CBS and Thursday Night Football often request the services of famous musicians to open up their coverage, but those requests don't usually end with said artist cursing them out on Twitter.
CBS asked Grammy Award-winning artist Rihanna and actor Don Cheadle to create a football-centric version of "Run This Town" for the TNF opening game. (Video via Roc Nation / Jay Z)
And then this happened.
CNN: "Ray Rice brutally knocking out his then-fiancee ... "
CBS: " ... feel the intensity around this Ray Rice situation ... "
NBC: "A football player punching a woman and knocking her our cold ... "
With the NFL reeling from the Ray Rice scandal and the American public's mind focused squarely on domestic abuse, the NFL decided to cut Rihanna's intro.
Monday, Rihanna responded to the NFL's decision, tweeting: "CBS you pulled my song last week, now you wanna slide it back in this Thursday? NO, F--- you! Y'all are sad for penalizing me for this."
And just like that, the NFL is back on the nation's chopping block. Jezebel calls the NFL's action "a wildly dumb and insensitive move."
And Forbes writes, "Rihanna has basically been punished because her legacy as a victim of a famous act of assault-and-battery is larger than her legacy as a famous, critically-acclaimed, and award-winning musician."
As for why the song was cut, CBS Sports Chairman Sean McManus told Sports Illustrated before Thursday's game: "[This story] is as big a story as has faced the NFL. ... A lot of the production elements we wanted in the show are being eliminated because of time or tone."
The New York Times is reporting upon hearing the news of Rihanna's tweet, it has cut her from this Thursday's intro as well.
This video includes images from Getty Images.
