--- ---  # People Are Not Happy That Rihanna Is Singing Before Tonight's Ravens Game  by [Eliana Dockterman](https://time.com/author/eliana-dockterman/)  ## Eliana Dockterman Correspondent Sep 11, 2014 7:04 PM UTC  Rihanna attends the Altuzarra fashion show during Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Spring 2015 at Spring Studios on September 6, 2014 in New York City. Rihanna attends the Altuzarra fashion 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 11, 2014 7:04 PM UTC _Update: After publication of this story,_ [_CBS pulled Rihanna from the pre-game lineup_](http://www.si.com/nfl/2014/09/11/cbs-thursday-night-football-ray-rice-rihanna)_._ After days of debate over the NFL’s handling of Baltimore Ravens running back Ray Rice’s domestic violence case, the Ravens are returning to the field tonight sans Rice. And as fortune would have it, tonight’s first Thursday Night Football game will kick off on CBS with a song sung by…Rihanna. Yep, CBS and the NFL inexplicably chose Jay Z and Rihanna’s 2009 song,”Run This Town” to open their broadcast each week even though Rihanna herself was a very public victim of domestic abuse in 2009 at the hands of her then-boyfriend, Chris Brown. According to an NFL [press release](http://nflcommunications.com/2014/09/02/cbs-nfl-network-run-this-town-for-thursday-night-football-open-with-music-featuring-rihanna-narration-by-don-cheadle/), a custom opening sequence featuring music by Rihanna with a voiceover from Don Cheadle will play before every Thursday Night Football game this season, beginning with the Ravens game tonight. The NFL announced this news on Sept. 2, almost a week before TMZ leaked new footage of Rice that got the football player suspended indefinitely from the league. But Rice was arrested in February for the incident on the video, and debate about domestic violence in the NFL has been ongoing for months, which might explain why some people on Twitter are pretty unhappy: > [](https://twitter.com/edsbs/status/510056480499073024) > [](https://twitter.com/en%5Fcohen/status/510062674554527744) > [](https://twitter.com/MaggieJordanACN/status/510074102993141762) > [](https://twitter.com/SupermanRob2914/status/510091384510873600) > [](https://twitter.com/PelicanPierre/status/510077217138024448) NFL Thursday Night Football: Rihanna Sings Opener for Baltimore Ravens ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3329018/nfl-baltimore-ravens-rihanna-song/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3329018/nfl-baltimore-ravens-rihanna-song/"},"headline":"People Are Not Happy That Rihanna Is Singing Before Tonight's Ravens Game","datePublished":"2014-09-11T19:04:21.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T08:55:58.046Z","description":"Her song, 'Run This Town,' will open Thursday Night Football each week","url":"https://time.com/3329018/nfl-baltimore-ravens-rihanna-song/","keywords":["Living","Sports topic"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc93f599f508a0e7a/6986a2e6adae44a6b4544e58/454816548.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/bltc93f599f508a0e7a/6986a2e6adae44a6b4544e58/454816548.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/3329018/nfl-baltimore-ravens-rihanna-song/","name":"People Are Not Happy That Rihanna Is Singing Before Tonight's Ravens Game"}}]}] ```