The NFL Is Against Free Speech at Super Bowl

They have decided that first, they will not run an ad from a digital currency provider and second, they want the AMVETS to tone down their Super Bowl ad which reads “Please Stand during the playing of the National Anthem.” The NFL wants the vets to change their message to, “Please honor our Veterans” or “Please stand for our Veterans.”

In both cases, the parties could not agree, so unless there is a last-minute change of heart, the NFL’s decision stands. The NFL has now become a censor of what can run during the game, but with no published rules of what is acceptable. The NFL behavior is another example of an organization out of control and trying to be politically correct, even if it means impeding free speech.

I find great irony that the NFL will support freedom of speech for the players to take a knee at the beginning of a game, but when the AMVETS wants to run a commercial expressing their free speech, they were turned down. From what I can tell, the NFL is not subject to the content rules; it is the network that broadcasts the program that has to comply with FCC broadcast standards. I remember when Janet Jackson had her now-famous wardrobe malfunction: the network was the one in trouble. The NFL was embarrassed, but the heat was on the network for violating the standards.

As the ad denial relates to the crypto currency firm AML BitCoin, they thought they had a funny, but pointed ad showing North Korean leader Kim Jong Un trying for eight days to hack into an AML system and failing. Anyone who reads The New York Times knows that North Korea is one of the most prominent hackers in the world. There have been several cases of hacking that I know of where someone suggested that it might have been North Korea doing the hacking. The 2014 hack into Sony’s film “The Interview” comes to mind. I’ve seen the bitcoin ad and it is funny, and also the company can back up their North Korean hacking claims. Has the NFL now moved into the field of diplomacy and decided that this advertisement might be offensive to North Korean leader Kim and therefore they could not let it run?

Has the NFL forgotten that their business is football and not politics or diplomacy? In case you missed the news, the league championships this year had a significant viewer decline. According to Sports Illustrated the playoff ratings were down regarding the number of viewers. The expectation is that the Super Bowl viewership will also be down.

I have been in business for 50 years, and there is one basic principle to success. Define your business and exploit it as much as you can. I think the NFL has forgotten what business they are in, and if they continue down this road of distraction, away from their core business, there may well be a time when there is no longer an NFL.

Dan Perkins is an author of both thrillers and children’s books. He appears on over 1,100 radio stations. Mr. Perkins appears regularly on international TV talk shows, he is current events commentator for seven blogs, and a philanthropist with his foundation for American veterans, Songs and Stories for Soldiers, Inc. More information about him, his writings, and other works are available on his website, DanPerkins.guru. To read more of his reports — Click Here Now.