While Thursday’s CBS and ABC morning shows focused on security plans for Sunday’s Super Bowl in Atlanta, NBC’s Today show hyped “controversies erupting on multiple fronts” ahead of the big game, including whining about left-wing former 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick not being signed to an NFL team.

“The NFL taking heat over canceling Maroon 5’s pre-game press conference, the band under fire for agreeing to perform the Super Bowl Halftime Show in the wake of protests sparked by former player Colin Kaepernick,” correspondent Gabe Gutierrez declared during a report in 7:30 a.m. ET hour. The on-screen headline blared: “Kaepernick Controversy Resurfaces; Goodell Addresses it After Halftime Show Presser Canceled.”

Complaining that NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell was “now downplaying the controversy” in a Wednesday press conference, Gutierrez noted: “That answer didn’t sit well with many Kaepernick fans on social media, who say Goodell dodged the question.” The reporter concluded: “Controversies erupting on multiple fronts as we head into Super Bowl weekend.”

Immediately following the report from Gutierrez, co-host Craig Melvin conducted a softball interview with Kaepernick’s attorney Mark Geragos, who was given a platform to push conspiracy theories about his client’s professional football career coming to an end. Referencing President Trump’s criticism of Kaepernick, the lawyer ranted: “...the collusion actually was the NFL kowtowing to the President. I mean, it’s clear....anybody who’s got a couple of neurons firing that wouldn’t say this is collusive activity.”

Melvin followed up by worrying that musicians agreeing to perform in the Super Bowl halftime show were offending Kaepernick: “As you know, a number of the halftime acts have taken heat for performing at the Super Bowl this year, Maroon 5, Big Boy, Travis Scott among them. Does Collin Kaepernick see their participation during the halftime show as some sort of personal affront?”

Gergagos launched into a tirade condemning the performers:

I think what it says is, number one, they do take a lot of heat, and I think rightfully so. I mean, the idea that you’re going to basically cross a picket line – because that’s what they're doing, they’re crossing an intellectual picket line. They’re saying to themselves, “I care more about my career than I do about whether what I’m doing is right”....could cross the intellectual and ideological picket line, I think there’s something wrong with that and they should be called out.

Melvin lamented that given the “successful season for the NFL” in which “ratings are up,” Kaepernick’s “mission” might have “failed.” Geragos rejected the notion and bizarrely tried to blame Russia for the controversy swirling around his client’s national anthem protests: “I think he opened the door to a robust discussion. And I think there’s also an element of this, there’s been quite a bit of reporting, that basically the so-called divisiveness that this caused was actually ginned up or generated by a Russian disinformation effort.”

While NBC hyped Kaepernick on Thursday morning, on Wednesday, it was ABC’s Good Morning America that warned of a Super Bowl “backlash.” Co-host Michael Strahan highlighted how “critics are not happy” with Maroon 5 skipping the press conference. Correspondent T.J. Holmes piled on: “Right now, critics are all over Maroon 5 for seeming to want to avoid any Kaepernick questions....Critics say the band is dodging tough questions about headlining the halftime show amid controversy over the NFL’s handling of Colin Kaepernick and players’ rights to protest.”

The segment was just the latest example of ABC’s obsession with the story. Following the report, Strahan commented: “It never ends, right, this whole debate?”

It certainly never ends for the liberal media. Even after the public has clearly moved on, the press still try to convince viewers that there’s a cloud of controversy over the big game.

Here are excerpts of the January 31 coverage on NBC’s Today show: