Hey NFL, You Have a Blackout Problem Part 2

By Noah Davis 

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers were blacked out again over the weekend, their second of the season (and second since 1997). Locals, however, are going to great lengths to watch their squad on television.

Deadspin points to a Tampa Tribune story about local bars showing the game on a pirated feed.

Bernie O’Brien, proprietor of O’Brien’s Irish Pub, told the paper he got the idea from a customer who helped set it up. Between 200 and 300 fans packed the Steelers bar to watch the black and gold destroy the hometown team.

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You have to wonder how long the NFL will allow this type of behavior to last, especially with major newspapers now telling the story.

It’s one thing if bars show blacked out games and keep it quiet. It’s quite another when this becomes a national or at least a regional issue.

“We protect our copyrighted game telecasts,” NFL spokesman Dan Masonson told the Trib in an e-mail. “The local blackout applies to these commercial establishments. When we become aware of a violation, we alert our legal department, which will take action.”

O’Brien publicly claimed he didn’t know if his bar was breaking the law by showing the game, but the bar owner isn’t dumb. He has to understand that stealing an illegal feed and showing the game to a bar full of paying patrons violates the NFL’s rules.

The Bucs play the New Orleans Saints in their next home game on October 17. The reigning Super Bowl champs are a big draw – and relatively local – so the game should sell out. The next week, however, the brutally bad St. Louis Rams come to town. Odds the game is blacked out: high. Start looking for a bar now.

The NFL’s blackout policy is rapidly becoming a black eye for the league.

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