Star One Smart Blog's

Stupid, Stupid, Stupid NFL...we know they are in bidness to make money, but this is outrageous!

The NFL decreed that a Church in Indianapolis could not show the SuperBowl on Sunday, after a Church Service, because it was to be projected on a 55" screen.

No one is allowed to broadcast the game on a screen bigger than 55 inches outside your house or with a large group. The NFL basically wants you at home watching the game with family. The NFL claims large gatherings skew the Nielsen number which are the numbers used to sell commercials.

Guess what? The Church is defying the big, bad NFL!

An Indianapolis church on Friday said it will defy the NFL's demand that churches not use projectors to show the Super Bowl, saying it is taking "a stand for what's right."
"The NFL implied that it has a problem with the venue and medium that local churches conduct ministry," the senior pastor, the Rev. David Greene, said in a press release. "We want to save souls by any means necessary. Football, traditional service, street ministry -- it doesn't matter.

"All we want to do is increase fellowship with believers and demonstrate true love to people that don't know Christ."

In a letter to his congregation, Greene said that the NFL doesn't want churches to host Super Bowl gatherings, though "people can gather at sports bars and other secular locations with no problem."

The NFL spotted the Church's web site's remarks concerning the showing the game, and came down hard (unlike the way they come down hard on players who, you know, break real laws that matter)...

"The letter of the law says they have the right to control their trademark and their product," said Gary Roberts, Indiana University - Indianapolis Law School.

The words "Super Bowl" are a trademark of NFL and the broadcasts are also owned by the NFL. The NFL does not allow public performances of its games, even at church.

Churches don't regularly show football games as part of their business, which is part of the reason why bars and taverns are allowed to show the games to anyone walking in.

"We are simply following copyright law and have done so with regard to any type of commercial establishment including hotels, theaters, museums, schools, arenas and others," the statement said.

The statement said the NFL "has absolutely no objection to churches and others hosting Super Bowl viewing parties as long as they do not charge admission and show the game on a television of the type commonly used at home."

The NFL can bite my ass...and I'm a big fan.

They could've chosen a different way to approach this, instead of allowing it to become a topic right before the Super Bowl. They could have pulled their roving webhound attack lawyers back, and said, 'you know, it might be a little unseemly to attack a Church located right in a Superbowl Team's home city, on the grounds we might lose face...there's no reason to pursue this, just because the few dollars of revenue some of our beer sponsors might lose by not having the patrons in a bar or at home, but instead in a Church, where their product likely won't be served'...

Jeeze, Louise, doesn't anyone at the NFL corporate level think anymore? Can anyone come away from this not equating NFL with Assclown?


h/t Florio