Bill Maher Takes on NFL’s Domestic Violence Problem for HBO’s Real Sports

As promised, Bill Maher was the first of several comedians to deliver commentary on HBO’s Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel this week. Using his “New Rules” format, Maher got some silly jokes about high school bowling and skateboarding video games out of the way before moving on to more fertile territory: the NFL’s domestic violence issues.

“The NFL can run their anti-domesitc violence ads,” he said, referring to the spot that ran during the Super Bowl, “or they can be sponsored by Anheuser-Busch, but they can’t do both.”

“Are you kidding me?” Maher asked. “Beer is responsible for more violence against women than the Taliban.” Mostly, he just wanted to know why alcohol was not on the list of more than 100 banned substances in the league. Especially, when marijuana is one of them.

“Pot actually makes you less likely to commit domestic violence,” he said. “And maybe that’s why they don’t want pot in the NFL, because it’s a drug that doesn’t make you violent.”

Among the comedians expected to present similar bits in future weeks are Chris Rock, Lewis Black, and Susie Essman.

Watch video below, via HBO:

[Photo via screengrab]

— —

>> Follow Matt Wilstein (@TheMattWilstein) on Twitter

New: The Mediaite One-Sheet "Newsletter of Newsletters"
Your daily summary and analysis of what the many, many media newsletters are saying and reporting. Subscribe now!