NFL won't help promote Affordable Care Act

WASHINGTON, June 29 (UPI) -- The National Football League has sacked a U.S. Department of Health and Human Services proposal to help promote implementation of the Affordable Care Act.

HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius had approached the NFL and other professional sports organizations to help get word out about the law's implementation, which has proved politically divisive even three years after its passage over heated Republican opposition.

Congressional Republicans wrote a letter to the NFL and other sports leagues warning them not to wade into the political fight over the Affordable Care Act, commonly known as Obamacare, The Washington Post said Saturday.

"It is difficult to understand why an organization like yours would risk damaging its inclusive and apolitical brand by lending its name to its promotion," Sens. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and John Cornyn, R-Texas, wrote in a letter to six major sports organizations, including the NFL and Major League Baseball.

NFL spokesman Greg Aiello said the league had no plans to help promote portions of the healthcare law during television broadcasts or inside its stadiums.

"We have responded to the letters we received from members of Congress to inform them we currently have no plans to engage in this area and have had no substantive contact with the administration about [the health-care law's] implementation," Aiello said in an email.