HACKENSACK, N.J. – Normally it is Jersey fans who gripe that they don't get any respect from pro sports teams that play at the Meadowlands in East Rutherford but have "New York" in their names.
But three New York assemblymen recently sponsored a bill to stop football's Giants and Jets and soccer's Red Bulls from using the Empire State's name or abbreviation because they don't play their home games in New York.
"At the very least, the location of the place where a team plays should be accurate, and reflect where they actually play their home games," Assemblyman Ivan Lafayette, of Queens, writes in the bill, as reported by The Record of Bergen County in Saturday newspapers.
The legislation wasn't started here, but it seems to have some supporters in the Garden State.
"That bill does sound like a Jersey thing, which is ironic considering that over here we basically seem to have given up on this," George Zoffinger, head of the New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority told the newspaper. "But I think with all the money we give these teams, they should be called 'New Jersey."'
So far the bill — co-sponsored by Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz of the Bronx and Felix Ortiz of Brooklyn — only applies to sports teams.
Officials from the three teams have adamantly said that they aren't going to change their names.
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