No Townshend for NFL Super Bowl
Child AbuseWatch Protests Pete Townshend as NFL Super Bowl entertainment
Child AbuseWatch, the national child abuse prevention organization, today published an open letter to the National Football League and CBS. In the correspondence they asked the NFL to drop Pete Townshend from the Super Bowl half time entertainment line-up.
The reason? Pete Townshend’s record as a sexual offender on the British Violent and Sex Offender Register (ViSOR).
Townshend was on the UK register for five years from 2003 – 2008 for accessing and admitting to using his credit card to pay for viewing child pornography. He was caught during a criminal investigation into child porn by the British police. For full details and the letters to the NFL see the links at the end of the article.
Child AbuseWatch CEO, Evin Daly, wrote to Roger Goodell, the NFL’s Executive Vice President copying a line up of senior executives and CBS’s Leslie Moonves, President and Chief Executive Officer, CBS Corporation and Peter Dunn, President, CBS Television Stations. No response has yet been received. This the second letter that Child AbuseWatch has sent to the NFL about this concern.
“What is the NFL thinking?” Daly commented. “Super Bowl is a family event, probably the most important one of the year. Janet Jackson caused uproar over a partially exposed boob. Townshend was a registered child sexual offender….”
Mr. Daly wrote last week to Florida governor Charlie Crist asking him to intercede in convincing the NFL to drop Townshend, to which a supportive response was received. Grassroots efforts are also starting. At an event in Florida last weekend a petition objecting to the Townshend was circulated which will be forward to the NFL.
So what's next? “Due to the lack of response from the NFL and CBS we will be writing to them again,” a Child AbuseWatch spokesperson said. “In the next correspondence we will copy the leagues sponsors and a number of child protection groups who have already shown interest in supporting our request.”
According to the NFL website sponsors include Burger King, Campbell’s, Canon USA, Coors Brewing, Dairy Management Inc., FedEx, Frito-Lay, Gatorade, General Motors, IBM, Masterfoods, MBNA, Motorola, News America, PepsiCo: Diet Pepsi, PepsiCo: Tropicana, Procter & Gamble (Prilosec), Schering-Plough (Levitra), Southwest Airlines, Sprint, Visa.
Child AbuseWatch advises that anyone wishing to send a letter of complaint to the NFL may do so here:
Roger Goodell,
Executive Vice President, NFL, 280 Park Ave, New York,
NY 10017
Or email:
GoodellR@nfl.com,
info@nfl.com
One Child International Inc., is the non-profit operator of Child AbuseWatch. Child AbuseWatch (CAN) is a child abuse prevention and education network. The network delivers essential child abuse prevention information and crisis resources across the United States and worldwide for the public. CAN provides predator tracking and investigative resources to case managers and law enforcement.
Article Resources
Open Letter to NFL
11/25/09
Letter to NFL 11/16/09
Child AbuseWatch NFL/Townshend file
http://www.abusewatch.net/CAN_NFL_Townshend.php
