CBS NIXES AD FROM NFL PLAYERS ASSOCIATION

The CBS College Sports Network has turned down an ad from the National Football League Players Association that presents its side of the dispute over a new contract with the owners association. The “Let Us Play” ad was to have run four times during the cable network’s coverage of Saturday’s college all-star game. A CBS spokesman said that the network does not accept advocacy advertisements and would not have accepted an ad presenting the owners’ side, either. The players association has filed a lawsuit against the NFL challenging an agreement between the league and the television networks in which the networks are required to pay the NFL whether or not a lockout shortens or cancels a season — an arrangement that the players have described as “lockout insurance.” In an interview with Advertising Age, George Atallah, a Players Association executive, said that CBS’s rejection of the ad “is clearly indicative of the relationships the networks have with the league.”