The first NFL Sunday of the year is upon us. With that brings some changes to NFL RedZone this season after ESPN reached a deal to distribute the program.

Earlier this week, host Scott Hanson announced that "seven hours of commercial-free football" won't be accurate any longer as the show will now include brief commercials airing in a separate box while the action remains on screen. After Hanson's announcement which caused a frenzy among fans, the NFL issued a reminder via Sportico that it had already been testing ads that run alongside its RedZone coverage, utilizing them last December. The league said that the ads, which will include 10-15 seconds of commercial audio, is unrelated to the league's pending transaction with ESPN via The Athletic's Richard Deitsch.

Ahead of Hanson's first episode spewing his new intro of "seven hours of RedZone football starts now," he posted a plea for fans to give it a shot.

"As for the angst, frustration, anger, confusion over the last few days," he said in a video posted to his X account Saturday. "I get it. I understand. I would simply say, I hope you'll join us on Sunday and judge for yourself whether or not we are still what we've been, what's been described as the greatest football show on TV.

"I hope you'll join us and you can make that determination for yourself."

Hanson followed up the video with some added clarification, noting that nobody told him to post the video and that there will be four total 15-second commercials in a double box in between plays with none occuring during the "witching hour." He also noted that the added commercials were not an ESPN or Disney (ESPN's owner) decision.

The only constant seems to be change and Hanson hopes fans come into their football Sunday with an open mind.

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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Scott Hanson Has Plea for Football Fans Ahead of New-Look 'NFL RedZone'.