Scott Hanson Lied: 7-Hours of Commercial-Free Football is Dead, NFL RedZone is Now Showing Commercials

NBC Sports - NFL RedZone host Scott Hanson likes to welcome fans to each Sunday’s broadcast by telling them they’re getting “seven hours of commercial-free football.” Yesterday, that wasn’t true.

The NFL showed four short commercials during Sunday’s RedZone broadcast, with viewers seeing a split screen of a commercial and a game, and the audio of the commercial playing. Fans were not happy, as evidenced by social media complaints about commercials detracting from the viewing experience.

NFL Media confirmed to Sportico.com that Sunday was viewed as a test run for commercials, which could become a regular part of RedZone during the 2025 season.

We had a hell of a run. 15 years of commercial-free NFL Sunday football. It's amazing the NFL ever allowed that to go on for as long as they did. For a league that would skim 99% percent of the money off the top of their Breast Cancer Awareness merch sales, Roger Goodell allowing his product to be aired for 7-hours each Sunday without maximizing ad-revenue is almost unbelievable. It was bound to come to an end eventually. I'm not even going to pretend to be mad about it. If I'm being honest, I watched the RedZone channel for 7 hours yesterday and didn't even notice the commercials. I probably just assumed one of the games cut to commercial locally and RedZone was slow to the trigger. But even though I'm neither upset nor surprised that the NFL is finally showing commercials on RedZone, I won't let that distract me from the fact that Scott Hanson (host of NFL RedZone/the first man to ever put 8 football games on a single screen) lied to to us.

As the old saying goes, don't be mad at the greedy multi-billion dollar sports league for doing what greedy multi-billion dollar sports leagues do. Be mad at the front facing media personality who has no say in the matter. Heavy is the head that wears the crown. Scott Hanson knew good and well that the 7 hours of football he blessed us with yesterday would not be commercial-free, and would in fact be commercial-full. But he made the conscious decision to be a liar. He betrayed the trust of millions of fans who outsource their remote control duties to him every Sunday from 1pm-8pm EST. Scott Hanson pissed on our faces and told us it was football. Fans everywhere were seething with anger.

Well said @Makers_Mark46. A fair reaction, for sure. 

It brings me no pleasure to admit that it brings me a little pleasure to watch the internet turn on Scott Hanson. Scott's been getting a little too big for his britches lately if you ask me. I've seen how he's gradually started flipping to games and calling the plays himself, instead switching the local audio. I hear Scott run his bits on us, a captive audience, like we've all tuned in for Scott Hanson comedy hour. Part of me thinks Scott might feel like he's bigger than the game. That NFL RedZone is more about Scott Hanson than it is about football.

I wouldn't be surprised if at the conclusion of Week 18, we get a, "Best of Scott Hanson" montage. Scott's top 10 zingers from the 2024 season. He dropped a, "Can't grab the Bonittos when you're going in for a touchdown" after the Broncos' Nick Bonitto scored yesterday. I know that one's making the cut.

I can't find the RedZone audio of that online… but I know somebody at the NFL Network is sitting on a folder of Scott's wittiest moments.

And one more thing while I'm piling on. What really made me start to turn on Scott this year was when I started seeing his Saturday afternoon tweet. I think he's been doing this for years, but I only started noticing this season. On Saturday afternoon, before the weekend has even really begun, Scott likes to put this out into the universe.

Don't fast forward my weekend Scott. I very much enjoy tuning into your program every Sunday. I promise I'll be there. But at 1pm on a Saturday, I don't want to think about Sunday at all. I'm trying to pretend Sunday doesn't exist. Sunday is basically Monday, and Monday is work. I don't need Scott reminding me of how fleeting the weekend is. Sometimes I wonder if Scott thinks that for the 161 hours a week he's not live on RedZone, that the world sits quietly on the couch just staring blankly at the off-air RedZone screen, waiting for that big countdown clock to pop up.

I swear to god, Scott… If you try slipping in a Lamar Jackson Gatorade ad that I don't even notice until the after the fact when the internet tells me I should be mad about it again without telling us… there's going to be consequences. It starts with sneaking in a few ads in a dual box. Next thing you know we're getting full screen commercials at halftime. Before you know it, every witching hour is kicked off with a 5-minute Scott Hanson standup routine brought to you by Pepsi. 

I don't what your end game is, Scott. But I'm watching you. Don't you dare lie to us again.