Last week, CBS and the NFL nixed plans to use the song “Run This Town” for their broadcast intro for Thursday’s Baltimore Ravens vs. Pittsburgh Steelers game.
Yesterday, Rihanna ripped into CBS on Twitter, accusing the network of victimizing her and offering a terse response to their plans to use the planned intro for next week’s game instead: “F–k you!”
Now, RiRi is going a step further and claiming that the NFL and CBS had no right use her song in the first place.
In fact, she says she only found out that her 2009 collaboration with Jay-Z was to be featured in the broadcast when a friend sent her a press release reporting that it was already a done deal.
In the wake of the Ray Rice scandal that’s still sending shockwaves through the league, producers claimed they felt the intro featuring Rihanna’s hook, and narration by Don Cheadle would be inappropriately light-hearted.
However, the decision was widely interpreted as a gutless attempt to avoid the domestic violence conversation that’s so desperately needed in the wake of Rice’s attack on his fiancee, Janay Palmer.
Rihanna was assaulted by then-boyfriend Chris Brown in 2009, and many believe the league and the network feared that using the song would lead their audience to further associate the NFL with violence against women.
Now it seems that the league has embroiled itself in yet another controversy for no reason, as Rihanna’s lawyers claim that the Roc Nation label that owns the song’s licensing rights never granted CBS permission to use “Run This Town” in the first place.
Just one more situation embarrassingly mishandled by the guardians of America’s most popular professional sport. And one more reason commissioner Roger Goodell should probably just step down.
