With the training camp season in full swing, critical reviews are dropping for the players, but suddenly all attention has shifted to the league at large. Amid all that, the NFL now finds itself under immense scrutiny after allegedly using AI to release an episode of NFL Media’s famous Move The Sticks podcast.

“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,” Ryan Glasspiegel of Front Office Sport wrote. “Nevertheless, a number of observers on Twitter/X suspected the programs were AI-generated.”

On Tuesday, August 11, two new episodes of the Move the Sticks podcast dropped. The episodes previewed the NFC East and NFC West divisions. There have been 1,000-plus episodes with hosts Daniel Jeremiah and Bucky Brooks discussing on various NFL topics. A decade later, their voices are now recognisable, but Jeremiah confirmed that his journey on the podcast came to an end.

Even though he is no longer a part of the Move the Sticks podcast, the feed on Apple Podcasts still lists Jeremiah and Brooks as the hosts. But as the new episodes dropped for the first time since June 4, it just did not seem naturally human.

This was in stark contrast to what the fans were used to for over a decade, as the previous episodes included a lot more detail and had a human touch. So fans immediately took their displeasure to social media. 

“@MoveTheSticks what’s up with the weird AI podcast?” one of them wrote on X.

Replying to this, Jeremiah clarified things. 

“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,” he wrote. 

Not taking Jeremiah’s name on the podcast is understandable given that he is no longer a part of it. But what was surprising for the fans was that it did not even introduce the new host. 

Not just the fans; the podcast faced backlash from analysts too. 

“truly bizarre situation,” wrote Wide Left analyst Arif Hasan, and attached video clips from the podcast capturing how the voice sounded robotic and like AI slop. 

“Feed of the Move the Sticks pod, formerly offering great football insight from Daniel Jeremiah/Bucky Brooks, dropped an AI slop NFC West preview in the feed today,” posted sports columnist for Cleveland.com, Doug Lesmerises on August 11. “Insulting to previous hosts and audience.”

The use of AI for a podcast might be new for the NFL, but the league has adopted it in various other areas. For instance, today’s NFL franchises rely on AI-driven sensors in helmets and pads that track player movement and impacts. 

While it has only helped them, the alleged use of AI in podcasts was a step too far for a podcast so closely followed by a large audience.

A statement from the NFL 

Glasspiegel approached the NFL to have some clarity on the situation. However, they refused to respond. Once the report was out, the NFL issued a statement.

“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 league said. “The episode posted on 8/11 was a compilation of team previews from the NFL’s YouTube page and not AI generated/hosted.”

Even though the clarification came from the league itself, fans already did their research. Many of them observed that the voice sounded identical to the one featured in other generalized NFL videos. A video from the 2022 season recapping several end-of-season awards lists the host in the description only as “Game Preview Guy.”

With the debate ongoing, according to Pro Football Talk analyst Mike Florio, the NFL should have been more careful about the podcast that has their logo on it. 

“So even if it’s not AI, it doesn’t sound much better (frankly) than something that was AI generated,” he wrote. “And it falls far short of the standard that should be implied regarding any product that carries the imprimatur of The Shield.”

Fans will have to wait for more episodes to drop in to get more clarity on the situation. While the new hosts are yet to be revealed, the hope is that the next drop won’t feature an AI voice.