Brinnie
Adm¡n
- Joined
- Mar 26, 2005
- Posts
- 8,234
I found this oddly amusing. 
“GAY” is now OK at the NFL Shop.
The league reversed itself and will now allow personalized jerseys to have “GAY” on the back. This decision came one day after Outsports printed an article about the policy (see below). Previously, a person trying to buy such a jersey had it rejected with the words: "This field should not contain a naughty word." (this wording was changed in response to our story to "The personalization entered cannot be accepted.").
Dan Masonson, a league spokesman, told Outsports that “there was no message there” to having “gay” on a list of 1,159 banned words. After being made aware of the issue, the NFL Shop will now allow “gay” jerseys, said Masonson. “It should have not been in the [naughty words] filter,” he said.
This decision seems to have less to do with any sexual orientation statement by the league and more with the fact that there is a player in the league with the last name Gay, New England Patriots rookie defensive back Randall Gay. Randall is the first Gay in the NFL since Ben Gay played for the Cleveland Browns in 2001. For example, Masonson said there was no discussion in removing “Lesbian” or other words from the list of banned words and he explained the league’s thinking:
“The idea behind personalized jerseys is for a fan to put his or her name on the back or possibly a nickname,” Masonson said. It is not designed for political, social or other types of statements.
Outsports came up with a variety of seemingly offensive personalized jerseys (see bottom of this page) that were allowed to be purchased, such as “Hitler,” “Fag,” “Dyke” or “Terrorist.” Readers came up with their own, including “Anti Gay.” But Masonson said he doubts that such jerseys could actually be purchased. (March 3 update: In the two days since we first published this story, "Bin Laden," "Binladen," "Gay Nazi" and "gaynazi" have been added to the [Continued...]
“GAY” is now OK at the NFL Shop.
The league reversed itself and will now allow personalized jerseys to have “GAY” on the back. This decision came one day after Outsports printed an article about the policy (see below). Previously, a person trying to buy such a jersey had it rejected with the words: "This field should not contain a naughty word." (this wording was changed in response to our story to "The personalization entered cannot be accepted.").
Dan Masonson, a league spokesman, told Outsports that “there was no message there” to having “gay” on a list of 1,159 banned words. After being made aware of the issue, the NFL Shop will now allow “gay” jerseys, said Masonson. “It should have not been in the [naughty words] filter,” he said.
This decision seems to have less to do with any sexual orientation statement by the league and more with the fact that there is a player in the league with the last name Gay, New England Patriots rookie defensive back Randall Gay. Randall is the first Gay in the NFL since Ben Gay played for the Cleveland Browns in 2001. For example, Masonson said there was no discussion in removing “Lesbian” or other words from the list of banned words and he explained the league’s thinking:
“The idea behind personalized jerseys is for a fan to put his or her name on the back or possibly a nickname,” Masonson said. It is not designed for political, social or other types of statements.
Outsports came up with a variety of seemingly offensive personalized jerseys (see bottom of this page) that were allowed to be purchased, such as “Hitler,” “Fag,” “Dyke” or “Terrorist.” Readers came up with their own, including “Anti Gay.” But Masonson said he doubts that such jerseys could actually be purchased. (March 3 update: In the two days since we first published this story, "Bin Laden," "Binladen," "Gay Nazi" and "gaynazi" have been added to the [Continued...]
