NFL Sacks Church Super Bowl Bash
By Bob Shaw, Pioneer Press, St. Paul, Minn.
Feb. 3–NFL 1, God 0.
The National Football League has sacked plans for Super Bowl parties at Woodbury Lutheran Church and churches across the country, citing copyright concerns.
“This is so silly,” fumed Ben Griffin, associate pastor at Woodbury Lutheran. “They will be showing this game in bars, where they serve alcohol, and we just want to do it in a family-friendly setting.”
His game plan was to have a Super Bowl potluck Sunday night. About 150 parishioners were expected to come, eat hotdish, watch the game on a 12-foot-wide projection screen and have a prayer service during halftime.
But the NFL has cried foul over similar plans elsewhere, and Griffin decided to spike the party.
The Super-ruckus began this week when the league ordered a church in Indianapolis — home of the Super Bowl-bound Colts — to cancel its Sunday party. The Fall Creek Baptist Church had advertised the party using “Super Bowl” and planned for guests to watch the game on the church’s big-screen projection TV.
It also planned to show a video at halftime with a Christian message delivered by Colts coach Tony Dungy.
The pastor of that church, John Newland, told Baptist Press News that the NFL allowed viewing at bars using “the same technology” the church planned to use, while bars serve alcohol that “destroys the lives of millions of people every year in our country.”
NFL spokesman Greg Aiello said gatherings are fine — as long as the churches stay within certain guidelines. And that’s where the Indianapolis church went wrong.
It planned to charge admission to cover the food tab for its party and to show the game on a big screen using a projector. It also promoted its “Super Bowl bash” on the church Web site.
Those are some copyright no-nos. The league’s long-standing policy is to ban “mass out-of-home viewing” of the Super Bowl except at sports bars and other businesses that televise sports as part of their everyday operations, Aiello said.
Places are prohibited from charging admission to watch the Super Bowl, and the law prevents them from showing the game on a TV bigger than 55 inches. The NFL is trying to honor its contract with networks that provide free broadcasts of the game and to protect the Super Bowl trademark, Aiello said.
Major League Baseball and the NCAA have similar policies.
Many bars plan events that would violate the rules — if they were churches.
At Major’s Sports Bar in Vadnais Heights, manager Joe Young plans a Sunday Super Bowl special on Coors beer, served in football-shaped glasses. The game will be seen on many screens, including the bar’s projection screen.
Likewise, Champps Americana in Woodbury is planning for a Super Bowl crowd, complete with TV viewing on many screens. Manager Robin Landreville said sports bars get a waiver because they pay a “hefty fee” for viewing rights.
Still, she was puzzled by the NFL’s crackdown. “It doesn’t make a whole lot of sense,” she said.
Aiello said the NFL has had to inform theaters, schools, museums, casinos and hotels about the limits. Officials also have talked to hundreds of churches in the past. “They say thanks, and they have their Super Bowl viewing parties within the rules,” he said.
Others have spiked their plans.
In Woodbury, Griffin saw media stories about the ban Friday. Even though he wasn’t charging admission, he realized the church’s big screen was out of bounds.
After confirming the rules with the NFL, he canceled the event.
“It’s an integrity issue. If we know it’s illegal, I am just not comfortable doing it,” Griffin said.
The cancellation is going to mean a whole lot of leftovers for Tina Strelau. A member of the Woodbury church, she bought food to make sloppy Joes and taco salad for the Super Bowl potluck.
“I guess I will be eating it,” she lamented, “for a week or so.”
The Associated Press contributed to this story.
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