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Here’s a name you probably haven’t thought about in awhile (unless you recently watched Glitch: The Rise & Fall of HQ Trivia): Scott Rogowsky.
You remember him, right? The first and most well-known host of the app slash show HQ Trivia that was all the rage in the late 2010s (until it crashed and burned following the death of one of its creators.)
Yeah, well, Scott Rogowsky has got a big bone to pick with the NFL.
Let’s get down to the nitty-gritty, shall we?
As you may recall, the NFL has been repeatedly accused over the past few years of being rigged.
So the league recently thought it would be funny to promote the upcoming season by making a short mockumentary showing “the table read of the 104th season of the NFL.”
Kind of funny, kind of weird that they are leaning into it so hard.
Regardless, it’s not an original concept.
In fact, just a few months before the NFL did it, one of the league’s own teams, the Jacksonville Jaguars, did pretty much the exact same thing with their schedule release.
Which was kind of a ripoff of an episode of Macrodosing a few months before that.
Which, if you ask Scott Rogowsky, all were ripoffs of what he and Neil Janowitz did almost 15 years ago.
“Nearly 15 yrs ago @neiljanowitz and I came up with the concept of an ‘NFL Writers Room’ video series,” Rogowsky tweeted on Tuesday.
“We made nearly two dozen videos for ESPN & Comedy Central.
“Earlier this year I started posting clips to TikTok, and it seems the @NFL liked them so much, they stole the IP!”
In the video, Rogowsky says that after posted one of the videos to TikTok in February, “My feeling is, NFL folks saw this video and decided to rip it off for themselves.”
Take a look. What do you think?
“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,” Rogowsky astutely added, using the NFL’s own words against them.
Nearly 15 yrs ago @neiljanowitz and I came up with the concept of an “NFL Writers Room” video series. We made nearly two dozen videos for ESPN & Comedy Central. Earlier this year I started posting clips to TikTok, and it seems the @NFL liked them so much, they stole the IP! 🤔 pic.twitter.com/HFqBtO6HqJ
— Scott Rogowsky (@ScottRogowsky) August 29, 2023
Rogowsky wasn’t done there. He also wrote a missive on Instagram.
“Not a fun video to make but a necessary one…” Rogowsky wrote. “How can megacorporations like the @nfl expect to get away with blatant IP theft in this day and age? Not even a scintilla of shame in ripping off the ‘NFL Writers Room’ video series my partner @neiljanowitz and I created with our 12 Angry Mascots cast and crew in 2009.
“The videos proved so popular back then that both ESPN and Comedy Central paid us to produce nearly a dozen episodes from 2009-2011.
“Earlier this year I began posting clips of our original YouTube videos to TikTok, one of which garnered 200k views… and among those viewers must have been some hack at the NFL who thought, ‘That’s a funny concept! Let’s steal it and use it for our 2023 season promo campaign! Should we contact the very public creators of the video? Maybe ask if they would like to help write/produce our version? Nah. Should we credit them at all whatsoever? Nahhhh.’
“So here we are folks! Another day, another corporate crime in America… what do YOU think I should do?”