NFL halts Super Bowl parties at churches

WASHINGTON, Feb. 1 (UPI) -- The National Football League has stopped churches from showing the Super Bowl on big-screen TVs, moving pass, punt and prayer parties to the homes of members.

The Super Bowl has long been a hit at churches but they have been forced to stop showing it to crowds to satisfy the NFL, which claims airing games at churches on large-screen TV sets violates the league copyright, The Washington Post said Friday.

As many as 200 members of Immanuel Bible Church in the Washington area gathered each year to watch the big game on the church's six-foot screen. Sometimes the halftime show was replaced by a Christian DVD.

The issue came to a head last year after the National Football League sent a letter to Fall Creek Baptist Church in Indianapolis, warning the church not to show the game as it had for years on a giant video screen -- and this was the year the Indianapolis Colts won it.

The NFL bans public exhibitions of its games on TV sets or screens larger than 55 inches because smaller sets limit the audience size. The section of federal copyright law giving the NFL protection over the content of its programming exempts sports bars, spokesman Brian McCarthy said.