Missouri senators file legislationto allow local coverage on sidelines

~ The NFL enacted a new policy this past season.

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- Two Missouri lawmakers are challenging a National Football League policy prohibiting local television stations from covering games on the sidelines.

Legislation filed Tuesday would force the NFL to allow local TV cameras on the sidelines of games hosted by the Kansas City Chiefs and St. Louis Rams, both of whom play in publicly subsidized stadiums. Media denied reasonable sideline access could sue for damages.

Local TV media long had been allowed to roam the sidelines until the NFL booted most of them under a policy enacted before the start of the 2006-07 season. Now, TV stations must get sideline game video from a pool photographer or use the network television footage, which is provided for free.

Broadcast stations have complained that the policy prohibits them from zooming in on particular players for feature stories that would be of interest to their local audiences.

Kansas City-area Sens. Matt Bartle and Victor Callahan complained Tuesday that the policy also hurts the fans, who like to follow their favorite teams through the TV news.

"Ultimately, football belongs to all of us and should have access to all of us," said Callahan, a Democrat from Independence whose district includes the Chiefs' Arrowhead Stadium. This policy "is an attempt to block the public from what is America's pastime."

NFL spokesman Greg Aiello said Tuesday that the league would review the policy -- as it does other policies -- before the start of the next football season. It was adopted to limit media congestion on the sidelines and protect the NFL's property rights to the game video, Aiello said.

"We value the coverage of local stations in the promotion of the NFL, and this was by no means an attempt to restrict or limit that coverage," Aiello said.

But TV stations contend that is exactly what the policy does.

The legislation has the backing of the Missouri Broadcasters Association, which argues that the NFL's policy is both irrational and an interference with journalists' jobs.

"I was perplexed by the policy quite frankly, because it's kind of a symbiotic relationship -- the local broadcasters and their coverage of these games has contributed a great deal to the success that these NFL franchises have enjoyed," said broadcasters association president Don Hicks. "And then you're going to turn around and prohibit them from doing sideline coverage of the game?"

Bartle, a Republican and big football fan, called the NFL policy a "power grab" and a first step toward requiring local media to pay for video clips -- an assertion denied by the NFL.

Since a Missouri law cannot overturn a nationwide NFL policy, the bill focuses solely on the two stadiums in Missouri. It says that any entity owning, operating or leasing a stadium for which at least 10 percent of the construction costs came from state or local taxes cannot prohibit media photographers from having reasonable access to the sidelines of the playing field.