Senator John Kerry, “proud Bostonian”, sent a Christmas Eve letter to Roger Goodell and the NFL. He is “deeply troubled” about your right to NFL Football. Specifically, he is worried that you will miss this Saturday’s game between the Patriots and the Giants, due to the evil force known as the NFL Network.
Yes, you know John Kerry. Not the John Kerry who lost the 2004 presidential election. No, this is the John Kerry “who represents all of Massachusetts and not just those in the Boston media market.”
The Senator is quite worried about all of us, so worried that he has taken time out from his duties as Massachusetts Senator to address and solve the problem for us. Why work on the war in Iraq, energy independence or fighting terrorism, especially when nearly “250,000 Massachusetts households, and millions of Patriots fans nationwide, may be denied access to this historic sporting event”?
Since John Kerry is really worried that you may miss out on the Patriots' perfect season, he is taking action. So worried is Mr. Kerry, he has several options for making this game available to you!
He has thoroughly researched the problem, and brought it to the attention of Commissioner Goodell that the NFL has a “flex schedule”, where games can be moved to Sunday evening on NBC. According to the Senator, “Electing to air the game on NBC would ensure that every television in America has access to such a historic game. Throughout the season, the NFL has made this decision with respect to other games of high importance and broad national interest.” I’ll bet Commissioner Goodell is glad the Senator reminded him about the flex schedule. Roger had probably forgotten about that!
Another brilliant proposition by Senator Kerry. Forget about “a chicken in every pot and a car in every garage.” What we really need is to ensure that every television in America has access to historical NFL football games, such as the Patriots-Giants battle this Saturday.
Article comments
1 - Kyle
Boring article. Why would you make such a big deal out of this small thing Kerry is trying to do. I am glad he has done what he has. It is big corporations that are at the root of all the other evils you so freely try to spin onto Kerry's head. This is just one small battle against corporate America, but obviously you have your own agenda.
2 - Dave Nalle
Admit it Kyle, you didn't actually read the article, did you?
If you had then you would have noticed that the author was pointing out the hypocrisy of Kerry opposing the NFL while shilling for TimeWarner.
Your hero would be the one working for the corporate fat cats in this case.
Dave
3 - lash
wow, a whole article about this issue without one mention of the anti-trust exemption the nfl has and its relation to subscriber-only television channels... and you call yourself "superior" writers?? What a joke...
no bias in this article at all, eh.
Another sheep in the herd... baa, baaa...
4 - Dave Nalle
Lash, where's your better article on this subject?
And we do have another article on this subject in our Sports Section which addresses the antitrust issue.
But you're reading an opinion article in the Politics section which is about John Kerry as much as it is about the NFL, so you should take that into consideration.
Dave
5 - Matthew T. Sussman
"Since John Kerry is really worried that you may miss out on the Patriots' perfect season"
No I won't. Can't miss something that won't happen.
(Even if they win, there are these games called "playoffs" which supercede the regular season. 16-0 is not a perfect season.
6 - Dr Dreadful
Ah yes, this would be the John Kerry who once had the temerity not only to run for President but also to be a [gasp! choke!] Democrat.
I wonder that certain right-wingers ever need to buy shaving cream, they foam at the mouth so much if a liberal so much as sneezes.
Dude, the man lost. It's OK to stop flagellating him now.
7 - Matthew T. Sussman
Aaron didn't use the word "Democrat" once in the article, so it has nothing to do with party affiliation.
It always disturbs me when politicians in general feel they need to do something about anything in the sports world. Like Aaron said, the NFL is a private business and they can do what they want with it. Whether airing a big game on a cable channel few NFL fans get bites them in the ass, that's their own prerogative.
John Kerry's interested because he's from Massachusetts and so are the New England Patriots. Arlen Specter tried to do the same thing last year, and he's from Pennsylvania so I imagine there were some Steelers and/or Eagles games on the NFL Network last year.
8 - Dr Dreadful
Aaron didn't use the word "Democrat" once in the article
He didn't need to, Matt. I can read between the lines.
9 - Matthew T. Sussman
All right, well, if you say so. I don't see it. Then again I don't read too many political articles.
It may be moot as John Kerry's letter might've had some clout, now that the game will be simulcast on NBC and CBS.
10 - Dr Dreadful
Score.
I do get the NFL Network (and yes, as various BC bloggers have been saying, it does indeed suck), but it would have been a shame if this potentially historic game had been available only to an elite group of cable subscribers.
I suspect that Mr Kerry was merely responding, as a good senator should, to his constituents' concerns. But it seems - as someone who does read a fair number of the political articles and resultant comment threads - that pretty much anything the Evil Triumvirate of Clinton, Kerry and Gore do or say makes some of our red-hued friends automatically cranky.
11 - Matthew T. Sussman
I understand that perception, but remember, we're a big ol' tent here. Aaron Kemp has no political writing history on BC. Two sports stories, a TV story, and this. His blog is about satellite TV.
