Roger Goodell Told 'Ballers' Producer Mark Wahlberg 'You Can't Do This,' and Guess What, He Did It Anyway

Ballers is a not-particularly-good half-hour HBO series that depicts the lives of pro football players in a stridently Mark Wahlbergian way. This is to say there are a lot of of fancy cars, bro chatter and naked women in the show.

To something like the NFL, this is scary stuff. So before Ballers debuted last June, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell called Wahlberg and told him, according to Wahlberg, “You can’t do this.”

"“The first season of the show, the only calls I was getting were from guys like Roger Goodell saying, “You can’t do this,” and various owners in the league too. We were saying it’s actually a good thing for the league and the players because … with the crazy stuff and the financial side of things and hopefully get them to realize that they have to be careful with their money. Now you get a lot of guys wanting to do it.”"

So Goodell couldn’t stop a filmmaker from making a film, but surely he could stop NFL players from acting in a film.

So he tried that, and, well, no, turns out he couldn’t pull off that either. Several players have appeared in cameo roles on the show, presumably because it makes NFL players look extremely cool, and they get to meet The Rock.

But mainly, Wahlberg added, the show keeps it authentic.

"We want to make sure the key is to make it as authentic as possible no matter how outrageous it gets. We always surround ourselves with real guys. Because the show is so accurate, that’s why you get guys like Ndamukong Suh, Terrell Suggs is on the show as well this year, Jarvis Landry, you got a lot of guys and not to mention countless Patriots. I can’t say who it is or what they’re doing yet because it’s a surprise and I don’t want to spoil the finale, but guys know that we make sure that we make it real."

Doesn’t really sound like Goodell’s jam.