It was simply the best.
Of course, for many years, Hank Williams Jr.’s song “All My Rowdy Friends Are Here on Monday Night” was the theme for Monday Night Football from 1989 to 2011, which was a reworked version of his 1984 original song, “All My Rowdy Friends Are Coming Over Tonight.”
As a result of his longstanding appearance during one of the primetime NFL slots, Williams became an integral, and very fun, part of the brand, but like all good things, it eventually came to an end.
In 2011, Williams came under fire following an interview on Fox News with Fox & Friends, where he was asked about the state of the GOP and their candidates for President, as this was during the run-up to the 2012 election, where incumbent Democratic President Barack Obama ultimately won re-election to a second term. Williams compared President Obama to Adolf Hitler when he was asked about a golf outing that took place between Speaker of the House John Boehner and then-President Obama.
He referred to them as “the enemy,” saying:
“It would be like Hitler playing golf with Benjamin Netanyahu. I’m glad you don’t brother, because a lot of people do. They’re the enemy… Obama! And Biden! Are you kidding? The Three Stooges.”
Three days after those words made headlines on this date in 2011, ESPN pulled the song from their introduction, and issued the following statement:
“While Hank Williams, Jr. is not an ESPN employee, we recognize that he is closely linked to our company through the open to Monday Night Football. We are extremely disappointed with his comments, and as a result we have decided to pull the open from tonight’s telecast.”
Williams released his own statement, saying sometimes his strong opinions are “misunderstood:”
“Some of us have strong opinions and are often misunderstood. My analogy was extreme – but it was to make a point. I was simply trying to explain how stupid it seemed to me – how ludicrous that pairing was.
They’re polar opposites and it made no sense. They don’t see eye-to-eye and never will. I have always respected the office of the President. Every time the media brings up the tea party it’s painted as racist and extremists – but there’s never a backlash – no outrage to those comparisons…
Working class people are hurting – and it doesn’t seem like anybody cares. When both sides are high-fiving it on the ninth hole when everybody else is without a job – it makes a whole lot of us angry. Something has to change. The policies have to change.”
Some time went by, and eventually in 2017, ESPN brought back “All My Rowdy Friends Are Here on Monday Night” to the broadcast. It was a welcome change, and it remained the perfect theme song for several more years before controversy struck once again.
This time, though, it wasn’t because of Williams’ own actions or words, but rather the COVID-19 virus that shut the world down and forced everyone to stay inside. It obviously put a huge pause on large crowds being a sporting events, and ESPN felt that it wasn’t an appropriate time for a party anthem like that, so starting in September of 2020 they used a version of Little Richard’s “Rip It Up,” performed by a band called Butcher Brown.
Of course, a number of fans suspected that it was because of political reasons, and there may be some truth to that. The COVID fiasco turned into a pretty polarizing time in American politics, and with Hank Jr. being a pretty staunch conservative, it’s not a stretch to imagine that a big, left-leaning network media giant like ABC/Disney didn’t want to be connected to Hank.
Since September of 2023, ESPN has used a reworked rendition of Phil Collins’ “In The Air Tonight” performed by another country star in Chris Stapleton, as well as Snoop Dogg and Cindy Blackman Santana, has been the theme. It replaced a rendition of “Heavy Action,” and I think many football fans were happy to see a country artist return to their screens in this capacity.
Of course, in terms of country stars doing NFL theme songs for other networks, Carrie Underwood has been the go-to girl for the Sunday Night Football theme song since 2013, when she replaced Faith Hill. There’s just something about how a country artist pairs with the NFL that makes a ton of sense, and Williams and his personality was truly a perfect for ESPN for many, many years.
That was just iconic, and I don’t think anyone will ever really top it…
Here’s the current version with Stapleton, Cindy B Santana, and Snoop:
