It’s not exactly a touchdown -- more like a field goal -- but Senators John McCain and Jeff Flake, both Republicans of Arizona, scored some points in their battle to stop professional sports teams from profiting from ceremonies meant to honor members of the U.S. military at live events. The National Football League, according to reports out Thursday, has agreed to refund the government $723,734 that the Department of Defense paid it for ceremonies conducted at professional football games.
The refund is less than 10 percent of the more than $9 million the Defense Department paid out to various sports teams between 2012 and 2015, a figure that was revealed last year. About $6 million of that money went to the NFL, though much of that spending was determined to be legitimate payment for advertisements meant to spur enlistment.
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At the time, McCain and Flake released a blistering statement blasting the “paid patriotism” of the tributes. McCain is chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee.
“Unsuspecting audience members became the subjects of paid marketing campaigns rather than simply bearing witness to teams’ authentic, voluntary shows of support for the brave men and women who wear our nation’s uniform,” they wrote in a report on the issue.
“It is hard to understand how a team accepting taxpayer funds to sponsor a military appreciation game, or to recognize wounded warriors or returning troops, can be construed as anything other than paid patriotism,” it found.
However, there were kinder words for the NFL on Thursday, after commissioner Roger Goodell announced that following an audit of the league’s books by accounting firm Deloitte, he had authorized a refund of all the money paid to the league and its franchises for tributes to the troops. Goodell also promised to increase the frequency with which the league’s marketing operations are audited in order to avoid similar problems in the future.
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“In all the years I've spent rooting out egregious federal spending, the NFL is the first organization to perform due diligence, take responsibility and return misspent funds to the taxpayers,” Flake said in a statement. “The NFL's response to this investigation sets a new standard and only strengthens its reputation as a supporter our nation's military service members and veterans.”
The NFL and its various franchises were the main recipient of the Defense Department’s spending on marketing, but millions more went to the National Hockey League, the National Basketball Association, Major League Baseball and others.
Discussing the NFL’s announcement, Sen. McCain said, “Now we have some other organizations we want them to do the same thing and those organizations. Sen. Flake and I will be exercising the same gentle persuasion we did with the NFL.”
