After the NFL sent The Pat McAfee Show a notice earlier this week that the show would no longer be allowed to utilize league trademarks, the league has now reversed course and told the show it can resume operating as normal.
“The good people at NFL Films took a conversation to the people at the NFL, went to bat for us, came back this morning with a phone call, and said ‘Hey, that little dust up that just happened just a couple days ago? Please move along, understand that the NFL, its media — its partners –, are all going through an interesting time right now’,” McAfee said to open his show Thursday.
“We are all on the Oregon Trail for this digital age. This social media age. The sports gambling age. This independent show age, this new media age. Thank you, Draymond (Green), Lebron (James), and you all for showing us how to do it. But in this new age, there are a lot of things that are gonna have to happen.
“We happen to be near the front of said Oregon Trail, in which people are going. We are lucky to be here, we are certainly not the first, but we are in the earlier stages of the NFL and a digital platform, a social media platform, an independent platform, the NFL having to navigate those waters and us being near the front, that entire thing had to happen. “
McAfee added he is now understanding of what happened, after initial being upset that the show pays $4 million per year to NFL Films for rights to highlights and video, just to be later be told it couldn’t use logos in its graphics.
“With rights, with sports gambling, it’s hard to figure out who has rights, who has what, and I can understand now how there could be some confusion.”
