This Thursday is one of the biggest NFL games of the year: the Dallas Cowboys (10-1) take on the Green Bay Packers (10-1), two teams with a national fan base. But… the game is airing on the NFL Network, which is not available in two-thirds of the country. That is, unless you want to pay extra for it. Both teams’ home markets will be able to watch the games on broadcast TV, but that won’t help the millions of football fans (like myself) who live outside the Dallas and Green Bay DMAs. As you might imagine, this all comes down to a pissing match between the NFL Network and Time Warner and Comcast. I’ll let FoxSports.com explain it for you:
The NFL had a near-future vision for itself: its own gravy train TV network. All it had to do was dangle some live games, games that otherwise would have appeared on free, network TV. And now, because the NFL overplayed its hand, preventing two-thirds of the country from seeing NFL Network games, the cable giants are the bad guys?
That’s right, NFL Network is blaming everything on cable. Cowboys owner Jerry Jones, who also happens to chair the NFL Networks committee, is spouting off so much that the cable companies got a cease-and-desist order for him to stop urging Cowboys fans to switch to satellite. I don’t know about you, but I’ve about had it with the greediness of the NFL. And so have many sports writers. “Since when does the NFL really care about the fans?” writes the Indianapolis Star. True enough.