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\u201cSaturday Night Live,\u201d which is celebrating its 50th season<\/a> this year, has had hundreds of hosts. There are the famous actors, the musicians and the comedians, of course. And then there are the professional athletes who are used to performing on fields, tracks and courts, not on a stage at 30 Rockefeller Plaza.<\/p>\n Dwayne Johnson, the wrestler turned movie star known as the Rock, has hosted five times<\/a>, the most of any athlete. Tom Brady, the seven-time Super Bowl champion, stiffly sang and danced<\/a> in a sport coat and jeans in 2005. Chris Evert, the winner of 18 Grand Slam tennis titles, hosted shortly after retiring<\/a> in 1989, becoming the first of three female athletes to do so. (Nancy Kerrigan and Ronda Rousey are the others.)<\/p>\n There is no guarantee an athlete\u2019s monologue will be successful or the sketches funny. But this participation trophy is an exclusive one \u2014 only about three dozen have received an invite to flex their coordination and teamwork.<\/p>\n A few years ago, Heidi Gardner, an \u201cS.N.L.\u201d cast member and Kansas City Chiefs fan, started a campaign to convince the show\u2019s leadership that the star tight end Travis Kelce had the charisma to succeed as a host. Lorne Michaels eventually agreed<\/a>, she said, with a catch: The Chiefs had to win the Super Bowl again.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n One month after they did in 2023, Kelce was making fun of<\/a> his own monosyllabic motivational speeches and overlooked reality dating show.<\/p>\n Lindsay Shookus, who worked on \u201cS.N.L.\u201d for more than two decades, said the show often tries to book athletes after high-profile events, such as the Super Bowl or the Olympics, when they are top of mind for a general audience.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n \u201cI think the world loves to see people taken out of what they do and put them into a different situation,\u201d Shookus said. \u201cSometimes it\u2019s a train wreck, and sometimes it\u2019s the most incredible surprise that they\u2019re great.\u201d<\/p>\n In a news conference last month, Kelce said the process of preparing for \u201cS.N.L.\u201d was surprisingly similar to crafting a game plan through film study and on-field practices.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n \u201cIt\u2019s really a family atmosphere once you get up there and know everybody\u2019s role,\u201d Kelce said. \u201cIt\u2019s kind of like coming into the building in K.C. in terms of how everybody bounces things off each other and wants to work together.\u201d<\/p>\n In interviews with The New York Times, a few athletes who have hosted \u201cSaturday Night Live\u201d discussed their experiences.<\/p>\n For years there was mutual interest between \u201cS.N.L.\u201d and Watt, who was one of the National Football League\u2019s most feared and most recognizable players \u2014 his left arm wrapped in a robotic-like brace \u2014 during his 12-season career.<\/p>\n But their schedules never quite aligned. Shookus said Watt declined one year because although he was injured and not playing football, he did not want to abandon his team.<\/p>\n Watt\u2019s schedule finally opened when the Houston Texans were ousted from the playoffs in 2020. To prepare for his role, Watt said he watched episodes helmed by other athletes, including the 2007 episode with the quarterback Peyton Manning<\/a>, who was part of a well-received sketch about the United Way charity<\/a> in which he chucked footballs \u2014 and verbal abuse \u2014 at children.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Gardner said that most hosts kept a binder of sketch scripts in their dressing rooms, but that Watt would carry his around during rehearsals.<\/p>\n \u201cI was like, \u2018Oh my God, this is like his playbook,\u2019\u201d Gardner said. \u201cIt felt like being in the game with him.\u201d<\/p>\n Watt, who hosted the day before the Super Bowl<\/a>, joked during his monologue about not being on a team that was playing for the championship. But he said that the experiences on set was somewhat comparable to game days.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s as similar to a field as you can get, where if I make a play, the crowd cheers, and if I make a good joke on \u2018S.N.L.,\u2019 the crowd cheers and they laugh,\u201d Watt said. \u201cThat\u2019s an unbelievable dynamic that you can\u2019t get anywhere else.\u201d<\/p>\n Gordon, a face of NASCAR for two decades, ignored the first invitation he received to host \u201cS.N.L.\u201d He was a casual fan of the show growing up, and was not initially interested in the opportunity when it arrived in 2001.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n \u201cI didn\u2019t take it serous or think I could pull it off,\u201d said Gordon, who won four NASCAR Cup Series championships in his racing career and is now a team executive. \u201cI thought, \u2018That\u2019s for actors, that\u2019s not for me.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n But NBC, a broadcast partner for the sport, was persistent, asking him again about a year later at a banquet in New York. While holding the formal printed invitation at dinner, Gordon told friends he was still unsure about hosting, but he soon accepted.<\/p>\n Because Gordon\u2019s car was plastered with a collage of sponsorship logos, such as Pepsi, Shookus said the \u201cS.N.L.\u201d cast was careful to not include jokes or other material that could affect his business relationships. But Gordon\u2019s monologue did poke fun at NASCAR stereotypes<\/a> \u2014 two cast members sitting in the audience wore race uniforms and spoke in Southern accents.<\/p>\n \u201cI felt a huge obligation not just do it well, but to not mess it up,\u201d <\/em>said Gordon, still the only NASCAR driver to host \u201cS.N.L.\u201d<\/p>\n Sanders was a two-sport star \u2014 the only athlete to play in both a Super Bowl and a World Series \u2014 when he hosted \u201cS.N.L.\u201d But even he reached newfound fame in the weeks between his first Super Bowl win and his hosting gig<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Neighbors would stop him to suggest topics for sketches after he was announced as the host, he said.<\/p>\n \u201cI remember thinking that everybody was really down for me and liked me for me,\u201d said Sanders, who is now the football coach at the University of Colorado<\/a>. \u201cAnd I had to understand, \u2018They don\u2019t like me, they\u2019re just pitching me ideas for these skits.\u201d<\/p>\n Many of the sketches during Sanders\u2019s 1995 appearance were about sports, including a parody of the O.J. Simpson murder trial \u2014 Simpson, the first N.F.L. player to rush for 2,000 yards in a season, hosted \u201cS.N.L.\u201d in 1978 \u2014 and a fake meeting about the 1994 labor dispute between Major League Baseball players and team owners.<\/p>\n Although Bon Jovi was the booked musical guest, Sanders, who also dabbled in music, performed songs from his debut album in a hot pink suit. It was more train wreck than incredible surprise.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\nJ.J. Watt<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Jeff Gordon<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Deion Sanders<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n