NFL Says 'No' To Church Superbowl Party...By Hartley Henderson

[Rogthedodger]

In Proverbs 4:5 it is written "Learn to be wise, and develop good judgement." Most people try to follow those words of wisdom, but apparently not the National Football League and particularly it's legal counsel.

Parishioners at the Fall Creek Baptist Church in Indianapolis, Indiana seemed very excited about the big game on Sunday, and like many other area organizations were hoping to celebrate with a superbowl party. Unfortunately for the church they are blessed with a large screen TV, and according to the NFL copyright laws, it is illegal for any place other than bars or restaurants to show an NFL game to a group of people on a screen larger than 55 inches. The church staff appealed to NFL legal counsel for some leniency and common sense, but the NFL would not back down so the church has had no choice but to cancel the party.

While the NFL may be correct in its interpretation of the copyright law, they are clearly not using any forethought. It appears the NFL's holier than thou attitude has clouded their judgement. What is possibly gained by the league by blocking the church from showing the game? It's not the first time the NFL has showed this lack of judgement, and it won't be the last. For example, the NFL's success can be largely attributed to gambling on the sport. Every major U.S. newspaper posts the Vegas lines for all NFL games and the NFL TV package is very often purchased by individuals who want to follow the games they have bets on. Why would anyone in New York, for example, have any interest in Arizona vs. Tampa Bay unless they have a wager on it? Yet the NFL seems determined to try and have gambling on its sport stopped.

That aside, the NFL should reconsider its stance and allow the church to show the game to its flock, copyright rules be damned. In the new testament, one of the more famous stories was when Jesus washed the feet of his disciples to show them humility. No doubt, if Roger Goodell or the NFL attorneys had been his disciples they would have told Jesus to kiss their feet instead.

02-02-07
Hartley Henderson
MajorWager.com
henderson@majorwager.com

http://www.majorwager.com/frontline-416.html

[buddyboy]

I heard that the church ran big ads in the paper promoting a Superbowl party, and they were gonna charge admission. then all the non-believers were gonna be shown a "video highlighting the Christian testimonies of Colts coach Tony Dungy and Chicago Bears coach Lovie Smith"

anyway shame on both the NFL and this Church.

[clevfan]

NFL trying to bully pulpits

Saturday, February 3rd, 2007
NY DAILY NEWS
By Mike Lupica

MIAMI - There was the Rev. Danny Murphy of the St. Saviour Church on 8th Ave. and 6th St. in Park Slope, Brooklyn yesterday, caught between perhaps the two most powerful entities on Earth: the Catholic Church and the National Football League.
Murphy is planning to have a 5 o'clock Mass tomorrow afternoon, one that will start 90 minutes before Super Bowl XLI between the Colts and the Bears kicks off in Miami. The Mass is geared toward teenaged members of his parish, and Murphy says his homily will be geared toward the Super Bowl. After the service, they will all go downstairs to the parish hall to watch the game on a 42-inch LCD television set the church bought for the occasion, then raffle off the TV set afterward.

He just wasn't aware that he might be breaking football law by showing the big game on a big screen until he got a call from this paper and was told of the NFL's lawyers ordering a Baptist church in Indiana to call off the Super Bowl party it was throwing in front of a much bigger screen than Murphy's, the league maintaining this was a violation of copyright law. The NFL, as it turns out, goes on offense better than the Colts - even against houses of the Lord - when somebody tries to build an event around its event.

"You're not allowed to sell tickets and you can't show the game on too big a screen," Father Murphy of St. Saviour was told.

"How big?"

"Fifty-five inches."

Murphy laughed.

"I think I'm good," he said.

Murphy said that he wasn't trying to make any money off the event, and that any money the church did make off the raffle of the television set would be donated to youth ministries. He is a Brooklyn kid himself, out of Bay Ridge, and said late yesterday afternoon that he had 25 kids signed up already for the Mass and Super Bowl party and thought he would end up with 10 or 15 more before he was through.

"I know my church is going to think we're trying to do something good for kids here," he said. "I'll have to wait and see what my standing is with the league." Murphy, a Giants fan, laughed again and said, "Maybe upon further review."

The Fall Creek Baptist Church in Indiana really did get an overnight FedEx letter from the NFL demanding it call off the party for its congregation in front of the church's projector TV. This fell under the umbrella of what is known as "mass (though not a Roman Catholic Mass in this case) out-of-home viewings," and the league doesn't allow those. Outside of bars and sports bars, of course, since out-of-home viewings there are just considered a part of the bar's normal way of doing business.

If you think this sounds funny, it's because it is funny, the idea that bars can make money off the Super Bowl and even the Super Bowl brand, and churches such as Fall Creek Baptist in Indiana and maybe even the Abyssinian Baptist Church on 138th St., New York City, can't. I checked Abyssinian's Web site yesterday and saw that it also has a Super Bowl event planned in front of a giant TV screen, but the Rev. Dr.Calvin Butts is on his own with that. As an ex-altar boy, I am looking out for Father Danny Murphy of St. Saviour today. One pastor at a time.

"This has nothing to do with churches," NFL spokesman Greg Aiello said yesterday. And don't shoot the messenger here, Aiello was just saying what the lawyers wanted him to say. "Churches can have Super Bowl viewing parties. They can't charge admission and use 55-inch screens or more. If churches ask what the guidelines are, we tell them. It's a long-standing policy. Over the years we've told theaters, museums, hotels and schools that you can't put up a big screen in a room and charge money to watch a Super Bowl."

There was the suggestion late in the day that the league was softening its stance on all this, perhaps sensing a PR nightmare. It is also worth pointing out that when the league contacted Fall Creek, it said that it has been consistent about not wanting its product associated with any kind of message. This is kind of funny, considering that one of the first things Colts owner Jim Irsay did after accepting the AFC championship trophy was immediately praise God.

Murphy gets all that. And while he was pretty confident that the new set he'd purchased was 42 inches, he admits he did go and measure it yesterday just in case.

When he was told that there were events like his planned at churches, and even for the homeless, all over New York City tomorrow, he said, "They may need more lawyers, right?"

There is an insane amount of silliness attached to any Super Bowl, and all of Super Bowl Week is crawling with silly celebrities, and the sort of corporate crassness that makes your normal, run-of-the-mill corporate crassness look like, well, church. There are a million parties and one of them tonight, at a place called Mansion, will show off 25 Penthouse Pets, according to the advertising for the event. This, then, is a different out-of-home viewing, one that blessedly doesn't interfere with the game, or the Nielsen ratings, which networks feel are corrupted slightly if too many people gather in one place to watch the game.

You can have all that. You can even gather at a church to watch the big game. You just can't watch on a set bigger than 55 inches and you can't try to make a little money off the day. This is so wonderful it should be put to music and replace Prince as the halftime show tomorrow.

"If it's any consolation to the league," Murphy said, "I think it's going to be a very good homily. And around the spirituality of it, I promise to talk up the game."

[Garbage Time]

What if they agreed to sing "Dropkick me Jesus Through the Goalposts of Life" at alftime, instead of watching that Infidel Artist formerly Known as Prince at Halftime. Would that be OK?

Oh wait. He's Prince again.

I'm so confused.