Richard Tafoya
Feb 12th, 2007, 07:10 PM
ABC News:
http://blogs.abcnews.com/theblotter/2007/02/nfl_refuses_to_.html
The National Football League refused to include a print ad recruiting U.S. Border Patrol agents in its 2007 official Super Bowl program because they were uncomfortable with "the sensitive political nature" of the spot, according to a league spokesman.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which oversees the Border Patrol, had offered to pay for the advertisment, which was part of a campaign to boost the number of agents by 18,000. But money wasn't the issue, NFL spokesman Greg Aiello told ABC News.
The ad "was specific to border patrol and mentioned terro rists," he said. "The game was in Miami, where [immigration] is a sensitive political issue...[it] made us a little bit uncomfortable."
Aiello said the league's discomfort stemmed from the ad's mention of terrorism in a program for the high-profile event as well as how it intertwined terrorism and immigration.
The league told DHS it would be willing to run a more generic recruiting ad but never received a response to the offer.
"We take recruiting ads from the military that are generic," said Aiello. "We were willing to take one from DHS."
http://blogs.abcnews.com/theblotter/2007/02/nfl_refuses_to_.html
The National Football League refused to include a print ad recruiting U.S. Border Patrol agents in its 2007 official Super Bowl program because they were uncomfortable with "the sensitive political nature" of the spot, according to a league spokesman.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which oversees the Border Patrol, had offered to pay for the advertisment, which was part of a campaign to boost the number of agents by 18,000. But money wasn't the issue, NFL spokesman Greg Aiello told ABC News.
The ad "was specific to border patrol and mentioned terro rists," he said. "The game was in Miami, where [immigration] is a sensitive political issue...[it] made us a little bit uncomfortable."
Aiello said the league's discomfort stemmed from the ad's mention of terrorism in a program for the high-profile event as well as how it intertwined terrorism and immigration.
The league told DHS it would be willing to run a more generic recruiting ad but never received a response to the offer.
"We take recruiting ads from the military that are generic," said Aiello. "We were willing to take one from DHS."