Roc Nation pulled Rihanna from ‘Thursday Night Football,’ not CBS

Roc Nation was behind the recent decision to cut Rihanna’s “Thursday Night Football” opening segment for this week, and not CBS, according to the singer’s label.

“Due to the misuse and misrepresentation of Rihanna’s name and participation in connection to CBS’ ‘Thursday Night Football,’ CBS was not allowed to license and utilize the song ‘Run This Town.’ Roc Nation made the decision to not grant the song’s usage,” her label said in a statement on Tuesday.

Rihanna took to Twitter Tuesday to blast CBS for pulling her segment ahead of last week’s season opener of “Thursday Night Football” amid the ongoing controversy over an additional video of Baltimore Ravens player Ray Rice brutally assaulting his then-fiancee in an elevator.

“CBS you pulled my song last week, now you wanna slide it back in this Thursday?,” she tweeted to more than 37 million followers. “Y’all are sad for penalizing me for this.” She also had some choice words for the network, but we can’t repeat them here.

Hours after blasting the network, CBS announced it would be moving in “a different direction.”

Last week’s broadcast was originally supposed to begin with the pop diva singing a version of the Grammy-winning anthem “Run This Town,” originally recorded with Jay Z and Kanye West, along with narration from actor Don Cheadle.

But after the new video reignited the furor over Rice and the NFL’s initial reaction to the incident – a two-game suspension – CBS pulled the segment and dedicated a chunk of its pre-game coverage to Rice, who was suspended indefinitely after the second video was released.

The network suggested that the Rihanna segment, along with a comedy bit, didn’t carry the appropriate tone in the context of the news. But many took the network’s decision to pull her music as a knee-jerk reaction to her past.

The public is well aware that Rihanna was assaulted by then-boyfriend Chris Brown in 2009. Details and photos of her injuries remain embedded in our minds, courtesy of TMZ’s oft-exploitative approach, and her on-and-off relationship with Brown (who will always be linked to his crime) still draws interest among gossip-watchers.

CBS was likely trying to be sensitive, but the truth is had the segment featured another singer who hadn’t publicly gone through an incident of domestic violence (say, Beyonce or Lady Gaga) the network would still have found a way to air it.

Rihanna is an entertainer with numerous awards, millions of records sold, enough No. 1’s under her belt to rival anyone on pop radio. Yes, she was once a victim of domestic violence – but let’s not re-victimize her.

Twitter: @GerrickKennedy