Oh the Hypocrisy!

Op/Ed by
Rick "DaVoice" Charles

As many NASCAR fans are well aware, there have been ongoing lawsuits filed by NASCAR against AT&T Wireless (formerly Cingular) for violating the "grandfather clause" allowing CURRENT wireless companies to remain as sponsors on the cars that they were sponsoring at the time that NASCAR made the deal with NEXTEL to rename their Major League "Cup" Series.

In a nutshell, Cingular bought out AT&T wireless a few years ago and CINGULAR was the sponsor on the 31 car. Cingular has now sold the company BACK to AT&T and therefore changed the sponsorship name to "The New AT&T" on the car. In a lawsuit, AT&T won an injunction to be able to keep their new logo and name on the car, but NASCAR fought it tooth and nail. In fact, they are suing AT&T presently.

Fast Forward a few weeks and LO and BEHOLD, the title sponsor NEXTEL has decided to change the name of its own sponsorship to its SPRINT division, making the 2008 NASCAR CUP Series "THE SPRINT CUP" rather than "THE NEXTEL CUP". HUH?!

I guess the France family has decided that what's good for the goose, ISN'T good for the gander. This is an example of the most blatant hypocrisy I've ever seen in major sporting sponsorship. To have the GALL to tell Cingular they can't change their name to AT&T by claiming that the name change isn't covered under the "grandfather clause" and even going as far as a multi-million dollar lawsuit against AT&T (formerly Cingular) at the very same time they let NEXTEL change the name of the Cup Series to the "Sprint Cup".

Being a Cingular....oops, "New AT&T customer" who was actually thinking of switching to Nextel at the end of my contract, I can tell you right now, that ain't gonna happen. I don't call for boycotts, But I call BULLSHIT when I see it, and NASCAR, I call BULLSHIT!!!

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