Genesis

1 - Yep...amazingingly RIDICULOUS!!!!

I am keenly aware that companies have the right to protect their brand. That's one of the most important things you can do as a marketer. However it doesn't sound to me like the league is taking a hardline of protection if they allow venues like Chaamps or Majors to show the game on multiple tvs or projection screens and charge for food and not allow churches to show the event for free. Kind of a double standard - dontchathink? I'm inclined to jump the gun and believe there's something a tad fishy about the NFL's relationship with one of their main advertisers and the fact that bars are related to that same industry. Coincidence?

What's even more ridiculous is to think that Nielsen ratings will be so drastically effected by little churches here and there having parties. I imagine those who have Nielsen boxes probably understand that they need to be in their homes watching tv for their "vote" to count. That may show my ignorance for how the nielsen ratings system works but so be it.

From what I read in the Indy Star last night 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." (Comment this)

2 - The more I think about this the more irritated I get. Mostly, about not using the words Super Bowl and not being able to host a free event on a big screen.

For as long as I've been aware of football, our family has hosted a super bowl party, it was how I instantly became a bengals fan and admired Boomer for more than his blond good looks. Or why we suddenly liked the Raiders (for me it was mostly the pirate on the helmut - but what did I know?) In the years that my aunt didn't host the party mom would let us pop popcorn and she'd toss some Jeno's Pizza Rolls in the oven, my brothers and I would color our team flags and we'd line up our stuffed animals and climb into sleeping bags in the basement and cheer for the team we picked. It wasn't about football. We actually didn't watch it any day but Super Bowl Sunday. We knew less than nothing about the game, but for those few hours our family was together and enjoying one of America's icons of the sport. We didn't call it the big game..I don't think we even called it Football. It was and always will be the Super Bowl.

For the NFL to think that they are diluting their brand if they squash people's right to say Super Bowl on the air or in a poster advertising an event where you are WATCHING THE SUPER BOWL. That would be like Kimberley Clark asking every single person with a cold to refrain from asking for a Kleenex and instead insist everyone start using the word tissue. I think they tried that a few years ago but really both the Super Bowl and Kleenex are such icons of Americana - isn't it a tad too late? And ultimately what harm is it doing to their brand? And in the case of the Super Bowl - there's not a generic brand to go get. I can see Kimberly Clark having issue with diluting their brand but cry me a river NFL. The super bowl is the super bowl period. OH...unless it is the souper bowl and even then - who cares?

My second comment kind of lends itself to the first. I understand that we could just host the party with a 55 inch tv. And wouldn't that foster some true family bonding between a hundred or a hundred fifty people? The NFL should be promoting churches and other venues to show the game. Families bond, communities are established, more good-will is fostered and all by watching some silly game where overpaid atheletes chase around a ball for a few hours and we watch companies shell out millions of dollars on 30-second advertising spots. Have they completely lost sight of the idea that sport and families are a natural fit? (stepping down from my soapbox now!) (Comment this)

3 - Saw another comment asking whether the troops in Iraq are watching on a big screen. Do you wonder if going to that extreme of questioning is just losing the point? Do you think the NFL has a right to impose these restrictions only to bend the rules in certain instances? Do you wonder if they will issue any sort of statement? (Comment this)