Ask Sam Farmer: Why did they have to change the ‘Sunday Night Football’ theme?

Have a question about the NFL? Ask Times NFL writer Sam Farmer, and he will answer as many as he can online and in the Sunday editions of the newspaper throughout the season. Email questions to: sam.farmer@latimes.com

Why on Earth did they change the Sunday Night Football theme song?

Laura Michelson, New York

Farmer: Yes, after a decade of “Waiting All Day for Sunday Night” — the variation of a Joan Jett rock song, performed by Pink, then Faith Hill, then Carrie Underwood — NBC made a change this season and introduces its showcase games with Underwood singing “Oh Sunday Night,” a song she wrote during the off-season. I asked Fred Gaudelli, the show’s executive producer, about the rationale for the change.

“Carrie had approached me last year and said, ‘Hey, would you ever be open to changing the song to something else?’” Gaudelli said. “I said, ‘I’d be open if it would be fresh and exciting, and give us a little bit of a new identity.’”

Underwood came back to him in February and said she had something for Gaudelli to hear. But she didn’t want him to listen to it in front of her, because, “If you hate it, I don’t want to see your face.”

“She said, ‘As soon as you leave, I’m going to email it to you,’” he said. “She emailed me a version of what we have now, and I thought it was great. That’s why I decided to change it.”

Gaudelli said he’s pleased with the change, although he concedes not everyone is.

“There’s nothing more polarizing than music,” he said. “People have really strong opinions one way or the other. I’ve seen a lot of great comments about this song, and then I hear people say, ‘How could you change from Joan Jett?’ Hey, I love the Joan Jett cut, too. I just feel like 10 years is a long time to hang with the same thing.”

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In a recent Arizona game, David Johnson hit the end-zone pylon with his foot. I always thought when you hit the pylon it is a TD. What am I missing?

Gary Pinson, Los Angeles

Farmer: It’s only a touchdown if the ball breaks the plane of the goal line, so that — not a part of the player’s body hitting the pylon — would be the determining act. If a player who is inbounds and not down reaches out and hits the pylon with the ball, that is a touchdown. As the NFL rulebook reads: “A ball in player possession touches the pylon, provided that, after contact by an opponent, no part of the player’s body, except his hands or feet, struck the ground before the ball touched the pylon.”

sam.farmer@latimes.com

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