New England Patriots fan Mark Wahlberg, executive producer for the HBO series “Ballers,” said the NFL isn’t too happy with the show. He said commissioner Roger Goodell even tried to get him to cancel it. Since the show is fictional, it won’t affect NFL betting lines, but it does show that the NFL commissioner and team owners don’t shows attempting to realistically depict NFL players.
Wahlberg made this revelation about Goodell and the owners while making the promotional rounds for the season 2 premiere on Sunday night. During an interview with ESPN’s Mike and Mike, Wahlberg said he received calls from Roger Goodell telling him he couldn’t do certain things.
Wahlberg said various team owners also called him to complain about the show. The Academy Award nominated actor said he told the owners and the commissioner that what they were doing on the show was actually good for the league because it shows a lot of the crazy situations that players find themselves in, from a public relations, or financial standpoint.
Wahlberg said he hopes some of the players will watch the show and realize that they have to be more careful about how both they spend their money and how they conduct themselves in public.
Since Wahlberg made the claims on Friday, the NFL has been busy trying to discredit him. NFL senior vice president of communications Natalie Ravitz took to Twitter to deny the claims.
Ravitz called it a nice story but denied that Goodell ever called Wahlberg to say anything about the show.
Despite the league’s denial, this isn’t the first time the league has tried to flex its muscles on a show that didn’t portray NFL players in a positive light. In 2003, ESPN had a scripted drama series titled Playmakers, in which players used steroids, fought in public, and weren’t as well behaved as the league wants fans to believe.
The show was a hit and many expected it to go on for years, but the league told ESPN they had to cancel the show if it wanted to continue doing business with the league.
Since HBO doesn’t have a business relationship with the NFL, there is nothing the league can do about the show.
“Ballers” stars Dwayne “The rock” Johnson as a former player who becomes a financial advisor after his retirement. The show tries to give viewers a glimpse of what the league is like from the perspective of current and former players.
The first season of the show featured cameos from current and former NFL players like DeSean Jackson, Antonio Brown, Terrell Suggs, Stephen Jackson, Rashard Mendenhall and more.
Some of the cameos to expect in the second season include Ndamukong Suh, Greg Jennings, Jarvis Landry, and a few New England Patriots players.
Wahlberg said the show prides itself in portraying the world of professional football in an accurate light. He said they have some of the best writers working on the show, and the professional athletes that they have on it give it legitimacy because the players tell them how life really is for professional athletes.