NFL Refuses
Recruiting Ad
for Border Patrol
he
National Football League doesn't think much of the U.S.
Border Patrol. In fact, the NFL thinks the people who protect
the nation's borders are too "controversial."
In an unprecedented insult to law enforcement, the NFL refused
to run a recruitment ad for the Border Patrol in the official
printed program for last month's Super Bowl game between
the Indianapolis Colts and the Chicago Bears. The NFL was
afraid it would offend people if it accepted an ad from
the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) urging job seekers
to join the Border Patrol to fight terrorism, stop drug
smuggling, and apprehend illegal aliens.
"The ad that the department submitted was specific
to Border Patrol, and it mentioned terrorism. We were not
comfortable with that," NFL spokesman Greg Aiello told
the Washington Times. "The borders, the immigration
debate is a very controversial issue, and we were sensitive
to any perception that we were injecting ourselves into
that."
Border Patrol officers called the NFL reaction "puzzling."
"The NFL missed a golden opportunity to reach countless
patriotic citizens who want to answer the call to help prevent
another terrorist attack on American soil," said T.J.
Bonner, president of the National Border Patrol Council,
the union representing nonsupervisory border personnel.
The NFL said it offered to let DHS run a different kind
of ad, one that didn't mention protecting America's border.
A spokesman suggested to the Washington Times that mentioning
the border was too scary for the NFL.
"We proposed a more generic recruiting ad for the department
that didn't highlight the borders, which brings up the immigration
issue and the immigration debate. That's controversial,"
said Aiello.
Other sports organizations had no trouble running the ad,
which would have appeared in some 200,000 copies of the
program. It has been accepted to run in programs at other
sports events, such as the NBA All Star Game and the NCAA
Final Four.
The ad does not mention amnesty, a guestworker program,
or any aspect of the immigration debate. It simply calls
for "the right men and women to help protect America's
southwest borders." The ad says duties will include
preventing "the entry of terrorists and their weapons,"
blocking "unlawful entry of undocumented aliens"
and stopping "drug smuggling."
The NFL is a trade association representing the wealthy
owners of about 32 teams.
"Since almost every American favors securing our borders
and the overwhelming majority of legislators on both sides
of the immigration debate support significant increases
in the number of Border Patrol agents, it is extremely difficult
to imagine how those issues could be perceived as controversial,"
said Bonner.
Roger
Goodell, Commissioner
National Football League
280 Park Avenue
New York, NY 10017
(212) 450-2000 |
