Sunday night" reverberates through living rooms across America, it's impossible to ignore Underwood's influence on setting the mood for what is often the best game of the weekend slate.
It goes without saying that the artist's talents don't come cheap, and her earnings from the NFL anthem have become a topic of conversation in football circles across the internet this week.
Here's everything to know about Underwood's rumored contract with the league, including fact-checking the singer's shocking "Sunday Night Football" paycheck.
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Carrie Underwood NFL contract, explained
A tweet by popular NFL social media platform ML Football went viral on Thursday alleging Underwood earns $1 million each week her SNF ballad is played. This equates to $18 million for the promotional video she does at the beginning of the season.
🚨BREAKING: Carrie Underwood is paid ONE MILLION DOLLARS EACH WEEK to do the Sunday Night Football theme song.
— MLFootball (@_MLFootball) October 10, 2024
She films all of it in one day & got paid 18 million dollars for that, per reports. pic.twitter.com/gh3J9rSzNw
The post was quickly debunked thanks to a tweet by user Molly Vegas, who shared a clip from a May 2023 interview Underwood did on "The Howard Stern Show."
In the snippet, the singer responds to a question from Stern about the $18 million figure with confusion and denial.
“For me? … No. It’s pretty pro bono," Underwood answered. "I wish! That would be great, that would be awesome!
This is a lie. Carrie’s own words. pic.twitter.com/6zw6K5fWq4
— Hilary ~ MollyVegas ミ☆ (@MollyVegas) October 10, 2024
ML Football's tweet now has a community note, detailing that the claim is "flat out false."
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How long has Carrie Underwood worked with 'Sunday Night Football'?
Underwood was first asked to sing the SNF opening in 2006, just after she won season four of "American Idol." As the show's victor, her career took off, and soon she was producing album sales in the millions, winning Grammys and performing in front of hundreds of thousands of fans.
However, she declined the offer because of how busy her life had become, according to an interview with Yahoo. Pink eventually became the Sunday night singer for one season before Faith Hill took over for six years, eventually departing the gig.
It was in 2013 when the network offered Underwood the role again, and this time she agreed. The 41-year-old has been at it for 12 seasons now, opening her most recent campaign with the Rams vs. Lions SNF opener on Sept. 8.
