Phil Collins' 'In The Air Tonight' Reworked as NFL's 'Monday Night Football' Theme Song

Phil Collins dominated the new season of ESPN's "Monday Night Football" as his hit track "In the Air Tonight" became its newest theme song.

ESPN debuted the anthem on Monday night as the NFL's Week 2 doubleheader of the Carolina Panthers and New Orleans Saints game, which saw the latter win at a 20-17 score. Fox News Digital noted that the second game between the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Cleveland Browns, featured on ABC, also aired the song.

Phil Collins' "In the Air Tonight" Becomes a New Theme Song

The reworked version features Snoop Dogg and Chris Stapleton alongside Cindy Blackman, and Santana on drums.

Stapleton sings the heartfelt rendition of the song while the 51-year-old rapper adds more flavor to it by rapping football-related lyrics.

ESPN also debuted the new "Monday Night Football" anthem on X, formerly Twitter, and tagged the three artists. It confirmed in a news release that the song will be part of all "Monday Night Football" games throughout the season as well as ESPN's Week 18 Saturday doubleheader, its first Divisional playoff game and Super Wild Card.

"['In the Air Tonight'] comprised of Chris Stapleton covering Collins' lyrics, with Snoop Dogg, in his signature style adding football-centric verses, Cindy Blackman Santana, a powerhouse on the drums, rocking the song's iconic drum break and brings her own style and accents to this classic song," ESPN said.

Collins' "In the Air Tonight" became the new theme after "Heavy Action" had been played on "Monday Night Football" since 1975. The classic instrumental theme will still be played after the new song.

Meanwhile, Hank Williams Jr.'s "All My Rowdy Friends Are Here on Monday Night" served as the theme song from 1989 to 2011. It was temporarily removed following the singer's controversial comments about then-POTUS Barack Obama before being brought back in 2017.

Chris Stapleton Has Been Listening to Snoop Dogg's Music

Although Stapleton and Snoop Dogg's pairing was deemed unexpected, the country musician previously spoke about listening to the rapper's music growing up.

He told "60 Minutes" in 2022 that Snoop Dogg and Dr. Dre's music played a huge role in his life as a teen.

"...was so real that it translated even to some kid in eastern Kentucky who had no notion of the things that he was talking about," he said. "It was dangerous too, and real and dangerous are very appealing to, you know, 15- to 16-year-old kids."

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