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Ask an American: Did CBS stop playing Rihanna because she was a victim of domestic violence?

It sounds insane to penalise someone because they were a victim of domestic violence.

Yesterday we were reading crazy headlines saying that CBS, one of the big four US television networks, had stopped using a Rihanna song because of her association with domestic violence. Penalising someone for being a victim of domestic violence sounded insane to us, so we asked Drew Millard from Noisey US to explain.

Hi England! It’s Drew, the Features Editor of Noisey, and more importantly for all of us, an American who knows about American things. You might have been wondering what all of this hubbub you saw on your favorite social network regarding Rihanna and the NFL was all about, or even what the NFL was, or if - based on our treatment of a football - we viewed all circles as actually oblong objects. Fear not that which you do not understand, my friends, because I am here to explain all of this and more to you.

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On Thursday night, the Baltimore Ravens played the Pittsburgh Steelers. This was set to be broadcast on the television network CBS. Its introduction was set to be soundtracked by Jay Z, Kanye West, and Rihanna’s “Run This Town,” which had been contracted out by CBS to run every single Thursday when they broadcast NFL games.

However, Ray Rice, the Baltimore Ravens’ star running back, was recently dismissed from the team after footage leaked that found him viciously beating his then-fiancé (now wife) in an elevator. After a long, drawn-out scandal that may or may not have involved a cover-up but definitely involved the NFL trying to drag their feet and keep Ray Rice on the playing field, the Ravens have become irrevocably tied with domestic violence. Having Rihanna, a survivor of domestic violence herself, soundtrack a football game featuring the number-one team that the nation associates with domestic violence could have certainly brought up thorny, complicated associations within viewers. However, omitting Rihanna’s song from the game could also have led to a potential scandal. What’s an old-fashioned television network to do in a situation such as this? In a fairly clumsy PR move, CBS elected to pull Rihanna’s segment from the broadcast, which Rihanna didn’t take particularly kindly to:

CBS you pulled my song last week, now you wanna slide it back in this Thursday? NO, Fuck you! Y'all are sad for penalizing me for this.

— Rihanna (@rihanna) September 16, 2014

Rihanna elected to pull her song from Thursday Night Football rather than be a pawn in the NFL’s neverending public image nightmare, and now because of her decision, she’s the only person involved in this situation who looks like a rational human with a spine. As for why Rihanna might want to revoke the NFL’s rights to her song in light of this whole fuckup… well, you should just read this, by Molly Lambert over at Grantland, which I’m excerpting below: The effort to sweep the whole Rihanna thing under the rug felt like an echo of commissioner Roger Goodell’s effort to sweep the whole Ray Rice situation under the rug, which was particularly offensive because Rihanna was the victim, not the abuser in her case, and one who has stated repeatedly that she didn’t wish to be a poster girl for the issue. The NFL and CBS were worried that audiences would make a connection between Ray Rice, Rihanna, the NFL, and domestic violence anyway, but they would also (and did) make the connection through the song’s omission, which smacked of a fantastical desire to make the scandal go away by not discussing it.

By calling CBS and the NFL out on their horseshit, Rihanna has only helped fuel the (valid) perception that the NFL is borderline-offensively out of touch with the human population of America. The NFL’s Hall of Fashion—a clumsy attempt to get women to want to wear NFL memorabilia in their everyday lives—featured pieces such as team logo high-heels and egregious-looking team sweatervests, and felt more than anything like an attempt to patronise and capitalise off of women instead of catering to their needs, or as VICE Sports’ Aaron Gordon points out, treating the league’s abnormally high rates of domestic abuse among players as something only worth addressing so that women will buy more of their bullshit. In closing, Rihanna is the best, the NFL is the worst, and by not allowing herself to be a part of the NFL’s bullshit attempts to resuscitate its public image, Rihanna claimed agency against the NFL, something it repeatedly attempts to deny women.

Follow Drew on Twitter: @DrewMillard