04/29/24
December 10, 2007
For The Love of Sport: Thursday Night Football: It will be nice to sit back and just enjoy the Broncos and the Texans without worrying about a chase for perfection, BCS implications and all of the hype that surrounds so many football games. The latest column by sportsfilter member Kyrilmitch_76.
I love the NFL network. I love a good game on a thursday night.
posted by ggermanctl at 07:44 PM on December 10, 2007
Hey Wing Wang: channelsurfing.net. Check it out on Thursday night.
posted by NoMich at 09:10 PM on December 10, 2007
I hear ya, Kyrilmitch. I think it will also be a cool game in the "mentor/protege" kind of way with Shanahan and Kubiak's teams going at it. But I won't get to see it unless I go to the local sports bar. You won't ever see the NFL Network on a basic cable/dish package, ever. There is too much $$$ to be made from the premium tiers. That wouldn't be so bad if I (and many others) didn't have to put up with 47 shopping networks and 38 religious channels just to get the NFL network. But those channels are paying enough to broadcast to put the price of cable/dish in reasonable (?) range of most fans.
posted by steelergirl at 10:07 AM on December 11, 2007
You have some good points. But the thing is that well, mostly all the games that are live on the nfl network during those six weeks,,,, aren't really that good. Indy at atlanta the first week, you knew that was gonna be a blowout. Chicago at Washington, both teams sub-500. Then we got denver at houston, not an excitable matchup. Both sub 500 as well. Then we got the Cinci at San Fran, Do I have to say anything for this one? Pitt at St. Louis, Blowout. Dallas at carolina, blowout. You would have to wait till the last week to get a good game on the nfl network again. New England at NY Giants, semi entertaining game. I have the nfl network, but I rarely watch it. More into espn, but I do like to watch the PACKERS' Practices. And I did watch that PACKERS at cowboys game. So you are really only paying for two good games. Not that tempting. And another thing, the games on MNF aren't that good either this year. How do the broncos get three games MNF and the PACKERS only get one? W/e.
posted by STUNNER at 10:35 AM on December 11, 2007
I take it you are a Packers fan, stunner? I would guess the NFL network is geared for the die-hard fan (of which I am one) who loves to watch football, no matter who is playing. The games you mentioned might not be the most desirable in terms of worthiness of being broadcasted, but anything can happen during a game and maybe that is what they are hoping will happen.
posted by steelergirl at 11:11 AM on December 11, 2007
All sports should be broadcast for free on cable, satelite, over the air, and online. If my TV has to be subjected to such things as Springer, Cheaters, and political debates at no charge, then I should get football, baseball, boxing, MMA, jailail, rugby, futbol, and porn for the same price.
posted by THX-1138 at 11:40 AM on December 11, 2007
But the thing is that well, mostly all the games that are live on the nfl network during those six weeks,,,, aren't really that good. If you were to look at most of those games before the season started, they probably wouldn't have seemed to be so bad. Atlanta with Vick; Chicago at Washington is a game featuring two large market teams; Cinci & San Fran were two up-and-coming teams a year ago; St. Louis has been killed with injuries; Carolina with Delhomme would be better than 5 and 8. Going into the season, I thought the NFL network had a pretty good lineup. Since they're Thursday games, they can't really use a flex schedule like NBC.
posted by chamo at 02:19 PM on December 11, 2007
Thursday football BLOWS!!! It's bad for the teams involved (3days rest), it's a money making scam for the league and the nfl network and cable/satellite (which one gets the $ is the only question), and it sets a real scary pattern for every other sports league to follow (and you just know they're all watching, evaluating the fan response and total income.) I'd rather be AT the game if I had to pay for it. Just my 2 cents, and I know someone will punch swiss cheese holes in my thought pattern, but I still think it stinks.
posted by weeklyguy at 06:57 PM on December 11, 2007
Honestly a lot of the match-ups this year have turned out to be a little less than spectacular but I subscribe to the theory a bad day of football beats a good day of reruns, must-see TV, American Idol you get the idea. As far as Thursday being inconvenient to the players I am really not sympathetic to the plight of the athlete who has to play on Thursday instead of Sunday or Monday. As with a lot of salaried employees you work when your boss tells you to. I did get an email pointing out that Owen Daniel is a TE and not a wideout as I said in the article and they also pointed out that Andre Johnson is really their leading receiver but he has been hampered by injuries limiting his stats so I apologize for some errors (more proofreading this week) also my parents (who are weekly readers) say that I really need to learn the difference between to and too.
posted by kyrilmitch_76 at 11:49 AM on December 12, 2007
For the record my wife and I didn't upgrade to the digital package until our cable company started offering Internet phone so the overall package upgrade doesn't cost us any more than what we previously were paying to verizon and the cable company seperately. Only now we get unlimited local and long distance calling and a handful of digital channels, one of which to my good fortune is the NFL Network. Without the phone company savings we didn't feel that the package for digital was worth it.
posted by kyrilmitch_76 at 11:54 AM on December 12, 2007
You won't ever see the NFL Network on a basic cable/dish package, ever Bzzz. NFL network is already part of the basic packages on both DirecTV and Dish Network.
posted by toxic at 01:02 PM on December 12, 2007
toxic, it is?!? Wonderful! I just might take advantage of the bundle deal like kyrilmitch has. Now you are talking the basic $29.99 pkg that they offer, right?
posted by steelergirl at 01:55 PM on December 12, 2007
Now you are talking the basic $29.99 pkg that they offer, right? Not sure what toxic means by 'basic' but it's not on the 29.99 family plan for directtv. Of course, not much is.
posted by justgary at 02:04 PM on December 12, 2007
talking the basic $29.99 pkg Holy cow! Who has a $30 cable bill? Those thing went extinct about 8 years ago didn't they? As a sports fan life gets easier when you just bite the bullet and pay the premiums to watch the games that interest you. You can't really be a "die-hard" fan AND figure the $12 GOLtv, FSC, NFLN, ESPNU is too much to bare. "Die-hard" NFL fans are still getting off cheap. 4 or 5 games a week on basic cable for free, add the 4 weekly replays and the Thursday night games for pennies a day, plus ESPN programming. If that still isn't enough you can get the Sunday ticket for the price of a nose-bleed seat in Mile High and watch every game played. We futball fans don't even have use for most cable providers. We must have satellite to watch ($65 basic HD), pay for a "premium" sports package ($25), and we still need Setanta (14 clams for one channel) to be able to watch the Pool stomp the shite out of ManU this weekend.
posted by r8rh8r27 at 02:42 PM on December 12, 2007
We get cable internet, a low-end digital package (NFL network, ESPNU, Horse Racing TV It goes down hill from there) and Internet Phone for about $150 a month with taxes and everything. We futball fans don't even have use for most cable providers. We must have satellite to watch ($65 basic HD), pay for a "premium" sports package ($25), and we still need Setanta (14 clams for one channel) to be able to watch the Pool stomp the shite out of ManU this weekend. I am not even sure what r8rh8r said but it sounds expensive.
posted by kyrilmitch_76 at 05:55 PM on December 12, 2007
So not to split hairs, when I said "basic" in my original remark, I meant the cheapest package you could get. To me, having to shell out $60+ for a "basic" package that has the NFL Network is a bit much. Right now, I am making do with an antenna, and I can watch 3 games (or 4 if I want to channel hop) on Sunday, and that is about all I have time for anyway. I live for the day I can be rich enough to watch football 3-4 nights a week. LOL
posted by steelergirl at 09:51 PM on December 12, 2007
I can't get the NFL Network and I can't get the Big Ten Network. I say good riddance to both of them.