Uptight NFL Lawyers Want to Cancel Your Church's Super Bowl Party
For groups that want to host Super Bowl parties -- other than sports bars and businesses that normally show televised sports -- here are rules the NFL says must be followed:
• No admission fees (even to pay for snacks).
• Only one television (55 inches or smaller).
• No use of the words "Super Bowl" in promotional materials.
• No exhibition of the game in connection with events "that promote a message."
Source: NFL
As a kid I noticed that no one came to church on Super Bowl Sunday night. Well...maybe a small number. But in those days, it was a taboo topic to even suggest that we cancel Sunday night service for a sports event. However, I'm sure that even the ministerial staff secretly wished they could be home watching the game. I even remember the blank stares I received while on my first church staff around 1990, when I suggested we borrow or rent a number of large screen televisions (this was right before the advent of data projectors) and hold a Super Bowl party at church.
Regardless, such gatherings are common today. This Sunday night, churches all around the country will hook up a cable television signal to a data projector to show the big game. It's good family fun--an alternative to sports bars and a chance to see the game with friends and family on a screen larger than what most people have in their homes.
Even though churches have been doing this kind of thing for over a decade, one church, Fall Creek Baptist in Indianapolis, has received word from uptight NFL lawyers that showing the game on a screen larger than 55" and using the term "Super Bowl" in its promotion is a violation of copyright laws. And guess what? Your church may be the next target.
The irony in all this is that exception is made for sports bars, also a popular gathering place for Super Bowl parties.
From yesterday's Indianapolis Star:
NFL's lawyers sack church's game plan
By Robert King
robert.king@indystar.com
The thousands of churches across the country that want to host Super Bowl parties Sunday night had better not pull out big-screen TVs, or they could face the wrath of NFL attorneys.
The NFL is telling Fall Creek Baptist Church in Indianapolis that the church's plans to use a wall projector to show the game at a party for church members and guests would violate copyright laws.
NFL officials spotted a promotion of Fall Creek's "Super Bowl Bash" on the church Web site last week and sent pastor John D. Newland a letter -- via FedEx overnight -- demanding the party be canceled.
Initially, the league objected to the church's plan to charge partygoers a fee to attend and that the church used the license-protected words "Super Bowl" in its promotions.
Newland told the NFL his church would not charge partygoers -- the fee had been intended only to pay for snacks -- and that it would drop the use of the forbidden words.
But the NFL wouldn't bite. It objected to the church's plans to use a projector to show the game on what effectively was a 12-foot-wide screen. It said the law limits the church to one TV no bigger than 55 inches.
The league even took exception to the church's plan to influence nonmembers with a video highlighting the Christian testimonies of Colts coach Tony Dungy and Chicago Bears coach Lovie Smith.
"While this may be a noble message," NFL assistant counsel Rachel L. Margolies wrote in a follow-up e-mail, "we are consistent in refusing the use of our game broadcasts in connection with events that promote a message, no matter the content."
Given all the NFL's concerns, the church appears unlikely to host a Super Bowl party.
"The Colts and Tony Dungy are such good people -- and (team owner) Jim Irsay, too. We want to be supportive of our local team. I don't want to make our people choose between coming to church and watching the game. It is such a big event," Newland said.
"For us to have all our congregation huddled around a TV that is big enough only for 10 or 12 people to watch just makes little sense."
Newland said he expected there are churches across the country that are planning similar Super Bowl watch parties using big screens.
NFL spokesman Greg Aiello said the league's longstanding policy is to ban "mass out-of-home viewing" of the Super Bowl. A major exception to the rule is made, however, for sports bars and other businesses that show televised sports as a part of their everyday operations.
"We have contracts with our (TV) networks to provide free over-the-air television for people at home," Aiello said. "The network economics are based on television ratings and at-home viewing. Out-of-home viewing is not measured by Nielsen."
Newland said his church won't break the law. But he sees a double standard at work when sports bars with giant screens can charge barstool rental fees and sell food, but his church can't offer a free event for families.
"It just frustrates me that most of the places where crowds are going to gather to watch this game are going to be places that are filled with alcohol and other things that are inappropriate for children," Newland said. "We tried to provide an alternative to that and were shut down."
So Fall Creek Baptist Church has cancelled it's Super Bowl Party. Notice that in the statement released on the church's website, Pastor Newland even avoids mentioning the phrase, "Super Bowl," no doubt out of fear of more legal reprisal:
Fall Creek Baptist Church Family...
We regret to inform you that we have had to cancel our bash to view the Colts game this Sunday in a family friendly environment due to the fact that the NFL believes we would be in violation of the Copyright Act, because we had planned to show the game on a screen bigger than a 55 inch diagonal. We have appealed to their legal counsel and exhausted all options without success. We have been informed that the only exceptions to view the game are given to sports bars and restaurants. While we have argued that we only intend to provide a family oriented environment that will make no profit from the showing, the NFL claims that our event cannot proceed by law. Therefore, we have no choice but to challenge this in court or cancel the event. We choose to cancel the event. We deeply regret that we have been prohibited by the NFL from providing a family friendly environment for celebrating the Colts great season.
Pastor John
The gall of NFL lawyers shutting down a church Super Bowl party in the Colts' hometown!
I understand that copyright laws are designed so that owners of creative content get due compensation or that their creation is not used in unintended ways such as third parties making profit from the work. But really, how is a church's Super Bowl party a violation of this? If anything it's free promotion of the NFL and the Super Bowl by churches all across the country, and it probably draws some viewers who might not watch the game otherwise.
My prediction is that such overzealous legal bullying will backfire on the NFL in publicity nightmare. In fact I would suggest that you take the time to write a quick letter to the NFL and make your feelings known if you are as aggravated about this as I am. Send your thoughts to:
National Football League
280 Park Avenue
New York, NY 10017
As for my plans Sunday night? Well, I can't tell you that. I'm too afraid of the NFL's Gestapo lawyers shutting us down.
UPDATE: Evidently, concerns over Nielsen ratings may actually be the source of the NFL lawyer's zealotry. Supposedly, if everyone is gathered at a church to watch the game, there's no way to track actual viewership. Lower numbers in the Nielsen ratings might make it more difficult for CBS to charge those exorbitant commercial time fees (this year's cost per commercial during the game is a whopping $2.6 million). But if this is the case, then why not block the sports bars as well? Seems like a huge double-standard to me, and worse, one that discriminates against the church.