NFL and Comcast Make Up

This is bigger news than the casual fan may realize.

As reported by Sports Illustrated's Peter King, the NFL and Comcast Cable are closing in on ending a five-year impasse over the availability of the league's NFL Network on Comcast.  The NFL has been asking for what many people have long-considered to be outrageous per-customer fees while insisting that the channel be available to Comcast digital cable subscribers.  Comcast, not wanting to pay exorbitant fees, would not take the channel off their extra pay tier.  In short, if the agreement goes through, according to King, roughly 15 million more customers will have free access to the NFL Network.  A similar situation remains unresolved with Time Warner.

This is good news for fans, because the league is not getting rid of those Thursday night games anytime soon.  And they were available only on NFL Network.  I have access in my home, and so I've never been affected by this.  But I can imagine the frustration of other diehards who feel entitled to their free NFL coverage.  I don't always agree with them - thinking that they could simply go to a sports bar if the game were that important.

But this should calm the masses.  The league is finally caving in, in the interests of the fans.  It's a rare win for us.  And as King suggests, it puts the league in a better position to avoid labor problems with the upcoming negotiations.

If you're looking for a reason to like Commissioner Roger Goodell, now you have one.  His predecessors rarely stepped back from their positions in the interest of the fans.  Owners usually ruled the day.  They still do, of course.  But Goodell doesn't seem like the same tyrant that Paul Tagliabue was, whose my-way-or-the-highway alienated some owners (Jacksonville, Cincinnati) and several cities (including San Diego, who he publicly embarrassed on several occasions).

(Photo: Getty Images)

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Chase Parker believes in the East Coast bias, stretching triples into doubles, and considers Tommy Boy to be the greatest athlete of our generation.

Unless otherwise stated, no particular sexual orientation of anyone depicted is implied or should be presumed.