Neatly encapsulating a certain branch of public opinion surrounding the NFL—whose knee-hating commissioner, Roger Goodell, issued a statement yesterday ordering all players to either stand during the national anthem, or stay in the locker room until the song is over—at the moment, Run The Jewels’ El-P revealed on Twitter today that the League once asked to use one of the group’s songs for a Super Bowl broadcast. El-P’s succinct response: “We said no, because fuck them.”
The NFL was apparently looking to use “Legend Has It,” off RTJ3, for a recent Super Bowl. El-P refused, challenging the sports league for acting like “an indispensable public utility.” He also noted that the NFL wasn’t offering, like, money to use the song, instead apparently counting on the band offering up their track for the love of the game, and also the multiple multi-millionaires who own the game.
(Other Twitter users quickly pointed out that, while the relatively small NFL League Office was a non-profit until 2015, the vast majority of the League’s profits are subject to taxes, since they move through the teams themselves. That minor quibble aside, El-P seems to be sticking to his “because fuck them” guns):