Things That Just Piss Me Off

This is really stupid. Many fans, including me, stopped watching baseball because of the strikes and other issues. Business is down for baseball. Not as good as it was for them. All because of greed. Now the NFL and the cable companies want to do the same thing to football. They are going to let greed ruin the game.

Anyone who has watched a football game on TV knows they have no trouble selling enough ads to pay for it. We get to watch football. The networks and the NFL get to make money, the advertisers get to sell their products to a large audience, the teams make money and so do the players. Everyone is a winner here.

There is no need for the best games to be taken away and put on pay-per-view which is not even available to a lot of people. Not everyone has cable and not everyone can afford to pay for these games.

Recently the cable companies held the Dallas VS Green Bay game hostage. Now they plan to take New England’s 16th game hostage. It might end up that the patriots are still undefeated after 15 games and fans will want to see history made.

The cable companies want you to pay for that. And even many people in Massachusetts do not have cable so will not be able to watch the game even if they wanted to pay.

Dear Commissioner Goodell and President McSlarrow,
I am writing to express my concern on behalf of football fans across the country who find themselves caught in the middle of a corporate standoff. While the National Football League and a few major cable companies continue to blame each other for the current state of NFL Network carriage, too many American football fans are being held hostage.

Unfortunately, this disagreement has led to the use of what could potentially be an historic football game as leverage in a negotiation. On Saturday, December 29th, the New England Patriots will play the New York Giants in a game that could determine whether the Patriots become the first NFL team in 35 years to finish the regular season with an undefeated record. Unfortunately, millions of fans outside of the local media markets - including fans living in Massachusetts and New York - will not have access to the network that will broadcast the game.

I recognize that the games shown on the NFL Network have been the long-standing subject of commercial negotiations. I do not wish to interfere with these negotiations, and I hope that the two sides can come to an agreement that will ensure that NFL games will be broadcast to the maximum number of television households across the country. In light of the unique circumstances surrounding the 2007 New England Patriots, I urge you to reach an agreement as soon as possible, so that football fans across the country are not prevented from viewing what could be an historic sporting event.

I thank you for your consideration.

Sincerely,
John F. Kerry

Now whether you like John Kerry or not, he is absolutely right on this issue. I didn’t know he was a big fan, but he does know that a lot of people are pissed off about this.

People in the New England Patriots home state will not be allowed the chance to watch their team in what might be a historic game because the cable companies are greedy jerks.

Text size – + Kerry presses on NFL Network
Email|Link|Comments (39) By Mike Reiss, Globe Staff December 6, 07 07:04 PM
Massachusetts senator John Kerry sent a letter to National Football League Commissioner Roger Goodell and President and CEO of National Cable & Telecommunications Association Kyle McSlarrow today, asking them to break the deadlock in negotiations between the NFL and several major cable companies over how football games on the NFL network are broadcast.

This has been a hot topic among Patriots fans, who have expressed concern that they won’t be able to see the season finale against the Giants, which is scheduled to be broadcast on the NFL Network.

The text of the letter:

Dear Commissioner Goodell and President McSlarrow,
I am writing to express my concern on behalf of football fans across the country who find themselves caught in the middle of a corporate standoff. While the National Football League and a few major cable companies continue to blame each other for the current state of NFL Network carriage, too many American football fans are being held hostage.

Unfortunately, this disagreement has led to the use of what could potentially be an historic football game as leverage in a negotiation. On Saturday, December 29th, the New England Patriots will play the New York Giants in a game that could determine whether the Patriots become the first NFL team in 35 years to finish the regular season with an undefeated record. Unfortunately, millions of fans outside of the local media markets - including fans living in Massachusetts and New York - will not have access to the network that will broadcast the game.

I recognize that the games shown on the NFL Network have been the long-standing subject of commercial negotiations. I do not wish to interfere with these negotiations, and I hope that the two sides can come to an agreement that will ensure that NFL games will be broadcast to the maximum number of television households across the country. In light of the unique circumstances surrounding the 2007 New England Patriots, I urge you to reach an agreement as soon as possible, so that football fans across the country are not prevented from viewing what could be an historic sporting event.

I thank you for your consideration.

Sincerely,
John F. Kerry

NFL RESPONSE

The following is the NFL’s response, from spokesman Greg Aiello, to the letter written by Massachusetts senator John Kerry:

“Commissioner Goodell welcomes the senator’s comments because we, too, want broad cable distribution for NFL Network. We agree that the big cable companies should sit down and negotiate with us for distribution comparable to their own channels.

“All fans should be able to see the NFL Network like they are able to see the Golf Channel on Comcast and Major League Baseball on TBS. Comcast has an agreement in place with us right now that would enable it to put the NFL Network into 25 million homes. Instead, Comcast delivers NFL Network to only one million homes on a pay-extra basis. Comcast can change that now without any further negotiation. As to Time Warner and other companies, we are eager to negotiate immediately with all the major cable companies to make NFL Network widely available.”

By law, cable companies get to have monopolies in certain areas. So if we were to boycott them, we would have no cable TV and they know that. They are using that law to hold people hostage.

At the same time, the NFL is pressuring the cable companies to carry their network. SO the NFL won’t budge and the cable companies won’t budge. So it’s the fans who lose, just like in the baseball strikes. The players wouldn’t budge and the owners wouldn’t budge and the fans lost.

Then we can turn that phrase around. They lost fans. You’d think the NFL would learn from that.

I’d really like to hear suggestions about what football fans can do about this. If we leave it to John Kerry, we will lose by a narrow margin.