The NFL is getting panned on social media for putting out a new podcast episode on the feed where Daniel Jeremiah and Bucky Brooks previously hosted Move the Sticks.
Jeremiah stayed with NFL Network amid ESPN’s acquisition while the league retained the podcast feed. The show had been dark since June 4, but new episodes were posted to the feed on Tuesday previewing the NFC East and West divisions. The feed on Apple podcasts still lists Jeremiah and Brooks as the hosts but the new shows were hosted by an unidentified broadcaster.
The episodes began with a disclaimer from iHeart, the NFL’s audio partner, saying that the show was guaranteed to be hosted by a human. Nevertheless, a number of observers on Twitter/X suspected the programs were AI-generated.
An NFL spokesperson told Front Office Sports: “NFL Media is in the process of re-branding Move the Sticks and revamping its content plan following the acquisition of NFL Network by ESPN. The episode posted on 8/11 was a compilation of team previews from the NFL’s YouTube page and not AI generated/hosted.” Rachel Nelson from Premiere Networks, a division of iHeart, didn’t respond to a request for comment from FOS.
Asked on Twitter/X what was up with the “weird AI podcast” on Tuesday, Jeremiah responded, “No idea. I no longer appear on that old feed. I’m launching a new pod in a new home in the very near future.”
Arif Hasan, who writes about football for Wide Left, posted a series of clips from the updated Move the Sticks show and called it a “truly bizarre situation.” The show featured relatively cookie-cutter preview content as opposed to the type of rigorous analysis that fans have been accustomed to with Jeremiah.
Doug Lesmerises, who co-hosts an Ohio State football show on YouTube and Substack, called the NFC West preview “AI slop” and said it was “insulting to [the] previous hosts and audience.”
