---
November 9, 2007

Pro Football Weekly
http://tinyurl.com/28f9nx
---

Excerpt:

....

The Patriots' finale on Dec. 29 at the Giants
will be on NFL Network, meaning New
England's bid to make history (if the Pats
are still unbeaten) would be available in
just 35 million of the nation's 112 million
TV households.

Yikes!

Incidentally, Packers-Cowboys on Nov. 29
also will be on NFL Network.

No wonder the NFL has begun asking fans
to switch to a satellite provider if their
cable operator doesn't carry NFL Network.

Comcast is offering NFL Network only on
a sports tier (for $5 a month), and Time
Warner (which has no deal with the NFL)
wants to do the same. The NFL insists the
network be placed on basic cable.

Meanwhile, the NFL wants the FCC to allow
a third-party arbitrator to settle its conflict
with Comcast, Time Warner and other cable
operators about how the channel should be
carried. But the cable operators have no
interest in going to arbitration.

--- end excerpt ---

---
November 11, 2007

How 'bout them Cowboys (and Packers)!

Two of the NFC's top teams
barreling toward showdown on Nov. 29
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21744831/
---

Excerpts:

....

There are two teams left in the NFC which
stand at least a head, if not shoulders, too,
above the rest. They are the Cowboys and
the Packers, the top two offenses in the con-
ference. They're both 8-1, two games clear
of the next best teams, the Giants and Lions,
and worlds better than everyone else.

And they meet on Thursday, Nov. 29, in a
game that only those with the NFL Network
are going to get to see.

There'll be plenty of time in the next two
weeks to complain about the NFL scheduling
this game for its own pay network, insuring
that most fans won't be able to see it. Right
now, let's just savor the prospect of a game
that is going to be seen as a preview of the
NFC championship game and an indicator
of which of these two great and storied fran-
chises is going to have the best shot of get-
ting to Arizona and a date in the Super Bowl.

....

If nothing else, we see Brady and Manning
every year - sometimes twice a year, but
we haven't seen Romo and Favre go after
each other for supremacy of their conference.
Also, Brady and Manning are in their primes;
we'll see them again. We have no idea how
much time Favre has left; all we know is that
he's having one of the best years of his or
anyone else's life, and he may never come
this way again.

It would be nice if between now and Nov. 29,
the NFL decides that NFL Network isn't nearly
a venue big enough for this year's second game
of the century and moves it to a network broad-
cast. It probably won't happen, but it wouldn't
hurt to bombard the league office with e-mails.
No league can afford to hide its premier games
where few can see them.

--- end excerpts ---

Archived from group: alt>sports>football>pro>dallas-cowboys