In recent years, sources including Sportskeeda, AllSportsFaq.com and the X account @_MLFootball have claimed the NFL pays Underwood a whopping $1 million for each time that her SNF anthem is played. Given the fact that there’s 18 weeks in the regular season, this means that she earns $18 million every year.
While making an appearance on ‘The Howard Stern Show’ in May of 2023, Underwood swiftly shot down these rumors – insisting that her decision to record the song is hardly motivated by money. When asked if she makes $18 million a year from the NFL, she replied: “For me? … No. It’s pretty pro bono. I wish! That would be great, that would be awesome!”
Upon being offered the SNF lead singing role in 2006, Underwood initially turned down the offer due to how busy her schedule was at the time. In her absence, Pink took on the job for one season before being replaced by Faith Hill, who belted the anthem for six years.
Then in 2013, Underwood was once again offered the position – an offer that this time the Season Four ‘American Idol’ winner couldn’t turn down. “It worked out exactly how it should have,” she told Yahoo Entertainment’s Taryn Ryder, adding that it’s “pretty awesome to be a part of the biggest show on TV.”
‘Waiting All Day For Sunday Night’ – which is a play off of Joan Jett’s ‘I Hate Myself for Loving You’ – has additionally earned Underwood brownie points with her two young sons, Isaiah and Jacob. “They love seeing me on TV,” she added. “But even with younger kids who obviously did not see me on American Idol or early in my career, to some kiddos, [SNF] is what they know me from. So I’ll take it. That’s really amazing.”
Underwood conceded that there is consistently pressure to add on and improve her anthem sung on SNF, which has topped the primetime television leaderboard as the No. 1 show for the last 13 years. The 41-year-old was quick to heap praise on her colleagues who’ve routinely transformed the song, stating: “I feel like they do such a great job year after year of reinventing and reinvigorating the open.
