The Philadelphia Eagles and Cleveland Browns have brilliantly trolled the NFL over the puzzling new NFL social media policy.
As we talked about in the Balls.ie NFL podcast, NFL teams have been banned by the NFL from showing video highlights of their matches on social media. But the teams have hit back at their parent organisation with a brilliantly imaginative idea: reconstructing events on the pitch using toys.
Posting real-life highlights from games will earn teams a fine of $25,000 from the league and teams are also forbidden from posting footage from within their own stadiums. The ban is rumoured to be as a result of falling television figures but the NFL has denied this.
The NFL has continued to post (real life) video highlights on its own Twitter account, but we prefer how the clubs have chosen to go about it.
EXCLUSIVE highlight of Malcolm's pick. #FlyEaglesFly pic.twitter.com/AiP7FYe3Nf
— Philadelphia Eagles (@Eagles) October 16, 2016
TOUCHDOWN BROWNS! pic.twitter.com/RjRt9DVlpB
— Cleveland Browns (@Browns) October 16, 2016
And there has been general approval amongst NFL fans towards the clubs sticking the middle finger up to their slightly dictatorial (in this instance) governing body because of their controversial policy.
😆Browns trolling NFL social media policy, which forbids teams from posting highlights from TV directly to social media or turning into GIFs https://t.co/CPbVy20Rq1
— Mickey Ryan (@MickeyRyan1045) October 17, 2016
Okay this is pretty great. @Eagles trolling the NFL over the new social media policy that limits teams posting TV highlights. https://t.co/OaL77MWp5F
— Rachel Nichols (@Rachel__Nichols) October 16, 2016
Teams are trolling the NFL over a social media policy prohibiting them from showing highlights 😂👏🏻 https://t.co/E1ZTcxMgOo
— Alistair Hogg (@alistairjhogg) October 16, 2016
ESPN's Darren Rovell tweeted that the parody videos from the Browns and the Eagles were a sign of a deep discontent among clubs at the new rule.
Many NFL team execs hate the league's new social media policy regarding highlights. Browns & Eagles making that position publicly clear.
— Darren Rovell (@darrenrovell) October 16, 2016
You can listen to the latest episode of the hugely entertaining Balls.ie NFL podcast below.
