The rapstress has apparently been caught in an 18 months-and-counting legal struggle with the league.
- Sep 20, 2013
AceShowbiz - It's already been a year and a half since English-Sri Lankan singer M.I.A. flashed a middle finger during her performance of "Give Me All Your Luvin'" at the 2012 Super Bowl halftime show headlined by Madonna. But it's only now that it's exposed that the 38-year-old entertainer and the National Football League had long been engaging in a legal battle over what the league deemed as an act that tarnished the "goodwill and reputation" of the NFL.
Through obtained documents filed with the American Arbitration Association a month after the incident, it has been revealed that the NFL pursued legal action against M.I.A., seeking $1.5 million in damages for breach of performance contract. Last week, lawyers of the NFL sought to have her deemed liable, working towards a trial.
If it goes that far, the "Bad Girls" singer apparently will make the previously hush-hush legal joust a very public war against the league. According to her lawyer Howard King, "She is going to go public with an explanation of how ridiculous it was for the NFL and its fans to devote such furor to this incident," while ignoring the genocide occurring in her home country and several other countries, topics she frequently speaks to.
King also slammed the NFL's hypocritical stance on his client's middle finger-flashing ways, saying it was "hilarious" for the league to claim a reputation of being wholesome "in light of the weekly felonies committed by its stars, the bounties placed by coaches on opposing players, the homophobic and racist comments uttered by its players, the complete disregard for the health of players and the premature deaths that have resulted from same, and the raping of public entities ready to sacrifice public funds to attract teams."
