ARLINGTON,TX -- An African-American man who planned to use his bus to encourage children to resist bullies says he is being bullied by the National Football League.
Eric Williams is representing himself in a lawsuit filed Monday that names the NFL, Arlington and the Arlington police. He says the city violated his constitutional rights by forcing him to leave his Lincoln Square parking space on Super Bowl Sunday. He is seeking $1.5 million in damages.
Williams, 44, was cited for "ambush marketing," a violation of a city ordinance designed to protect advertisers connected to the NFL from rogue marketers seeking ways to cash in on the big game.
During Super Bowl weekend, Arlington police and code compliance officers investigated at least 31 incidents of possible ambush marketing, including people selling NFL-themed badges and T-shirts.
Three violators were given oral warnings, and the city issued 17 citations on Super Bowl weekend, records show.
Williams was among those cited.
Representatives from the NFL and the Arlington police declined to comment. City officials declined to comment on the case because of the pending litigation.
The city's ambush-marketing enforcement efforts focused mainly on seizing counterfeit NFL merchandise being sold around the stadium, said Mike Bass, community services assistant director.
The bus that Williams drives is a self-contained production studio with computers and video and audio equipment. The vehicle wrap depicts him and other African-American men.
His plan was to hold a Madden NFL 11 game tournament in the Lincoln Square parking lot to help drive home his anti-bullying message to children and their parents and to charge an entry fee, he said.
"I have enough games and stations on my bus to accommodate 25 players at a time," he said.
Williams had permission to park his bus in the lot, said Pam Dawson, Lincoln Square's property manager.
He explained twice to code officers that he had permission. But he was cited nevertheless and ordered to move the bus or police would be called.
"The next thing I know there are two squad cars coming out of nowhere," he said.
"The police said, 'Sir, you need to come off the bus and then you need to get out of here.' You would have thought I was a terrorist."
He contends that the ordinance is purposely vague so enforcers can do whatever they wish.
"I want to try and find out if the laws on ambush marketing are constitutional, if it violates my civil and constitutional rights, because no one seems to be able to define it," he said.
Williams also contends in his lawsuit that the city was discriminatory in its enforcement because other vehicles in the area with company signs, slogans and pictures, even one carrying a billboard, were not cited.
The City Council adopted ambush-marketing ordinances just before the National Basketball Association's All-Star Game in February 2009 and again before Super Bowl XLV, according to city records.
Both events took place at Cowboys Stadium.
The ordinance prohibits temporary signs, tent sales, projected-image signs, inflatables and other marketing activities in an area around the stadium by those with no official ties to the game.
The ban also applies to building wraps, which are thin vinyl sheets that turn high-rises into giant billboards.
Posted By: Siebra Muhammad
Sunday, February 13th 2011 at 2:35PM
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