--- title: Rihanna Slams NFL for Pulling Her Song After Ray Rice Incident description: "The audacity..." canonical: https://time.com/3386650/rihanna-nfl-ray-rice/ author: Eliana Dockterman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-09-16T14:28:34.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T08:55:59.690Z og:title: Rihanna Slams NFL for Pulling Her Song After Ray Rice Incident og:description: "The audacity..." og:url: https://time.com/3386650/rihanna-nfl-ray-rice/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb03a328177f1612b/6986a2ee3bc9990ec11a5429/rihanna.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2467 og:image:height: 1388 og:image:alt: Altuzarra - Front Row & Backstage - Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Spring 2015 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Rihanna Slams NFL for Pulling Her Song After Ray Rice Incident twitter:description: "The audacity..." twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb03a328177f1612b/6986a2ee3bc9990ec11a5429/rihanna.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Rihanna Dropped From Thursday Night Football After She Slams NFL and CBS > Sponsored content. 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Named editors include Richard Hall (The Brief), Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs (Inside TIME), Eliza Berman (Worth Your Time), Philip Elliott (D.C. Brief), Justin Worland (Future Proof) and Harry Booth (In the Loop). Health Matters is written by TIME's health desk. #### How do I sign up for a TIME newsletter? Go to time.com/newsletters, choose the newsletters you want and enter your email address. There is no cost and no subscription requirement. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-network-2026q3/newsletters?i=613389e6-a3e0-4b95-99c7-74b8ba19283a&cr=time-nl-network-2026q3-v1)  by [Eliana Dockterman](https://time.com/author/eliana-dockterman/)  ## Eliana Dockterman Correspondent Sep 16, 2014 2:28 PM UTC  Rihanna attends the Altuzarra show during Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Spring 2015 at Spring Studios on September 6, 2014 in New York City. Rihanna attends the Altuzarra show during Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Spring 2015 at Spring Studios on September 6, 2014 in New York City. Paul Morigi—WireImage  by [Eliana Dockterman](https://time.com/author/eliana-dockterman/)  ## Eliana Dockterman Correspondent Sep 16, 2014 2:28 PM UTC _Update: After publication of this story, CBS decided to drop Rihanna’s song from the Thursday Night Football opening this week, the New York Times_ [_reports_](https://twitter.com/wjcarter/status/511890404384706560) Rihanna took to Twitter to express her outrage at the way the NFL has handled using her music since the Ray Rice incident. CBS and the NFL decided last week to [pull a segment](http://time.com/3329018/nfl-baltimore-ravens-rihanna-song/) featuring Rihanna singing “Run This Town” before Thursday Night Football. It was the first Baltimore Ravens game since team running back Ray Rice was indefinitely suspended after a video of him knocking out his now-wife leaked last Monday. The [network decided](http://www.si.com/nfl/2014/09/11/cbs-thursday-night-football-ray-rice-rihanna) that beginning the game with a song by Rihanna—a victim of domestic violence at the hands of her ex-boyfriend Chis Brown in 2009—and a comedic segment also slated for the pre-game would be distasteful given the Ray Rice controversy. (“Run This Town” also begins with the potentially controversial lyrics, “Feel it comin’ in the air. Hear the screams from everywhere. I’m addicted to the thrill. It’s a dangerous love affair.”) Instead, the network focused exclusively on Ray Rice coverage, including a [challenge to the NFL by CBS host James Brown](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6I1o3PEyVxE) to stop domestic violence. But now CBS wants to bring back the segment, and Rihanna is having none of it: > [](https://twitter.com/rihanna/status/511844041131327488) > [](https://twitter.com/rihanna/status/511844530375892992) Though the pop star put CBS on notice to her 37.2 million followers, it’s unclear whether she can actually keep the network from using her song this Thursday. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3386650/rihanna-nfl-ray-rice/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3386650/rihanna-nfl-ray-rice/"},"headline":"Rihanna Dropped From Thursday Night Football After She Slams NFL and CBS","datePublished":"2014-09-16T14:28:34.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T08:55:59.690Z","description":"\"The audacity...\"","url":"https://time.com/3386650/rihanna-nfl-ray-rice/","keywords":["Living","Sports topic"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb03a328177f1612b/6986a2ee3bc9990ec11a5429/rihanna.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Eliana Dockterman","jobTitle":"Correspondent","url":"https://time.com/author/eliana-dockterman/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb03a328177f1612b/6986a2ee3bc9990ec11a5429/rihanna.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Altuzarra - Front Row & Backstage - Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Spring 2015","caption":"Altuzarra - Front Row & Backstage - Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Spring 2015","creditText":"Paul Morigi—WireImage","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-living/","name":"Living"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3386650/rihanna-nfl-ray-rice/","name":"Rihanna Dropped From Thursday Night Football After She Slams NFL and CBS"}}]}] ```