The NFL over the weekend made an effort to memorialize the victims, families and others impacted by the terrorist attack in New Orleans on New Year’s Day. Except the league declined to refer to the incident as a terrorist attack.

Two sources have told OutKick that the league instead provided a script for multiple stadium public address announcers to adhere to in describing the attack as an “act of violence.”

For context: The FBI on Jan. 1 stated the agency was “working to determine the subject’s potential associations and affiliations with terrorist organizations.” 

On multiple occasions, FBI special agents have referred to Shamsud-Din Jabbar plowing a pickup truck into a crowd, emerging from the truck and firing at the crowd on Bourbon Street, and planting improvised explosive devices around the area as a terrorist attack. 

The agency’s second press release on the attack was headlined “FBI update on Bourbon Street Terrorist Attack.“

The New York Times said authorities described Jabbar as a brutal terrorist. CNN reported authorities described the deadly event as an act of terrorism.

But that’s different than how the NFL wanted the attack described on national television and in stadiums at multiple games.

Prior to the Pittsburgh Steelers playing the Cleveland Browns Saturday afternoon, then on Sunday the New Orleans Saints playing the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the Detroit Lions playing the Minnesota Vikings, fans at the venues and on national television heard this announcement:

“Earlier this week, the country experienced a horrific act of violence, with the heartbreaking tragedy in New Orleans. Our hearts are with the New Orleans community, including the brave first responders. At this time, please stand and join in a moment of silent reflection in memory of the victims, their families and loved ones.”

Every time the announcement was the same.

OutKick previously described the announcement as coming from one of those public address announcers in the stadium because he was the source of the announcement before Saturday’s game at Acrisure Stadium.

But the sources, including one inside the NFL, have since said the script came from the league. OutKick reached out to an NFL spokesman to ask if the script was written at the league level and has gotten no official response.

But the sources are adamant. 

“The terms and verbiage, especially on something as important as that, and because it was a network game, that was a decision that came from the league,” one said.

So why does this matter?

Because words are important. And intentions are important.

Jabbar’s obvious intention was to inflict a maximum amount of damage, pain and suffering on a scale that would make national headlines and instill mass fear. He decided not to make a statement by simply killing his family, the FBI said, because that wouldn’t get enough attention.

Instead, he went after a large crowd of innocent civilians. And, the FBI said, he was inspired by ISIS and carried an ISIS flag on his truck, thus representing that ideology.

It’s practically all textbook terrorism.

But the NFL apparently didn’t want that terrorism referred to as terrorism. 

The NFL is headquartered in New York City. Its space at 345 Park Avenue is a cab ride from the site of the World Trade Center terrorist attack of Sept. 11, 2001. 

Would anyone at the NFL publicly call 9-11 an act of violence instead of the terrorist attack it was?

One hopes no one would because it would diminish the heinous nature of that act. It would lessen the sacrifice of the victims in that they were killed as opponents to a terrorist cause rather than in a random act of violence.

The victims in New Orleans – with at least 14 killed and dozens of others injured – deserve similar respect in describing what they endured and why they died.