CBS Sports goes in ‘different direction’ with Thursday Night Football intro – CBSSports.com

CBS Sports announced Tuesday it is “moving in a different direction” with its Thursday Night Football opening, beginning with the Falcons-Buccaneers Week 3 opener.

“Beginning this Thursday, we will be moving in a different direction with some elements of our Thursday Night Football open,” CBS Sports said in a statement. “We will be using our newly created ‘Thursday Night Football’ theme music to open our game broadcast.”

CBS Sports called an audible with the originally planned introduction for Thursday Night Football, featuring Rihanna and Don Cheadle, ahead of the Ravens-Steelers game in Week 2 with the Ray Rice storyline the talk of the country.

That move did not sit well with Rihanna, who tweeted her displeasure on Tuesday morning (NSFW).

CBS Sports Chairman Sean McManus explained the logic for the change to the open in Week 2 last Thursday.

“It’s important to realize we are not overreacting to this story but it is as big a story as has faced the NFL,” McManus told Richard Deitsch of SI.com on Thursday. “We thought journalistically and from a tone standpoint, we needed to have the appropriate tone and coverage. A lot of the production elements we wanted in the show are being eliminated because of time or tone.”