The NFL has rejected a print ad for its Super Bowl program sought by the American Veterans, or AMVETS. It shows a picture of an elderly gentleman, apparently a veteran, which includes the hashtag #PleaseStand.
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The NFL’s pious pronouncement: The ad was too political.
The Super Bowl, said the NFL, has “never been a place for advertising that could be considered by some as a political statement.”
Really?
Perhaps football games on TV should be primarily about football, but if, during a game, American patriotism is encouraged, that’s not exactly objectionable, is it?
And hasn’t the NFL already allowed politics, in the larger sense, to be present at the game?
Is “please stand,” more “political” than kneeling during the National Anthem? Isn’t the former request free speech, just as the latter act is?
How about the 2017 Audi ad that asked the rhetorical question, “What do I tell my daughter? … That her grandpa is worth more than her grandma? That her dad is worth more than her mom?” It was also free speech. And also political. And it aired during the Super Bowl.
The message was delivered at that time and place because the message and the product being sold — Audi — could reach a lot of people during that time and place.
It was a potent message — just like kneeling during the anthem.
The NFL’s hypocrisy is obvious.
In a letter to NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, AMVETS national commander Marion Polk said that while his group was “well aware of the controversy surrounding players kneeling during the national anthem and the public relations problems this has caused the NFL, our ad is neither a demand nor a judgment upon those who choose to kneel.”
No, it is just freedom of thought, and speech.
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First Published January 30, 2018, 11:00 p.m.
