"Shame on all of you": Comedian Scott Rogowsky calls out NFL for stealing his 15-year-old script
The 2023 NFL season is fast approaching, and in commemoration of this, the league released the official trailer for it.
The video, which can be seen below, features NFC North quarterbacks Kirk Cousins and Justin Fields, Miami Dolphins cornerback Jalen Ramsay, wide receivers Ja'Marr Chase and DK Metcalf, and New York Giants defensive end Dexter Lawrence as "actors", discussing which major highlights plays to "film" with scriptwriters.
A few other players, most notably Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes, also make appearances via satellite:
Scott Rogowsky says NFL plagiarized 2023 season trailer from an earlier work of his
While most enjoyed the trailer, there was one very notable exception: comedian Scott Rogowsky. While on a stream, he decided to watch it and found some quite-too-similar patterns from a prior series of his.
He began:
“Now does it surprise me that a soulless mega corporation with zero creativity or independent thought would choose to blatantly rip off actually-creative people to make their content?
“No it doesn’t. Does it piss me off? You betcha, because the person they ripped off this time was me!”
Rogowsky then recounted making "NFL Writers Room", a series of YouTube videos under the 12 Angry Mascots Banner that premiered in 2009:
“There’s one I posted in February of this year. My feeling on this is NFL folks saw this video go viral and decided to rip it off themselves.
“Just Google NFL Writers Room. You’ll see all these videos of me, going back to 2009.”
He concluded:
“They have the gall to use this as their tag line — ‘You can’t make this stuff up’ — You’re right, NFL. You can’t! You stole it! Shame on you! Shame on all of you, the Not Funny League.”
The NFL has yet to issue a statement/response.
Biggest team storylines heading into the NFL's 2023 season
While the NFL is obviously not scripted, like any film it does bring plenty of intriguing storylines.
The biggest is Aaron Rodgers' first season with the New York Jets. Gang Green has been out of the playoffs ever since the Sanchise (Mark Sanchez) era, and it hopes that the former Green Bay Packer can end its record-breaking postseason drought.
Speaking of the Packers, they too are entering a new era with Jordan Love. Rodgers' successor has his work cut out for him in a changing NFC North, with Jared Goff and Justin Fields emerging as the biggest threats to Kirk Cousins and the Minnesota Vikings.
Besides those two, multiple teams have new starting quarterbacks, and of the few to retain theirs from 2022, the Baltimore Ravens have the most intrigue, largely thanks to the acquisition of Odell Beckham Jr., who is returning from an ACL injury to partner superstar quarterback Lamar Jackson. Jackson's contract holdout was one of the most prominent of the offseason, with his return hinging on general manager Eric DeCosta's ability to lure a top wideout like Beckham to town.