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Carrie Underwood, NFL, and NBC Sued Over ‘Sunday Night Football’ Theme Song

Singer Heidi Merrill alleges she pitched the song to Underwood’s music producer in 2016.

Carrie Underwood, NBC, and the National Football League have been accused in a new lawsuit of plagiarizing the Sunday Night Football theme song. Singer Heidi Merrill filed the lawsuit Wednesday in Manhattan federal court, claiming Underwood’s song “Game On,” which played heavily in 2018 on Sunday Night Football, is a copy of her own song of the same name, CNN reports. Merrill says she sent the song to Underwood’s producer, Mark Bright, in 2016, who then passed on the piece. The lawsuit alleges Merrill hoped to make it big with a football-themed song following the moderate success of her previous song about the University of Nebraska football team.

A YouTube video uploaded in 2017 by Merrill shows her original recording and video of “Game On.” Merrill’s attorney Sam P. Israel told CNN: “This is a blatant attempt by a celebrity singer to rip off other artists’ work, and it won’t be tolerated.”