Justice Triumphs

SPORTING GOODS

I've been writing to my Congressman, Joe Courtney, about this issue for the last several weeks, and even though he assured me in an e-mail that there was absolutely nothing he could do about it, the NFL will actually show the Patriots-Giants game to all of America this Saturday evening.

"We have taken this extraordinary step because it is in the best interest of our fans," commissioner Roger Goodell said in a statement after the league announced it was reversing course. "What we have seen for the past year is a very strong consumer demand for NFL Network. We appreciate CBS and NBC delivering the NFL Network telecast on Saturday night to the broad audience that deserves to see this potentially historic game. Our commitment to the NFL Network is stronger than ever."

NFL Network spokesman Seth Palansky said officials would have no further comment Wednesday.

In this somewhat surly comment, one can almost almost see the avarice dripping from the lips of Commissioner Goodell.

The truth of the matter is that the NFL already has everything it could ever want. It's got incredible tv deals with no fewer than four television networks, but apparently for the rapacious NFL, this isn't enough. No, a fifth network had to be created so that it can get squeeze even more money from ravenous fans.

It's no surprise that Chris Collinsworth (who will announce the game Saturday night with Bryant Gumbel—give me strength) stated yesterday,

"I have to tell you honestly it really surprises me and I'm kind of proud of the NFL that they stepped up and made this game available to everybody. I really thought that they would continue to use this as a major sort of power negotiating chip with what was going on in these negotiations."

Mr. Collinsworth tells more about his employer than perhaps he wished to divulge.

Anyway, after telling Congressman Courtney of my concern on this issue, he finally let me know that he was on the case and was, in fact, flexing his legislative muscles to bring the game to Connecticut. I let him know that while I appreciated his efforts, I felt he'd been less than forthright with me by indicating initially there was nothing he could do about the situation. (In fact, his insistence that "Connecticut's tens of thousands of football fans have access to the game" is pretty much verbatim a phrase I used in a message to him.) And it appears that Pat Leahy (who must be a Pats fan) and the chameleon, Arlen Spector, were really the legislative big guns that got the game televised on through-the-air channels.