Rihanna Rebuffs CBS's Thursday Night Football Raincheck Invitation

Rihanna was scheduled to sing during the opener last week’s Ravens-Steelers game, but CBS opted to cancel the performance. The singer was a victim of domestic violence at the hands of Chris Brown in 2009. Though that was not specifically cited in the network’s decision to pull her song, CBS Sports chairman Sean McManus told SI.com that “we needed to have the appropriate tone and coverage.”

CBS apparently was planning on running the song, which was going to be voiced over by Don Cheadle and presumably set to an epic montage, this week, which she wasn’t happy about:

It’s easy to understand why Rihanna would feel like she was punished last week for being a victim, but it’s also understandable that CBS wanted to cancel all of its entertainment in that pregame show — they also pulled a comedy segment — and focus its coverage on straight news.

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