Jaguars Football Coming To Disney+

While deep within celebration of the Jacksonville Jaguars' week one win over the division rival Indianapolis Colts, many fans may have missed a pretty interesting Jaguars-related news-drop from ESPN and their parent company Disney. While the Jaguars' October 1st, week four game against the Atlanta Falcons will be televised on ESPN, there will also be a simultaneous, alternate, Toy Story-themed broadcast taking place on Disney+, ESPN+, and on mobile with NFL+.

"Toy Story Funday Football" will kick off live at 9:30 am EST, and oh boy will the kids enjoy this one (and maybe even the kid in you)!

Per the ESPN release:

In addition to the gameplay, all the surrounding aspects of the game – announcers, graphics, scoreboard, penalty announcements, celebrations, and more – will all embrace the 'Toy Story'-themed offering in their packaging and delivery, all occurring in Andy’s room.

Andy’s room will replicate the on-the-field gameplay from Wembley Stadium, where each Falcon and Jaguar player will have animated representation on a traditional looking field, catered to the “Toy Story” setting. Fans will view every run, pass, score and all football-related action through state-of-the-art tracking technology enabled by the NFL’s Next Gen Stats player tracking data and Beyond Sports.

ESPN

In addition to the gameplay, all the surrounding aspects of the game – announcers, graphics, scoreboard, penalty announcements, celebrations, and more – will all embrace the “Toy Story”-themed offering in their packaging and delivery, all occurring in Andy’s room.

There will also be an animated announcer crew, with Drew Carter handling play-by-play, Booger McFarland as the analyst, and 12-year old Pepper Persley as the field reporter. The crew will commentate, with all three fully animated and their body movements viewed through motion-capture technology.

Also, per ESPN:

Demonstrations, including ‘how to’ videos, trivia, and more will be used through the telecast to teach the game of football to the audience.

The NFL has been incredibly bold in its quest to expand the game of football into emerging markets and to the younger generation over the past year decades. From the league pushing for flag football to be included in the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, to its stated goal of growing international business to $1 billion annually over the next decade, or its multi-year, ongoing Nickelodeon broadcasts it has been full steam ahead for the shield for football, everywhere, all at once.

Interestingly, this seems even more ambitious than the Nickelodeon NFL series with CBS broadcasts, since this is slated to be completely animated. The CBS/Nickelodeon version was for the most part live-action gameplay, with added animations and sound. In contrast, every play from the Falcons-Jaguars game will be converted into animation-style football players. In addition to seeing animated Trevor Lawrence hair flowing (please, please, please), it will be awesome to see Woody, Buzz, Jesse, Bo Peep, Rex, Slinky Dog, and Forky all in appearance.

From a team perspective, the Jaguars continue to be at the forefront of innovation in expanding the team brand to all available markets. In this case, the team gains an opportunity to introduce a winning brand of Jaguars football to kids, hopeful future Jacksonville fans. This telecast goes hand in hand with the teams' international and local growth efforts as of late.

I know I'm excited about all the Jaguars football I can get! Some version of Jaguars football will be on four different platforms simultaneously while being the only game on television in week four! What say you, Big Cat Country? Does this move the needle for you or your kids?