MIA calls NFL lawsuit `ridiculous`

Los Angeles: Sri Lankan rapper MIA has released a video statement following National Football League`s USD 105 million lawsuit against her for flipping the bird during her 2012 Super Bowl performance.

In the video statement, the singer, who stole the limelight from Madonna by showing her middle finger during 2012 Super Bowl performance, says NFL is bent on making a scapegoat out of her. "The NFL thing is completely ridiculous. It`s been making me laugh for a while but now it`s so boring I don`t even laugh anymore," the 38-year-old rapper said in the video that she released on September 23. MIA, real name Maya Arulpragasam, said featuring underage cheerleaders in provocative uniforms during the programme was more offensive than her act. "The precise moment in question... Has my middle finger in the foreground and if you find the larger picture, where it zooms out, there is a row background scenery (sic) of 10, 15 cheerleaders, young black females that Madonna got from a local high school... They were all under 16," she said in the video. "If you look at them, they`re wearing cheerleader outfits, hips thrust in the air, legs wide open in this very sexually provocative position. "So now they`ve scapegoated me into figuring out the goalposts on what is offensive in America. Is my finger offensive, or is an underage black girl with her legs wide open more offensive to the family audience," MIA said. Madonna had termed MIA`s act as "teenager, irrelevant thing". PTI