Carrie Underwood is back for SNF, Angel Reese celebrates Barbie Night & NFL WAGs are training-camp ready

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‘Nightcaps’ is a daily column that catches you up on the biggest sports, news and culture stories you may have missed while pretending to do work at your desk. It runs Monday-Friday on OutKick.com.

Happy to report I am back in the beautiful state of Tennessee.

The husband, dog and I had a nice time on our pilgrimage to the Great White North, but I am happy to be back in my own cozy home, sleeping on my own elite mattress and caring for my own little house plants.

And there’s much to do now that I’m back.

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We have some exciting things coming up in OutKick Outdoors. No spoilers, but if you’re into hunting, fishing, hiking, camping or even just drinking beer on patios, you should definitely be following us on Instagram, TikTok and YouTube.

Ain’t too proud for a shameless plug, baby.

But that’s enough of that for now. We’ve got some Nightcaps to do.

There’s an old saying that goes, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”

And that’s exactly why NBC invited back Carrie Underwood to perform the theme song ahead of Sunday Night Football — for the 14th season in a row.

I mean, who else are you gonna get? That lady from the Women’s Pro Baseball League?

It’s like they pulled three random drunk women out of a crowd and handed them microphones.

Point is, Carrie Underwood is a crowd pleaser. So come September, she and her glorious legs (I say that as an entirely straight woman) will — once again — bless our TV screens before we watch someone play against the Dallas Cowboys or Kansas City Chiefs.

Seriously, those teams make three SNF appearances each this season. You know who doesn’t get any Carrie Underwood games? The Dolphins, Jets and Raiders.

Womp.

Not that I blame the schedule-makers there. I’m a Dolphins fan, and even I believe no one should be subjected to that dumpster fire in prime time.

Fun game of would you rather: three hours of Miami Dolphins football or the Martha Reeves national anthem on repeat?

Faced with that option, it almost makes Malik Washington to Jalen Tolbert sound exhilarating.

Carrie Underwood performs onstage during a concert in Silvis, Illinois.

Anyway, Carrie’s ready. I’m ready. You’re ready. Let’s get to September already.

You know who else is ready for football season? The NFL WAGs, who are pushing their boyfriends and husbands out of the house for a few weeks of uninterrupted quiet time during training camp.

Back when I worked for the Titans, anyone with fewer than three seasons (I think that was the cutoff) in the league had to stay at the Millennium Maxwell House. What a s— hole that was. It sounds fancy, but I promise: certified s— hole.

One time one of our running backs got bed bugs there, and the whole place had to be fumigated. Then, all the players lined up in a queue of shame to dump all of their worldly belongings into the laundry bin at the facility.

I was careful not to touch anything in the locker room that week. No creepy crawlies in my house, thank you.

I don’t know how the Titans do training camp now, but I hope — for the players’ sake — they found nicer accommodations. Or let them live at home.

Here’s Drew Allar’s girlfriend stocking him up with all the snacks he’ll need to back up Aaron Rodgers.

Here’s Isaiah Likely’s wife, Melanie, sending him off in style.

Here’s Myles Garrett’s girlfriend — Olympic snowboarder Chloe Kim — passive aggressively wishing herself a happy National Girlfriends Day since Myles apparently forgot to.

To be fair, he’s trying to learn a whole new playbook out there in LA. Also, no sane person on planet earth knows when National Girlfriend Day is.

And finally, here’s Jaxson Dart’s girlfriend, Marissa Ayers, who has no time to care about football right now. Because it’s summer, and she’s in Oahu.

Marissa Ayers stands at the FIFA World Cup 2026 Opening Ceremony at SoFi Stadium.

Jaxson Dart and Marissa Ayers at the NFL Honors event in San Francisco.

This is probably no news to you. Because I’m sure you’ve had it in your calendar for months. But the Atlanta Dream held a Barbie theme night for Angel Reese.

It was either to celebrate the release of her special edition Barbie Doll or her Barbie pink signature Reebok shoes. Or both, I don’t know.

Say what you want about the woman, but she is printing money.

Angel said this Barbie collaboration means a lot to her because when she was growing up, there weren’t a lot of dolls who “looked like her” and hooped like her.

Of course, she’s insinuating there weren’t Black dolls. Or Black dolls who played basketball. Which is just categorically false. I’m older than Angel Reese (by more than a couple years), and dolls of all skin colors were readily available when I was a kid.

ANGEL REESE GOT A BARBIE DOLL, SIGNATURE SHOE AND WNBA THEME NIGHT, THEN PLAYED VICTIM AGAIN

As a user on Twitter / X pointed out today, Christie, Barbie’s Black friend, entered Barbie’s world in 1968. The first official Black Barbie arrived in 1980. And in 1998, four years before Reese was born, Mattel was already selling Black basketball-playing Barbie dolls in authentic NBA uniforms.

Angel Reese speaks during a press interview before a game.

If you ask me (and no one did), the real injustice is the shortage of brunette Barbies. For much of my childhood, I had to settle for Barbie’s less popular friend Teresa. Where is my representation?! Where is my theme night?!

I’m in the weeds. Good for Angel and her doll and her signature shoe, I guess.

Apparently, Barbie Night was a real star-studded event at State Farm Arena — with celebrities like Flo Milli, Dess Dior and Chaylyn, the OMG Girlz, Saucy Santana and Mariah the Scientist (who I’m almost certain is not a real scientist) all in the building.

Look, I know I live three hours from Atlanta, but I honestly could not tell you who a single one of those people are — aside from Michael Harris, who plays for the Braves.

I’m glad they had a nice time, though.

Football season is around the corner, which means so is your fantasy draft.

And you better take it seriously or else you might end up forced to take the last-place punishment.

We’ve heard all the popular ones:

Spending 24 hours in a Waffle House
Getting a tattoo of the winner’s choice
Performing a stand-up comedy show at open-mic night
Taking the SAT in a room full of high schoolers
Replace a personal license plate with a humiliating vanity tag

And then, there’s this:

As someone who used to compete in bodybuilding shows, I can promise you that standing up on stage — nearly naked with an ungodly spray tan — and performing a posing routine is one of the more terrifying and humbling things you’ll ever do in your lifetime.

Or never do, if you’re smart.

And don’t even get me started on the intense cardio, training and dieting you have to do for months ahead of time in order to look like you belong. Alternatively, I guess you can just say “f— it,” trot on out there, and shamelesslystrut what the good Lord gave you. Like this guy did.

So is this the worst fantasy football punishment ever? Or can you top it?

Let me know.

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📩 Email: amber.harding@outkick.com (Send your thoughts, stories, tips, rants and photos of your dog.)

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