NFL Keeps West on Bill

The NFL, which has vigorously protected its image since dust-ups involving Janet Jackson, “Desperate Housewives” and the cable series “Playmakers,” is standing by a popular hip-hop artist who made a derisive remark about President Bush during a nationally televised Hurricane Katrina relief benefit.

Rapper Kanye West, who said Friday, “George Bush doesn’t care about black people,” will perform as scheduled Thursday outside the Coliseum as part of the league’s season-opening celebration show, which will be broadcast by ABC.

League spokesman Brian McCarthy said Monday that West, “Like many Americans during this emotional time” had “expressed an unscripted opinion.” Performers, he added, were selected “for their entertainment value, not their political views.”

An ABC spokesman said the network agreed with the NFL’s stance and would use its typical five-second delay for the program, which begins at 5 p.m. Just as it did for last year’s live performances, the NFL will add its own five-second delay.

NBC censored West’s remark during its West Coast feed of the hurricane relief program Friday night, later defending its action in a statement by saying, “It would be most unfortunate if the efforts of the artists who participated tonight and the generosity of millions of Americans who are helping those in need are overshadowed by one person’s opinion.”

Earlier, in comments that were not censored, West said: “We already realized a lot of people that could help are at war right now, fighting in another way, and they’ve given them permission to go down and shoot us.”

West will not appear live on Thursday’s ABC show, which will precede the NFL opener between Oakland and New England at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Mass. A combined performance by West and a singer from the band Maroon 5 will be taped 20 minutes before the show comes on live, then will be blended into the program.

McCarthy said it was the plan all along to tape those performances, pointing out the same thing was done last year when Jessica Simpson was taped performing in Jacksonville, Fla., and later woven into the broadcast.

This year’s program features concerts from L.A., Detroit and Foxborough, thematically linking the site of the first Super Bowl -- the Coliseum -- with the city that will play host to Super Bowl XL, and the home of the Patriots, the league’s two-time defending champions. The league will broadcast from Detroit a taped version of the Rolling Stones performing “Start Me Up”; Green Day and Trisha Yearwood will appear live from Gillette Stadium.

West, who could not be reached Monday, is not the only Thursday performer with a politically charged message. The Rolling Stones have a new song titled “Sweet Neo Con” that takes aim at the political right. It includes the line, “You call yourself a Christian, I call you a hypocrite/You call yourself a patriot, well I think you’re full of ... “ Also, Green Day’s album “American Idiot” openly questions the policies of the Bush administration.

The only changes to the show, NFL spokesman McCarthy said, reflect the devastation in the Gulf Coast region. The league intends to air taped messages from representatives of the New Orleans Saints, as well as from Green Bay’s Brett Favre, Indianapolis’ Peyton Manning and Tennessee’s Steve McNair, all of whom have ties to the affected areas.

West, 28, had appeared on the cover of the Aug. 29 edition of Time magazine beside the headline, “Hip-Hop’s Class Act,” and was referred to as the “smartest man in pop music.” His just-released offering, “Late Registration,” is widely expected to be the biggest-selling album of the year.

The buttoned-down NFL has steered clear of controversial performers since February 2004, when Jackson exposed her breast on live TV at the end of a Super Bowl halftime show. In the weeks that followed, NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue advocated a crackdown on suggestive television scenes. The Federal Communications Commission voted unanimously to impose the maximum indecency penalty of $27,500 on each of the 20 CBS-owned stations that aired Jackson’s self-described “wardrobe malfunction.”

Last season, the NFL and several team owners angrily reacted to a “Monday Night Football” introduction that featured a naked “Desperate Housewives” cast member jumping into the arms of Philadelphia receiver Terrell Owens in the locker room.

The league called the promotional spot “inappropriate and unsuitable” for its audience, prompting apologies from ABC and the Eagles.

ESPN, under pressure from the NFL, decided in 2004 to cancel “Playmakers,” a dramatic series that was based on a fictional pro football team and explored issues such as steroids, spousal abuse and homosexuality.

Before the show was taken off the air, Tagliabue complained to Michael Eisner, then Disney’s chairman.