Former NFL Players Demanding Change To ‘Sunday Night Football’

Former NFL players are demanding a change to NBC’s “Sunday Night Football” broadcasts moving forward.

Pro Football Focus, a sports analytics company that focuses on player analysis of the National Football League and Division 1 college football, is an official part of NBC’s “Sunday Night Football” broadcasts. The company was founded in 2004 by Neil Hornsby in the United Kingdom. In 2014, Cris Collinsworth acquired a majority stake in the company.

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As part of his deal with NBC, Collinsworth’s Pro Football Focus company is featured on the “Sunday Night Football” broadcasts. PFF gives out player grades for every player in the league, ranking them among their peers. For example, NBC’s “Sunday Night Football” will show that Sam Darnold is ranked No. 1 among all QBs this year, or that Puka Nacua is ranked No. 1 among all wide receivers.

But multiple former NFL players have taken issue with the human grades of players, demanding that “Sunday Night Football” get rid of them.

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Former NFL star Chris Long, who now hosts his own podcast, Green Light, with Bet MGM, is not happy with PFF’s rankings. This year, Patrick Mahomes is ranked No. 13 among all quarterbacks. That’s crazy enough for Long to call for a drastic change to SNF.

“Get Mahomes quarterback 13 of 32 off my television screen. We’re talking about legislation, what our kids shouldn’t see at school, what they shouldn’t be learning about, should we have political ads on television. I want the PFF scores off the TV as bad as I want political ads off the television,” Long said, via Awful Announcing.

Long also took issue with the ranking of Chiefs defensive lineman Derek Nnadi being ranked 191st out of 191 eligible players.

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“God forbid there’s somebody watching the game who doesn’t know who f—ing Patrick Mahomes is. They’re going to be badly misguided, brother. Thirteenth best quarterback in the league? If I was [Derek ]Nnadi, and maybe he earned it this year, but I would (expletive) sue. I would be in Cris Collinsworth’s backyard dude.”

Chris Long is not alone

Former NFL star J.J. Watt, who calls games for CBS Sports, is demanding that PFF’s player grades are taken off the air, too.

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“PFF has a TON of great stuff.. Player grading SUCKS.. STOP PUTTING IT OUT,” he said on The Pat McAfee Show on Wednesday.

Watt, one of the best defensive players of all-time, said that he had his own issues with PFF during his playing career.

“”I’ve had my issues with PFF for a very long time and I was their number one rated player.. They literally had to change their system because of me and I still hate it.. PFF has a lot of very beneficial tools but they’ve gotta stop grading players,” he said.

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NBC, meanwhile, plans on sticking with the ratings, by all accounts.

This week, the San Francisco 49ers will host the Atlanta Falcons on NBC’s “Sunday Night Football.” Kickoff is set for 8:20 p.m. E.T.

It’ll air on NBC.

This story was originally reported by The Spun on Oct 15, 2025, where it first appeared in the NFL section. Add The Spun as a Preferred Source by clicking here.