NFL to Refund Taxpayer Money Spent on Military Tributes from Teams

The NFL is getting out of the "paid patriotism" business once and for all. After the release of a report from Arizona Sens. John McCain and Jeff Flake, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said the NFL will refund all taxpayer funds received for paid tributes to troops, per Eben Novy-Williams of Bloomberg.

Earlier this year, McCain publicly chastised the NFL after discovering that armed service branches lavished NFL teams with millions to have ceremonies dedicated to service members.

"I think it's really disgraceful that NFL teams whose profits at an all-time high had to be paid to honor our veterans," McCain said in May, per Deirdre Walsh of CNN.

The NFL will presumably continue to accept money from the military in exchange for advertising and other promotional materials. These funds only apply to paid military tributes, which typically come in the form of pregame ceremonies. Novy-Williams highlighted one particular instance of the New York Jets receiving $20,000 for honoring soldiers as "hometown heroes."

The Department of Defense has spent roughly $10 million on similar events over the last five years. It's unclear what fraction of those funds went to the NFL. Goodell said the NFL will conduct an internal audit and refund any money received for "paid patriotism" services.

"We just kind of stumbled on this, but it turns out that we're paying a lot of money, some accounts of $5 million over two years, some $5 million just in one year, and we're really trying to find out what those figures are and what they're used for," Flake said in a May interview, per Walsh.

NBA spokesperson Mike Bass told Novy-Williams that the Association's teams are not paid for recognizing military members. The league, however, will conduct an internal audit. Bass did not say whether the NBA will force teams to refund money if the audit finds similar agreements.

MLB and the NHL did not comment.

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