CBS Sports scrapped its planned opening segment for the "Thursday Night Football" pre-game show in light of the NFL's recent Ray Rice scandal.
The original plan had Don Cheadle providing voiceover to Rihanna's "Run This Town," according to The Hollywood Reporter. CBS Sports and NFL Network personalities also would have discussed the upcoming game between the Pittsburgh Steelers and Rice's former team, the Baltimore Ravens.
"CBS This Morning" anchor Norah O'Donnell will now discuss the recent developments in Rice's story. The NFL indefinitely suspended Rice on Monday when TMZ Sports leaked a video of the star running-back beating his then fiancée Janay Palmer in the elevator of an Atlantic City hotel.
"We thought journalistically and from a tone standpoint, we needed to have the appropriate tone and coverage," CBS Sports chairman Sean McManus told SI.com. "A lot of the production elements we wanted in the show are being eliminated because of time or tone."
Rihanna was physically assaulted in 2009 by her then boyfriend Chris Brown, who severely beat her after leaving Clive Davis' pre-Grammy party. His beating left her battered, bleeding and her face swollen, as Rihanna described it to Diane Sawyer in an interview eight months after the incident.
TMZ Sports originally released a video a few months ago that showed Rice dragging an unconscious Palmer out of the elevator. The NFL only gave Rice a two-game suspension, a decision widely criticized in light of another player receiving a year suspension for testing positive for marijuana.
