Samuel L. Jackson Opens ‘Sunday Night Football’ Chiefs-Falcons Game to Boost Peacock Series

Brian Steinberg
·2-min read

Samuel L. Jackson will lend a boost to Sunday night’s Chiefs-Falcons match-up on NBC.

The actor, known for roles in movies such as “Pulp Fiction,” “Patriot Games” and “Glass,” will star in what NBC Sports bills as a “cinematic opening sequence” for tonight’s “Sunday Night Football” broadcast, which can be seen on both NBC and the Peacock streaming service.

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Jackson is among the stars of “Fight Night”: The Million Dollar Heist,” a new original limited series streaming on Peacock. The program is executive produced by Will Packer and Kevin Hart, and stars Jackson, Hart, Taraji P. Henson, Don Cheadle and Terrence Howard.

The series is based on a true-crime podcast distributed by iHeart, and follows the story of how an armed robbery on the night of Muhammad Ali’s historic 1970 comeback fight helped transform the economy and culture of Atlanta, Georgia. Hart plays a hustler known as “Chicken Man” hosts an afterparty to celebrate the fight with a top-shelf guest list of the country’s wealthiest. But the night ends with a brazen heist. Suspected of masterminding the crime, Chicken Man works to clearing his name, even though he must convince his old adversary, J.D. Hudson (played by Cheadle), one of the first Black detectives in the city’s desegregated police force, who is assigned to find the culprit.

The first three episodes of “Fight Night: The Million Dollar Heist” premiered on September 5, 2024, and a new episode premieres weekly on Thursdays on Peacock.

Jackson sold popcorn, peanuts and drinks at the Falcons’ first home stadium — Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium — in the 1960s.  In the opening, he discusses his fandom, and offers some thoughts on the game ahead.

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