Rihanna, the NFL, and Face Punching: The Real Story

The NFL’s Three Stooges stop motion scramble to cover its ass in the wake of the Ray Rice scandal involved some buffoonery with using a Rihanna song in the new pre game show. The NFL apparently planned to use the song as a tie in to the domestic violence elephant in their guilt laden repentance tinged opening. They put out a press release advertising the former punching bag’s involvement in the show.

“CBS & NFL Network ‘Run This Town’ for Thursday Night Football Open with Music Featuring Rihanna & Narration by Don Cheadle.”

Rihanna’s people felt this was exploitive because her involvement was limited to background music, and it was obvious the NFL was involved in some ham fisted PR bullshit so juvenile it was most likely conceived of under some bleachers. According to them, Rihanna’s label didn’t grant the rights to use the song because of this.

“Due to the misuse and misrepresentation of Rihanna’s name and participation in connection to CBS TNF, CBS was not allowed to license and utilize the song ‘Run This Town.’ Roc Nation made the decision to not grant the song’s usage.”

The NFL responded by pretending to voluntarily exclude the song from the show, insinuating that they did it in good taste, which is the same reason they wanted to use the song before they were not able to. Basically the NFL thinks they run our cultural landscape like Kim Jong un rules North Korea. If he misses a putt, someone will either move the green or tap it in when he’s not looking. Surely they are onto the fact that we all know they are lying and twisting everything, and still have no choice but to watch football. Its called a dictatorship. Rihanna should be pissed, although she doesn’t mind being taken advantage of and will quickly wash away the pain by banging a strange man with sideburns on a yacht.

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