Texas Gov, Greg Abbott is not taking kindly to the NFL hinting that future Super Bowls might be withheld from the state if it passes a discriminatory anti-trans “bathroom bill” like the notorious HB2 in North Carolina.
"The NFL is walking on thin ice right here," Abbott told conservative radio host Glenn Beck on Tuesday. "The NFL needs to concentrate on playing football and get the heck out of politics."
"For some low-level NFL adviser to come out and say that they are going to micromanage and try to dictate to the state of Texas what types of policies we’re going to pass in our state, that’s unacceptable," Abbott told Beck. "We don’t care what the NFL thinks and certainly what their political policies are because they are not a political arm of the state of Texas or the United States of America. They need to learn their place in the United States, which is to govern football, not politics."
Last week, high-level NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy issued this statement when asked about the proposed bill that would force transgender people to use the bathroom of the gender listed on their birth certificate.
"The NFL embraces inclusiveness," McCarthy said. "We want all fans to feel welcomed at our events, and NFL policies prohibit discrimination based on age, gender, race, religion, sexual orientation, or any other improper standard."
The NFL is well within its rights to take its business elsewhere if it disapproves of a state’s policies. The NCAA and NBA have each taken events out of North Carolina in reaction to HB2.
I guarantee that if Texas passed and Abbott signed Senate Bill 6 that sports events would be pulled from Texas. There would also be a business backlash like that one happening in North Carolina. Abbott is talking big now, but we’ll see what happens if SB6 is close to becoming a reality and he has business types telling him it’s a crazy idea.
The 2017 Super Bowl was held in Houston and the next four are in Minnesota, Georgia, Florida and California. The next chance Texas (in this case the Dallas Cowboys) could host the Super Bowl would be 2022.
