Setback for the players union in media war, CBS blocks ad

The excitement of the Playoffs and the build up to the Super Bowl has overshadowed the labour dispute that threatens the 2011 football season. The National Football League Players Association won’t be ignored. It has launched an extensive public relations
campaign to put pressure on the NFL. The ‘Let us play’ campaign has one simple message that it wants to get across to the fans, the players want to play but the owners won’t let them.

As part of that campaign the NFL created a 30 second ad showing empty seat and locked stadium gates with voice-overs that say ‘let us play’ and ‘let them play’ before the Players Association’s president Kevin Mawae says ‘we want to play.’ Fairly straightforward
except CBS College Sports Network decided not to air the ad.

The Players Union said that the network rejected the ad because it was related to the labour negotiations. “Once they saw it and realized it had a CBA-oriented message, they decided they wouldn’t air it,” union spokesman George Atallah said. He said that
the ad was scheduled to run four times on Saturday, a day before the Super Bowl.

The union was informed last week that CBS did not want to run the ad during its broadcast. “We were told they didn’t want any part of it. We went back to them and said, ‘Why?’ And they said, ‘No,’ a second time,” Atallah said.

CBS said that it wanted to remain neutral in the labour dispute. CBS spokesman Dana McClintock emphasized that the network would have refused to run an ad on the negotiations from the owners’ side as well. The spokesman didn’t offer further comment.

Atallah said that the decision by the network to reject the ad was disappointing. He said that the union did not have the time or the resources to create a replacement before Saturday. The ad can be seen on the players union’s Youtube channel. The players
have appeared in press conference and even took a trip to Capitol Hill to further their agenda.

The players union has also been asking fans to sign a petition demanding that the owners do not lockout the players in the coming season. The petition also points towards the economic impact of a lockout, warning that as many as 115,000 jobs would be affected.
The NFLPA has estimated that each city that hosts an NFL franchise stands to lose $160 million in revenues in the event of a lockout.

The decision by CBS is a setback in the union’s attempt to sway public opinion against the owners. The union’s contract with the network gives them the right to 4 thirty second spots during the All-Star game on Saturday. Atallah said that there were no restrictions
in the contract on contents of advertising with CBS. “I’m confused and frankly a little irritated,” Atallah said. “It’s not like a young boy saying ‘let us play’ is that controversial.”

Besides CBS, the union had no plans of airing the spot on any other television network. CBS has signed a media deal with the NFL along with four other broadcasters, Fox, NBC, ESPN and DirecTV, that is worth almost $4 billion dollars. CBS’s deal with the
NFL is worth $620 million.

The Players Association has raised legal questions about that deal and claims that the league failed to maximize the value in exchange for more guaranteed money. “In essence, the NFL knowingly left money on the table . . . at the expense of the players,”
the union’s legal counsel said. The union has called the deal ‘lockout insurance.’ Atallah said that the decision was “clearly indicative of the relationships the networks have with the league.”

NFL’s spokesman, Greg Aiello, responded that the league had no prior knowledge of the Network’s decision to cancel the ad. He added that the NFL had nothing to do with the decision and did not have any objections to anyone running the ad. “Whoever made the
decision at CBS would have to explain it.”