CBS has pulled the plug on tonight’s opening featured theme song of Rihanna’s “Run This Town” for the Thursday Night Football kick-off of the Baltimore Ravens and Pittsburgh Steelers game.
Rihanna herself was involved in a domestic violence dispute with ex-boyfriend Chris Brown back in February 2009. CBS now does not want to feature Rihanna in the midst of the Ray Rice scandal during the Ravens and Steelers game tonight for Thursday Night Football.
“We thought journalistically and from a tone standpoint, we needed to have the appropriate tone coverage” said CBS Sports Chairman Sean McManus. CBS will instead replace the musical opening with a brief discussion of Roger Goodell’s recent comments about the Ray Rice’s incident that occurred with his then-fiancee (now wife) Janay Palmer in a Atlantic City hotel elevator back in February 2014.
McManus also added that “It’s important to realize we are not overacting to this story but it is as big a story as has faced the NFL.”
Rihanna has not made any comments about her song being pulled out of Thursday Night Football.