The media said that Oprah refused the invitation to promote ObamaCare after it failed, but looks like they found a winner after all! What's your thoughts--is this a good thing to involve sports and politics together to "sell" a product??

WASHINGTON SECRETS

Super Bowl champ Baltimore Ravens getting paid $130,000 to promote Obamacare

BY PAUL BEDARD | OCTOBER 23, 2013

http://washingtonexaminer.com/super-bowl-champ-baltimore-ravens-getting-paid-130000-to-promote-obamacare/article/2537602

Despite a decision by the NFL to ignore the administration's pleas topromote Obamacare, the Super Bowl champion Baltimore Ravens have decided to go all in -- in exchange for a $130,000 contract, according to documents unearthed by a public watchdog group.

Judicial Watch told Secrets that the team was recruited by Maryland state officials to help it sell Obamacare, the new health care insurance program that has run into mammoth computer and bureaucratic troubles in its first three weeks.

The state previously announced its plans but the size of the check was not released. Judicial Watch received a copy of the agreement between the 2013 football champs and the Maryland Health Benefit Exchange.

Below is the release from Judicial Watch:

The professional football team that won this year’s Super Bowl is getting $130,000 from American taxpayers to promote Obamacare, according to documents obtained by Judicial Watch this week.

The deal was secured on September 9 between the Baltimore Ravens of the National Football League (NFL) and Maryland health officials. The White House has tried recruiting professional sports leagues — especially the NFL and the National Basketball Association (NBA) — to help promote the president’s healthcare law but they have declined.

In fact, the NFL confirmed months ago that it would not participate in the Obamacare public relations campaign, offering the media this written statement: “We have responded to the letters we received from members of Congress to inform them we currently have no plans to engage in this area and have had no substantive contact with the administration about [the health-care law’s] implementation.” Washington D.C.’s mainstream newspaper called it a “blow to the administration.”

But Maryland officials evidently appealed directly to the home team, announcing in early September that the Ravens would help market the state’s Obamacare exchange known as Maryland Health Connection. Both parties refused to offer specifics when the deal was initiated and Judicial Watch filed a Maryland Public Information Act request for details.

In a “Sponsorship Agreement” between the Maryland Health Connection and the Ravens, the state will pay the Super Bowl champs $130,000 to push Obamacare on television, radio, the team’s official website, its newsletter and in social media. This includes the Ravens Report Show on cable TV and a number of pre and post-game radio segments as well as Facebook and Twitter plugs.

 [3 comments from the article that show the general responses:]

Lola Guin  

The entire NFL has a thing with the federal government. They do stuff for them all the time. DHS and the NFL have worked together before. So this is nothing new. The government loves the distraction that football provides for many Americans.

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  LuppersMom  

  
  

  Football is to Americans what gladiatorial circuses were to the Romans, a massive distraction from cultural destruction. Free food from welfare plus NFL games: panem et circenses.
  Nothing against football. I used to like the Ravens' literary name, but as everyone says, Nevermore. Sellouts.

BruddahNui  

The enjoyment of pro sports is an escape for the populace that has always been on neutral ground as far as politics. The Ravens have now inserted partisan politics. This is about politics.