Approximately one month ago, I made a desperate plea in wake of the news that ESPN was acquiring NFL Network, which included NFL Redzone. That plea was simple and reasonable.
Do not ruin NFL Redzone.
It’s really not a big ask. NFL Redzone has been the best thing to ever happen for NFL football. Many fans, myself included, build their entire Sunday afternoons around watching seven hours of commercial free football, guided by the ever-affable Scott Hansen. We pay a great deal of money ever year for this channel. We support it in every way we can.
All ESPN and their Disney overlords had to do was leave it alone.
That’s all the NFL had to do. Fans wouldn’t have even noticed the ESPN takeover, let alone complain about it.
Instead, the NFL decided to preempt the enshitification process before ESPN and Disney even took over. On September 3, 2025, a date I’m sure will live in infamy for an entire generation of football fans, Scott Hansen himself announced that this wonderful phenomenon that we call NFL Redzone will now have commercials.
Most of the time, I try to be measured in my reaction to distressing news. But as a lifelong football fan and someone who has loved NFL Redzone from the beginning, I just can’t do it this time.
FUCK EVERY PERSON BEHIND THIS DECISION!
FUCK EVERYONE WHO SIGNED OFF ON IT!
FUCK SCOTT HANSEN FOR ACTUALLY GOING ALONG WITH IT!
Sometimes, profanity and all-caps are entirely warranted. If there were something else I could do to convey my frustration with this news, I would. I fully expected ESPN and Disney to begin the enshitification process of NFL media. That’s what they do. That’s how our current economic system works, especially in the United States.
But at the very least, I hoped we would get at least one more year before that process started. ESPN hasn’t even taken control of NFL Redzone yet. This was actually something the NFL did on their own. And the fans who have supported and paid for this for so many years are getting screwed over.
It would be one thing if these commercials coincided with a significant price drop in NFL Redzone. Hell, I would be okay if there was a separate channel like it launched with a different host at a discount. YouTube Premium has something like that with YouTube Premium Lite. But nope! The NFL is just doing this on the eve of the start of the 2025 regular season. It’s not just a shady practice from a multi-billion-dollar corporation. It’s a dick move in the highest order.
The worst part is that there’s nothing fans can do about it. Even though the reaction on social media was universally negative, including numerous calls for cancellations and boycotts, this just isn’t going to change anything. The NFL isn’t a struggling company like Cracker Barrel. It’s the single largest sports entity in America. It has billions of dollars and immense influence.
They understand that peoples’ attention spans are too short and they’ll just forget about the outrage after a few weeks. They also understand people can’t organize effectively against billion-dollar entities. The last decade of politics has proven that beyond any reasonable doubt. They have enough money to wait for people to get outraged about something else.
In the meantime, the NFL is already doing a half-hearted job at damage control, saying the ads will be very short. I still call bullshit because that’s just how it starts. The NFL’s appetite for money, to say nothing of ESPN/Disney, is going to force them to increase those ads. It’s like getting people used to being screwed.
Start small. Make it feel like a minor pin prick.
Eventually, they’ll be able to bend you over, fuck you to within an inch of your life, take your money, and you’ll just be fine with it.
That’s the endgame. And this is just the beginning. I wish I could offer some semblance of hope or some possible resource. But like I said, we can’t do anything. Boycotts don’t work when the enemy has billions of dollars and an army of high-paid lawyers. We have nothing.
The only thing you could do that might draw their ire is to “sail the high seas” when watching football. Normally, I don’t advocate that. But if you know what I mean by those words, then you understand why.
That might very well be the one thing that directly combats enshitification. When enough people “sail the high seas” to get what they want, then the companies behind the enshtification lose out. They’ll try to fight it and make a few high profile stops.
But take it from someone who lived through the Napster era, which upended the music industry beyond repair. Even the NFL can’t stop those who sail the high seas. Every time one high-profile service goes down, countless others pop up. I won’t name names. I’ll just note that it took less than 24 hours for one major site to get multiple mirrors, which are now easily available to anyone with an internet connection.
Will that be enough to change the NFL’s mind on NFL Redzone? I doubt it.
I’m too much of a pessimist at this point to hope for anything better. So, I’ll just conclude by repeating my earlier sentiments.
FUCK EVERY PERSON BEHIND THIS DECISION!
FUCK EVERYONE WHO SIGNED OFF ON IT!
FUCK SCOTT HANSEN FOR ACTUALLY GOING ALONG WITH IT!
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