Churches can resume hosting Super Bowl parties without opposition from the National Football League, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell has informed Sen. Orin Hatch, R.-Utah.
“For future Super Bowls,” Goodell said in a Feb. 19 letter to Hatch, “the League will not object to live showings – regardless of screen size – of the Super Bowl by a religious organization on a routine and customary basis.”
Goodell’s reversal settles an issue reported by Baptist Press on Feb. 1, 2007, when the NFL informed a Southern Baptist church in Indianapolis that it would run afoul of federal copyright law by showing the Super Bowl on a screen wider than 55 inches. The church, Fall Creek Baptist, cancelled its Super Bowl party. Baptist Press, along with The Washington Post, also reported on the issue prior to this year’s Super Bowl.
According to a Feb. 20 news release from Hatch’s office after Goodell’s reversal, “In essence, this provides churches the same right as sports bars.”
Another senator, Arlen Specter, R.-Pa., had drafted legislation to permit churches to show NFL games on big-screen TVs, the Washington Post reported Feb. 21.
Goodell, in his letter to Hatch, stated, “The League does not believe that legislation is necessary for this purpose and will implement this policy unilaterally beginning with our next Super Bowl on Feb. 1, 2009.”
League policy, according to Goodell’s letter, continues to stipulate that “there must be no charge for the gathering.”