The NFL's Deadly Sin

The Feb. 1 front-page story on the NFL's decree that church congregations be barred from hosting Super Bowl viewing parties highlighted how absurd the league's vise-like grip on where, when and how fans can watch games has become.

For years, the NFL has denied local fans the ability to see games on broadcast television if the game doesn't sell out three days in advance -- discriminating against elderly, disabled and otherwise-homebound fans.

More recently, the league has resorted to holding games hostage by taking them off the broadcast schedule and squirreling them away on the new NFL Network, for which the league wants all cable and satellite subscribers to pay a hefty ransom. The league has even refused to simulcast the NFL Network's games to outer markets on local broadcast outlets -- the reason many Washington Redskins fans in Virginia could not watch the game against the Chicago Bears this season.

And the league still refuses to share its "Sunday Ticket" package with any company other than

DirecTV; only those able to subscribe to that service have that privilege.

While the league's zeal for getting a cut of the profits that bars and restaurants reap from such "public viewings" of the Super Bowl may be understandable, applying the same rules to nonprofit religious groups is simply deplorable. The NFL needs to perform some penance for its greed.

WILLIE F. WILSON

Pastor

Union Temple Baptist Church

Washington