Give me football or give me death!

Our political heroes in the Texas Legislature have finally come through! Witness Concurrent Resolution 2, "urging the cable television providers of this state and the NFL Network to work out their differences regarding the televising of certain collegiate and professional football games."

The NFL wants cable providers to pay big money to carry NFLN on their cable TV packages. Maybe Senator Lucio can get the two parties together at Camp David to sign an NFL broadcasting peace accord. That would be his crowning achievement.

Here's some choice cuts from the legislation.

"WHEREAS, A dispute between cable television providers and the NFL Network has interfered with the ability of fans to enjoy and support their favorite football teams in the 2006 season, resulting in a Texas collegiate team playing in a major bowl game televised by the NFL Network but not carried by the major cable providers of this state and further resulting in one of the state's storied professional football teams playing in a Saturday night football game not scheduled to be made available for viewing in the majority of the cable television households in this state . . ."

"RESOLVED, That, if the private corporations are not able to put the interests of the citizens of Texas first, the legislature urgently request that the appropriate state and federal regulatory agencies intervene to settle this matter . . ."

I'll admit I was a bit miffed when I found out the Cowboys vs. Falcons game was a Saturday night game on the NFL Network. But I didn't dust off the Smith Corona and fire off an angry letter to my state representative. I took matters into my own hands and went to a bar that has Dish Network to watch the game.

The legislation, if passed by both houses of the TX Legislature, would not have the effect of law. But I don't think lawmakers should do anything to intervene at this point. Let market forces do their thing. I'll venture a guess and say that most football fans don't have Dish or any other TV provider that carries NFLN. As far as I can tell, there has only been one decent contest broadcast on NFLN this season [the afore-mentioned Cowboys/Falcons game]. According to the Tuesday Morning Quarterback, 15 of the 16 quarters played on the NFLN Thursday night games have been crappy. In other words, we the non-NFLN subscribers haven't been missing much, and we're probably not calling our cable providers to complain about the absence of NFLN. A few more crappy games this season, and maybe the league will be forced to lower its price before next season.

Of course, a concession by the NFL will do me no good since I don't have cable. I'll still have to go somewhere to watch that important Jets vs. Raiders Thursday night matchup [yeah, right].

Should I bother heading back to the bar to watch my alma mater play in the Insight Bowl?

WTF is a college game doing on the NFL Network?! I guess there are not enough ESPN's and FSN's to broadcast all 32(!) bowl games. That's right. 64 teams out of 119 get to play in a bowl game.

Did you know there is a Papa John's Bowl? South Florida vs. East Carolina = no pepperoni.

Who am I kidding? If I had cable, I'd probably be watching that shit. I'm willing to admit I have a problem.