The Cinncinati Bengals have become the first NFL franchise to create a website for fans to submit their own videos. At the same time, the NFL is restricting local news sites from posting videos of postgame press conferences or locker room interviews online.

The new Bengals video site, hosted by technology firm ViTrue, will be part of the Fan Zone section of the Bengals team website and was first announced to Bengals fans during last week's football game, MediaPost reports. ViTrue is in talks with other NFL teams about adding similar sites to host user-generated content.

Meanwhile, Greg Aiello, the NFL's vice-president for public relations, said the new policy against posting videos is designed to ensure that rights holders receive the value they've paid for, according to the Kansas City Star (via MediaBuyerPlanner). Of course, journalists are not happy, and the Washington Post and AP plan to ask new NFL commissioner Roger Goodell to remove the restriction.

"There is a smell here and it gives the impression that the NFL and the teams are more interested in their own financial protection than they are helping the public understand what goes on in the field with the players in the games," according to Poynter Institute's Bob Steele.

As for the Bengals, the teams has sent out emails to 40,000 fans asking for submissions and will show soome entries during home games, on the scoreboard, for the remainder of the season. Vince Cicero, Bengals director of corporate sales and marketing, said the organization plans to develop different themes around which fans can create and submit videos.