He could be internally partisan for all I know, but on the surface I'd imagine he'd write the same article if it were Arlen Specter writing the letter to Goodell.
12 - Aaron
Hey gang...
Well as noted looks like the NFL caved, they basically had to, the backlash from the fans (and the Senators) certainly would have been too much to bear. As far as politics go, I'm not really on for debate. I just see these guys going for the easy publicity grab. I found it equally annoying last week when Leahy and Specter fired off their threatening letter. I am more into the business side of sports and technology. When I saw Senator Kerry's letter, I decided to give this a shot.
13 - lash
You can't slander Kerry without at least acknowledging the anti-trust exemption that the NFL has, this issue was more about preventing a government-supported monopoly from extorting from (in this case) sports fans who just want to see a piece of history unfold.
I'm not from Massachusetts but as an American thats what I want my representatives to do -- fight for the rights of the people who elected them...
I somehow doubt that this will effect Kerry's ability/inability to win the Iraq war, establish energy independence or fight terrorism...
I'm not surprised that you're not up for the debate... Just snipe and hide like the rest of the republican sheep...
14 - Clavos
"Dude, the man lost. It's OK to stop flagellating him now."
Maybe. But then, we'd miss out on all that fun.
Besides, he's such an easy target...
15 - Aaron
Lash-
"You can't slander Kerry without at least acknowledging the anti-trust exemption that the NFL has"
I'd like you to point out exactly where I slandered Kerry in this article. Since you never replied to Dave's earlier challenge for your article, I won't hold my breath.
"I'm not from Massachusetts but as an American thats what I want my representatives to do -- fight for the rights of the people who elected them..."
Since when is NFL football a right? If you can't see something on TV under your current situation, what do you do? You can either pay more to get it, you can change providers (satellite tv, Verizon FIOS, ATT U-verse) to get it, or you can go watch it somewhere else. Just don't call your elected representative for it, they have other things they should be doing.
I didn't say I'm not up for the debate, just said I'm not one who is normally involved in political debate. I was merely trying to clear up the question as to where I'm coming from. This wasn't written to start a Right/Left debate, it was to point out Kerry's hypocrisy in threatening the NFL with hearings.
In his letter Kerry says:
"For a game of this significance to be used as a bargaining chip or point of leverage between corporations locked in a dispute would say a great deal about the esteem in which America’s football fans are held by the big interests."
He then threatens to hold hearings regarding "how the emergence of premium sports channels are impacting the consumer."
Why isn't Kerry threatening Time Warner with hearings? Because they contribute big $$$$ to the Senator.
Time Warner has refused to carry the NFL Network at all, even on a premium tier where they would make $4-5 bucks a month, and only have to pass 70 cents on the NFL Network. Even Comcast offers this option to subscribers. Time Warner is holding up access to the NFL Network more than any other entity in this fiasco. Why? Because they normally cut deals that give them an ownership piece in the networks they carry. The NFL happens to be big enough to say NO.
16 - Doug Hunter
For those who brought up the antitrust issues, entertainment forms should not be covered under these laws in the first place. The NFL competes with the NHL, NBA, and MLB just fine. There's no more need for there to be two professional football leagues in America for sports entertainment to be competitive than there is a need to have two shows about sponges living under the sea for cartoons to be competitive.
Senator Kerry's concern, and the recent baseball dog and pony show, are just examples of politicians flexing their muscle and grabbing for the limelight in areas where they really don't belong in the firstplace.
17 - ksabq
This article is so inaccurate it is difficult to know where to begin. It was Leahy and Specter that got action from the NFL by threatening to have Congress revisit the NFL's enormously profitable antitrust-exempt status. The fact that Comcast and others piled on and saw an opportunity to profit from the NFL's proprietary mindset doesn't excuse the NFL from doing the same. The NFL isn't the "victim" here, the fans of the game are, but you are too busy trying to score meaningless political points to see that.
If the NFL was concerned that Comcast had acted unfairly they could have mitigated the damage by the simple act of making the programming available at no cost. Numerous avenues exist for doing so, the simplest being the NFL's own website. (Instead, the NFL provided meaningless talking-head coverage during the game as gesture of goodwill, and only responded after the threat of Congressional inquiry.) The move by Comcast was lauded by the NFL because it promoted a move to a prescription model without casting them as the villain. One can excuse your ignorance and naivete, you were clearly blinded by your blithering anti-Kerry and pro-industry bias.
18 - lash
ksabq says exactly what I wish I had the insight and eloquence to have posted to begin with, I was merely pointing out the omission of a very important fact in the article, which, for the record is posted on a page that nowhere states that it is strictly an opinion piece, in fact the header I read says "News."
I would have dismissed the article outright had I known it was just another dime-a-dozen anti-kerry opinion piece pretending to be unbiased.