Bizarre ‘Move the Sticks’ podcast saga introduces the world to NFL Game Preview Guy

On Tuesday night, subscribers to the Move the Sticks podcast experienced confusion when two new episodes, claiming to preview the NFC East and NFC West divisions, were posted. These episodes raised suspicions due to their peculiar and peculiar nature, leading many to speculate that they were AI-generated. NFL preview podcasts are common during this period, but this specific offering appeared unusual given the show's last post had been on June 4th.

Daniel Jeremiah, one of the show's regular hosts, clarified via Twitter that he was no longer affiliated with the feed, explaining that he was launching a new podcast soon. The podcast feed was retained by the NFL after ESPN acquired the NFL Network, causing further confusion as the new preview episode featured hosts no longer connected to the show.

The episode opened with a disclaimer stating, "This is an 'I Heart' podcast — guaranteed human," which only added to the confusion. The show's host, known as "Game Preview Guy," provided a surface-level summary of the latest happenings in each division, but his anonymity and the generic nature of the preview led many to believe that AI might be involved.

The NFL responded to these concerns, stating that the episode was a compilation of team previews from the NFL's YouTube page and not AI-generated or hosted. The league's spokesperson also mentioned that Move the Sticks was undergoing rebranding and content revamping following the ESPN acquisition. Several social media users noted that the voice behind Game Preview Guy had been used in similar broad videos for the NFL, including end-of-season award videos.

The league's decision to introduce this voice as "Game Preview Guy" in a statement seems to be a direct response to the AI allegations that surfaced earlier that day.