NBC’s “Sunday Night Football” broadcast is often the highest-rated show on television, and the lead up to the game before kickoff more or less marks the beginning of the broadcast so it was noticeable when Sunday night’s broadcast skipped the national anthem.
… On a week the NFL is memorializing its Salute To Service campaign.
… Three days shy of Veterans Day.
… Before a game played at Chicago’s Soldier Field.
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The Soul Rebels perform the US national anthem before an NFL football game between Pittsburgh Steelers and New Orleans Saints in Saint-Denis, outside Paris, Sunday, Oct. 25, 2026. (AP Photo/Steve Luciano)
Talk about missing the plot.
All audiences saw after NBC did its booth introduction talk between analyst Cris Collinsworth and play-by-play man Noah Eagle was a pregame interview with Bears quarterback Caleb Williams before viewers saw an aerial view of the field during which flag bearers were carrying a folded field-sized American flag back into one of the stadium’s tunnels.
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Salute to Service signage during pregame warmups between the Carolina Panthers and the Kansas City Chiefs at Bank of America Stadium. (Jim Dedmon/Imagn Images)
OutKick contacted NBC executive vice president of communications Greg Hughes and senior vice president of communications Chris McCloskey to ask why the national anthem was omitted from the broadcast.
Neither executive had responded as of publication.
NBC did cover the trade of defensive tackle Jeffery Simmons to the Bears. It did broadcast the “show anthem” featuring Carrie Underwood.
Viewers, meanwhile, have apparently noticed “The Star-Spangled Banner’s” absence – at least some on social media.
The decision to broadcast the national anthem is not generally made by the NFL. It is not a club decision. It is a network decision.
So this is apparently an editorial decision at NBC.
One must note that this is not the first national anthem misstep prior to a Bears game this season.
Caleb Williams of the Chicago Bears stands on the sideline during the national anthem before the game against the Minnesota Vikings at Soldier Field in Chicago, Ill., on Sept. 20, 2026. (Getty Images)
CALEB WILLIAMS, LIMITED BY A HAMSTRING INJURY, SEEN CASUALLY PACING BEARS SIDELINE DURING NATIONAL ANTHEM
On September 28, the Bears hosted a Mariachi Herencia de Mexico to perform the national anthem on ESPN/ABC’s Monday Night Football.
The Chicago-based band performed an instrumental mariachi version of “The Star-Spangled Banner” as part of the Bears’ Hispanic Heritage Month “Vamos Bears” celebration.
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It was met with mixed reactions.
What was not met with mixed reaction was injured Bears quarterback Caleb Williams shown pacing along the sideline while the anthem was being played.
Perhaps NBC simply wanted to avoid all possibilities of offending anyone by not televising the national anthem altogether.
It didn’t work.
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