[Sly Fox]

An about face from Goodell:

NFL Reverses Call On Church Parties

Thursday, February 21, 2008; Page E02

The NFL, which found itself on the receiving end of protests and controversy after it objected to churches showing the Super Bowl on big-screen televisions, has reversed course and will now permit the viewings.

In a letter to Sen. Orrin G. Hatch (R-Utah), NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said the league would not object to "live showings -- regardless of screen size -- of the Super Bowl" by religious organizations.

In response to questions from Hatch, Goodell said in the letter, dated Feb. 19, the NFL will implement the policy starting with next year's Super Bowl.

Click Here for Full Story

[LUconn]

as if he had a choice

[Ed Dantes]

What started this was when two churches were given cease-and-desist letters because they were charging admission to the game and they were advertising it using official NFL logos.

Other churches, such as mine, inquired about this and the NFL said to them that their advice was for churches to just follow copyright laws. Those laws, written by Congressman Sonny Bono, restricted public viewings to television screens smaller than 55 inches. That was the government's restrictions, not the NFL's.

Still, some churches were saying "uhhh, this isn't really fair", so the NFL (wisely) said "we don't have a problem with that, enjoy the game."

[phoenix]

The NFL faced a PR nightmare with this. If they had said from the beginning that it was OK unless admission was charged (which a church shouldn't be charging for an outreach like this -- done right, there's very little expense). Even with the 55" or larger restriction, my first thought was of our local Damons, which has five 60" TVs. Guess they weren't playing the Super Bowl on them, huh?