There's a document circulating today that allegedly contains the list of words that the Pakistan Telecommunications Authority (PTA) wants banned from text messages. A few tipsters forwarded it our way after noticing that the list included phrases like "Rae Carruth," "Neon Deon," and "He Hate Me,"—all things that would be strange to text in a casual conversation in Pakistan because they all have a lot to do with the NFL.


Out of curiosity, we pulled up the infamous list of the more than 1,100 words that the NFL Shop once banned from use on personalized jerseys, and lo: It's exactly the same as the list that's been passed around for Pakistan's censorship. This hypothetically presents a terrible conundrum for Pakistan's biggest Deion Sanders fan.

But actually, we are sad to report, the list you may have seen is not exactly the list the PTA might eventually use. Newsweek reports that there is one out there that contains "1‚695 terms‚ issued in English and Urdu" and contains "'monkey crotch‚' 'athlete's foot,' 'diot' and 'damn‚' as well as 'deeper‚' 'four twenty,' 'go to hell‚' 'harder,' 'looser' and 'no sex.'" Plenty of those words appear on the NFL list, so it's possible that the PTA simply incorporated some of the league's naughty words in their quest "to find out whether it was possible to filter obscene messages." It would certainly make for a good starting point.


But with 500 more words, the PTA's list is likely much more comprehensive—although we noticed that the circulated version hasn't been updated to match a more recent ban from the NFL shop: "Ron Mexico." If given the chance, we encourage Pakistanis to go nuts with that one.

NFL's 1,159 Naughty Words [OutSports.com]

Pakistan's alleged banned words list [Google Docs]

Text Message Ban Deferred [Newsweek Pakistan]

It's Still OK To Text 'Offensive' Words In Pakistan [NPR]