Major social media platforms and their parent companies have dominated the news cycles in recent months. Whether it’s because of their CEO’s often-alarming actions, their cozy relationships with President Donald Trump, or the role those platforms are playing in information dissemination in America, they have become intertwined in political discourse.
Their relationships with major corporations, networks, and sports leagues have also come under scrutiny. Having an account or partnership on a particular platform has come to send a message, intended or not. The same might also be said for not having a relationship on a social media platform.
On the January 26 episode of Patriots Unfiltered, host and VP of content for Kraft Sports & Entertainment/New England Patriots Fred Kirsch was answering messages from New England fans, one of whom asked if the team could soon get an account on the social media platform Bluesky.
“Please consider adding Bluesky to your social media outreach,” Kirsch read from a Patriots fan. “NFL content/engagement is growing there with folks like Mina Kimes leading the way.
“Well, right now we’re not allowed to. We had an account briefly on Bluesky but the league asked us to take it down because it’s not an approved social media platform for the NFL yet.”
Kirsch’s fellow co-hosts seemed surprised by the news, adding that they were not aware of the situation.
“So, we’re ready to go,” added Kirsch. “Whenever the league gives us the green light we’ll get back on Bluesky.”
There are several New England Patriots accounts on Bluesky that seem official at first glance, using the same branding as the team’s X account. However, one hasn’t posted in a month and does not use the platform’s verification system, which would set the Patriots website as their user handle.
That appears to be the case for most NFL franchises. Accounts for the New York Giants (13.4k followers), Philadelphia Eagles (49.8k), Minnesota Vikings (22.5k), and Detroit Lions (53.4k) all appear legit, using the same images and posts as you see on other social media platforms. However, none of them are verified and no NFL team promotes a Bluesky account on their website’s social media sections.
The NFL told Front Office Sports in November that it was “aware of Bluesky but currently does not have an official presence on the platform.” It perhaps made sense given that the X alternative was still relatively small (compared to other platforms) and there were a lot of unknowns about its long-term success following a post-election bump. The NFL and X had also just announced they were partnering to create a centralized portal for the league on that platform.
Various other leagues and sports franchises, not to mention many sports media members, have since joined the platform. However, they’re usually among smaller leagues that don’t have a profile like the NFL (then again, who does?).
Bluesky recently saw another jolt in users thanks to X owner Elon Musk’s Nazi salute and the brief closure of TikTok, coupled with the debut of vertical video, bringing their overall total to almost 29 million at the time of this writing. It doesn’t seem as though the platform is going anywhere.
So it begs the question, why is the NFL not only not pushing to get on Bluesky, but instructing teams to stay off of it?
It could be as benign as a desire to have an ironclad partnership agreement in place first. However, it’s possible it could be a subtle attempt to appease Musk, who has become more volatile in recent years and prone to lashing out at companies that he feels cross him, something ESPN-parent Disney knows all too well.
Awful Announcing reached out to the NFL and Bluesky for comment but had not heard back from either as of the time of this writing.
The NFL certainly isn’t required to post accounts on every social media platform out there. But given that they rushed to make sure all their teams were on Threads, and are keeping cozy with X, Meta, and TikTok, the question of why they won’t join Bluesky remains a pertinent one.
