Could Sunday’s Super Bowl be the Last?

Protest CBS Decision to Ban Player’s Ad

Did you know this year’s Super Bowl game might be the last professional football game we see for a year or more? Owners of the National Football League pulled out of the collective bargaining agreement with the NFL Players Association two years before it was due to expire, according to an announcement from the AFL-CIO.

“Now the incredibly profitable NFL is saying it will lock out players — refusing to let them play at all — unless they agree to outrageous givebacks,” says Manny Herrmann, the online mobilization coordinator for the union.

If there’s a lockout, it won’t just impact football players and fans, Herrmann says. Stadium employees will be jobless. Staff in sports bars, restaurants and hotels, police officers and others who work supporting the game also will be hurt. In fact, 150,000 workers will feel the impact, and $4.5 billion dollars in revenue will disappear from 32 cities around the nation.

In this TV ad, the NFL Players Association tried to get a clear message from the players across: Don’t lock us out. Let us play. But CBS is refusing to air the “Let Us Play” ad.

When CBS rejected the ad, executives said they didn’t want to get involved in the labor negotiations between the players and the NFL owners. But CBS is big-dollars involved already. Recently, CBS, as well as Fox, NBC, ESPN and DIRECTV, delivered what amounts to multibillion-dollar lockout insurance to the NFL.

Along with other TV networks, CBS worked out a deal to pay $4 billion to the NFL, even if the NFL locks out players and not a single game is played next season.

If players are locked out, 150,000 workers across America will suffer, cities across America stand to lose $4.5 billion and fans will go without football. But the well-off NFL owners — with the help of CBS — will get $4 billion no matter what.

CBS not only is making rotten deals with the NFL — it’s keeping the players from getting their message out.

“In football, public image is everything,” Herrmann says. “Help us spread the word about the greed of CBS and the NFL. Let’s make them both reconsider. Let’s make sure Sunday’s Super Bowl isn’t the last NFL game we see for a year or more.”

You can watch the rejected ad above and sign a petition to protest CBS’s decision here.

You may also sign the Twitter petition and become a fan of this campaign on Facebook.