Sunday Night Football delivered a surprise no one had on their bingo card: a retro Nintendo 64 deep cut slipping into an NFL broadcast.
During the final regular-season matchup between the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Baltimore Ravens, the game rolled along as expected until the second half of the third quarter. As the broadcast cut to a graphic segment comparing Steelers defensive tackle Cam Heyward’s starting stance to a frog, viewers suddenly heard the unmistakable Bubblegloop Swamp theme from Banjo-Kazooie playing underneath the highlight.
Color commentator Chris Collinsworth leaned right into the moment, joking, “That’s right, he’s got a frog stance!” But for many fans, it wasn’t the frog-stance gag that stole the show. It was the whimsical, instantly recognizable background music from the 1998 classic that had longtime gamers doing a double take. For plenty of millennials raised on N64 weekends, that tune was a time machine.
Clips of the segment quickly spread across social media, with viewers posting everything from disbelief to pure nostalgia. One fan summed up the general confusion with a blunt reaction, saying they had “no idea why this happened,” only that Banjo-Kazooie music had somehow made its way into a Sunday Night Football highlight reel. Another joked that the unexpected crossover felt like “living in a simulation,” as if reality briefly glitched and let a beloved video game soundtrack leak into prime-time sports.
The chatter didn’t take long to reach the original composer, Grant Kirkhope, who reacted with genuine surprise. He responded that he couldn’t believe it and thanked people for tagging him. When a fan asked if this meant his composing career was finally paying off in a big way—given that his music just aired during an NFL broadcast—Kirkhope’s reply was perfectly dry: “I wish.” He also played along with fans joking that someone should’ve called him before using the track, responding with a simple, amused acknowledgment.
So how did a Banjo-Kazooie soundtrack end up in a Steelers vs. Ravens broadcast? There’s no official explanation, but the most likely theory is also the simplest: someone in the production team probably grew up with the game, recognized that the “frog stance” visual gag lined up perfectly with Bubblegloop Swamp, and dropped it in for fun. Whether it was planned as an intentional Easter egg or just a spontaneous choice in the control room, it worked—because once viewers noticed it, it became one of the most talked-about moments of the night.
In a season packed with big plays and bigger storylines, it’s funny that a few seconds of quirky N64 music managed to steal the spotlight. But that’s the power of nostalgia, especially when it shows up where you least expect it—right in the middle of prime-time NFL football.
