Can Bart Simpson turn around the Cincinnati Bengals season? He’ll suit up for the Bengals in an ambitious real-time animated alternative ESPN Monday Night Football telecast Monday night on Disney+, ESPN+, and on mobile with NFL+.
Bart will play some snaps for the Bengals (4-8). His father Homer will play for Dallas (5-7) in The Simpsons Funday Football telecast.
Through state-of-the-art tracking technology enabled by NFL's Next Gen Stats, Sony's Beyond Sports, combined with Sony’s Hawk-Eye Innovations’ optical tracking, fans enjoying The Simpsons Funday Football alt-cast will see every play and score during the Bengals-Cowboys 8:15 p.m. game in Dallas.
ESPN and WCPO-TV (Channel 9) will carry the regular MNF game with announcers Joe Buck and Troy Aikman. Peyton and Eli Manning will comment on the game in their usual ESPN2 alt cast.
"If we put Bart in as quarterback, he'll do exactly what Joe Burrow does during the game. So if Joe Burrow throws a 50-yard touchdown pass, Bart is going to throw a 50-yard touchdown pass in real time," said Michael "Spike" Szykowny, ESPN vice president of animation, on Good Morning America Monday.
When The Simpsons Funday Football game was announced in October, Disney said Bart Simpsons would appear on the field as a Bengals player in "select key opportunities" on offense and defense, replacing an actual Bengals player.
"The technology is extraordinary," Phil Orlins, ESPN vice president of production, told Good Morning America. "There's data created that tracks where the ball is and where each of the players are, and a second layer of data visualizes the movement of the joints and limbs."
The alt-cast will be entirely in The Simpsons universe. The game will be played in Springfield's Atom Stadium, instead of AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas. The Enquirer says Homer Simpson dreams up the game in a food coma from eating too many hot dogs after being injured playing football with Bart and his buddies.
The entire Simpsons gang – "dozens of the show's iconic characters" – will be seen during the program. Marge and Lisa Simpson will interview players on the sidelines, while Maggie Simpson "will fly the SkyCam," Disney says. Krusty the Clown, Milhouse, Nelson and Ralph will be cheering for Bart and the Bengals. Moe, Carl, Barney and Lenny from Moe's Tavern will be on the Cowboys' side, Disney says.
Simpsons voice actors Hank Azaria, Nancy Cartwright, Dan Castellaneta, Julie Kavner and Yeardley Smith will voice several of their characters in recorded bits and skits.
Bengals and Cowboys have recorded segments interacting with Simpsons characters too, Disney says.
The Manning brothers and ESPN's Stephen A. Smith also will appear in segments written by The Simpsons producers, Disney says. And some of the Simpsons will visit the Mannings' alt cast.
The Simpsonfied telecast will be announced by ESPN's Dan Orlovsky, Drew Carter and Mina Kimes. They will be wearing virtual reality headsets in separate rooms, Orlovsky says.
"We can look to our left and right, and we'll see each other's characters," Carter said on Good Morning America.
The animated game has required twice as much preparation than a regular NFL game. They had to study game tapes of the Bengals and Cowboys, plus review some of the 750 episodes of The Simpsons. Orlovasky cautioned that The Simpsons version may not be for NFL purists.
"No one is coming to our game to be educated about football. They want to be entertained," Orlovsky said.
