The NFL has banned teams from signing up to Bluesky until the new social-media platform pays for the privilege, according to reports.

Last week the New England Patriots revealed the NFL had told them to take down their account on Bluesky – a Twitter-style app which hundreds of celebs have joined in recent months after leaving Elon Musk’s X.

Many had speculated that the league’s motives may have been political after Donald Trump, one of Musk’s strongest allies, was re-elected as president last month.

Yet according to Sport Business Journal’s Ben Fischer, the NFL wants Bluesky to make it worth their while financially before allowing teams to join the platform.

‘[The NFL is] acutely aware of the league’s capability to be a business kingmaker,’ Fischer wrote. ‘If all 32 teams organically got on Bluesky, the platform could create a robust NFL news hub out of those accounts without much work at all.

‘The NFL knows exactly what that would be worth to Bluesky, and wants to be paid for it.’

The NFL has reportedly banned teams from signing up to Bluesky until the new app pays them

The league, fronted by commissioner Roger Goodell (pictured) wants it to be worth their while financially if teams join the platform

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Bluesky therefore first needs to cement an official partnership with the NFL before any teams can sign up to the platform.

In the wake of the US election, several high-profile figures announced they’re deactivating their X accounts and heading to Bluesky instead. 

In late August, the new app had six million users; it now has almost 25 million and is growing at a rate of a million users a day. 

Bluesky describes itself as ‘social media as it should be’. ‘Find your community among millions of users,’ the site’s info page reads, ‘unleash your creativity, and have some fun again.’ 

But until it strikes a deal with the league, no NFL teams will be on Bluesky for the foreseeable future. 

‘Right now we’re not allowed to,’ New England exec Fred Kirsch said on the Patriots Unfiltered podcast, via MᴀssLive.com. 

‘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.

‘Whenever the league gives us the green light we’ll get back on BlueSky.’