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AUSTIN – Gov. Greg Abbott is warning the NFL to “get the heck out of politics” after a league spokesman suggested passage of a so-called bathroom bill could affect whether Texas gets future events.

“The NFL is walking on thin ice right here. The NFL needs to concentrate on playing football and get the heck out of politics,” Abbott said on Glenn Beck’s radio show Tuesday.

The bathroom bill would require transgender people to use restrooms based on their “biological sex” in government buildings, schools and universities.

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Abbott has been noncommittal on the need for a bathroom bill, saying that it’s unclear whether a new law is needed to address concerns about privacy and safety.

But he has been rankled by the comments from NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy that “discriminatory” measures would affect decisions on scheduling events in Texas, where the Super Bowl was played in Houston this year.

“We don’t care what the NFL thinks, and certainly what their political policies are, because they are not a political arm of the state of Texas or the United States of America,” Abbott told Beck.

pfikac@express-news.net

Twitter: @pfikac

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