The NFL strictly controls how team members use social media. In other words, it’s keeping the team away from X’s rival Bluesky.
This information is provided by sports media sites. terrible announcementI caught the exchange at patriots unfilter. In response to a fan suggestion that the team expand its social media footprint to Blue Sky, Patriots vice president of content Fred Kirsch clarified that “that is not allowed at this time.”
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Kirsch said that while the Patriots were briefly testing the waters with Blue Sky, “the league asked us to remove it because it is not yet an NFL-approved social media platform.” He explained.
blue sky, Currently boasting over 28 million usershas emerged as a leading alternative to X following Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg’s apparent shift towards far-right politics. Sports teams are increasingly looking beyond the X, with Bundesliga clubs including: FC St. Pauli The breakthrough came as early as November after the U.S. presidential election.
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Recently, several major sports-focused subreddits have floated the idea of banning X-links altogether, even though much of their content relies heavily on posts from the platform. At the same time, prominent sports journalists and media personalities have begun to build an active presence on Bluesky, making X’s role as the go-to hub for sports fans feel increasingly redundant.
What about the NFL presence in Blue Sky? Basically it doesn’t exist. Even though the league maintains active partnerships with Meta and X, and waves of sports fans and media personnel are moving to the Blue Sky, the NFL has yet to follow suit. The decision appears to stem from the league’s business interests and active brand partnerships with both platforms, rather than any ideological alignment with Musk or Zuckerberg.
An NFL spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
That said, several NFL teams appear to have a foothold in the Blue Sky. of detroit lions (53,800 followers at the time of publication) new york giants (13.5k), minnesota vikings (22.7k), and philadelphia eagles (50.6k) all have accounts that appear to be legitimate. However, recent comments from Patriots Vice President Fred Kirsch indicate that these accounts are unverified and unofficial, so they are likely fan-run.
