Tag Archives: NFL Redzone

September 5, 2025 · 7:02 am

NFL Redzone Will Now Have Commercials (And That SUCKS)!

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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August 7, 2025 · 8:17 am

Dear ESPN/Disney: PLEASE Don’t Ruin NFL Redzone

I love football. I hope I’ve made that abundantly clear at this point. I’ve been watching football all my life and this is usually the time of year where my excitement for a new season reaches its apex.

In general, I try not get too caught up in the politics or media matters related to football. I know that’s not always possible. Simply following the NFL isn’t as simple as it used to be. The fact you need multiple streaming services to watch every game in a season is a frustrating trend that I do not like in the slightest. But my love of football still exceeds that frustration, so I’m willing to endure.

Now, there’s been another development on the media aspect of football. On August 5th, 2025, ESPN (which is owned by Disney) and the NFL entered into an agreement in which ESPN will acquire NFL Network and certain other media controlled by the NFL, including NFL RedZone. And it’s that last one that has me the most concerned.

I’ve noted before how much I love NFL Rezone. One of my favorite things to do during football season is sit down on my couch with a pizza and a beer on Sunday afternoon, turn on NFL Redzone, and watch seven straight hours of football with no commercials. No need to change the channel. No need to check in on every game to see if there’s been a major development. NFL Redzone does all that for me, courtesy of its wonderful host, Scott Hansen.

But I’ve seen what happens with these media deals before. It’s become a recurring pattern for over a decade now. A big media conglomerate, of which Disney is one of the biggest, takes control of a major asset. They claim they’re doing this in the name of consolidation and efficiency. But more often than not, it’s ends up accelerating a process called enshitification.

If you don’t know what that word is, you should definitely look it up. It explains a lot of what we observe in the modern media landscape. It describes the tendency of media to decline and degrade in quality, usually because a big company wants to squeeze out more profits to appease shareholders. It’s most prominently featured online, but this is something that happened before the internet. And while Disney isn’t the worst offender (that title belongs to HBO/Warner Brothers), they are pretty damn bad.

I’ve learned to adapt and tolerate enshitification in a lot of things. But I do not want that to happen to NFL Redzone. It’s one of the few things in this world that works perfectly because it avoids commercials and media degradation. It’s just all football for seven hours for 18 Sundays out of the year. If Disney does what Disney is best known to do, it’s only a matter of time before they try injecting commercials or sponsorships into Redzone in a way that degrades the product.

That would be the worst possible scenario and the worst target for enshitification. So to ESPN and their Disney overlords, I beg you on behalf of millions of NFL fans who already pay a ton of money to watch every game, including Redzone.

Please don’t ruin NFL Redzone.

Please resist the urge to enshitify the best thing we football fans have.

The world is already shitty enough. Just let us have this.

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July 15, 2024 · 5:18 am

A Letter To The NFL, NFL Sunday Ticket, And The Lawsuit They’re Fighting

Dear NFL:

I’m a football fan. I love football. I structure a good chunk of my year around watching NFL football. I have many fond memories of watching football with my dad, my brother, my uncles, and friends in college. It is a cherished part of my life and a big part of my identity, as a sports fan.

That being said, my love of football does not blind me to some of your less-than-ethical practices as an organization. I’m as aware of those practices as anyone else with a balanced news feed. But I understand that no individual or organization is perfect. I only ask that the good done in the name of the sport outweighs the bad.

With that in mind, I have a brief message I’d like to send regarding the recent lawsuit surrounding NFL Sunday Ticket, which you lost. In general, I try not to root against the things I love. My lifelong love of football has made me more sympathetic than most might otherwise be to your business practices.

But with respect to NFL Sunday Ticket, I have no sympathy. I have no qualms about the results of this lawsuit. I believe the jury got it right. You, the NFL, did violate anti-trust laws in a way that was too brazen, even for America’s most popular sport.

This was painfully clear to many fans who struggled for years to watch the games they wanted. I remember how difficult it was for me in college whenever I tried to watch out-of-market games. Even with basic cable, the cost and the exclusivity of NFL Sunday Ticket far exceeded my ability to purchase it. I can’t speak for every other college student at the time, but I can confirm that it was a major hindrance, as well as a point of frustration.

Most of those peers resorted to illegal or pirated streams of games, which used to be very difficult to find. However, I can safely confirm that finding those streams has gotten a lot easier, due to the rise of social media and the greater global accessibility of various media. You and every other sports league in existence may fight those streams with all your legal might. But that is a losing battle.

Just ask anyone from the music industry what happened to piracy when they took down Napster and sued its users. It did not stop. It only complicated the problem.

Whether you call it a luxury product or a premium service, NFL Sunday Ticket was grossly overpriced. I challenge you or anyone from any other sports league to find a sports package that was that expensive. And now that the NFL is effectively streaming some games on streaming services, Sunday Ticket has lost even more value because it ensures you can’t get every game.

Please know that it doesn’t have to be this way. I understand that the NFL is a business, just like any other sports league. It needs to make a profit. But the NFL is already a very profitable business. And price gouging consumers with your product isn’t going to increase profits. It’s just going to ensure a large segment of your consumer base will find other ways to consume your product without paying.

You don’t want that.

The players don’t want that.

The coaches, owners, and sponsors don’t want that.

Entire generations of fans, young and old, don’t want that.

I don’t claim to be smart enough to know what the ideal price is for something like NFL Sunday Ticket, nor do I claim to know the best way to navigate the business of sports in an ever-changing world. But you can do better than this.

A jury just proved that what you were doing wasn’t just wrong, it was unlawful. I don’t doubt for a second that you have very well-paid lawyers who are going to fight this verdict and avoid paying the fines. But even if you manage to succeed in that effort, please use this lawsuit as an opportunity.

Re-evaluate your business practice.

Re-evaluate your approach to NFL Sunday Ticket.

Fans like me love football and want to continue watching it. But we don’t want to be price gouged.

Sincerely,
A Lifelong Football Fan

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September 10, 2023 · 8:22 am

New NFL Season, New Couch, And NFL Redzone!

Today is a wonderful, special day.

Today is the first Sunday of Week 1 of a new NFL season.

For fans of football, this is among the holiest of days. This is the equivalent of Christmas, Thanksgiving, Easter, and the 4th of July all rolled into one. There are no elaborate decorations or parades, but that just makes it even easier to celebrate and appreciate.

For me, personally, it’s one of the best days of the year. I’ve always been a football fan, going back to the days when I spent entire Sunday afternoons watching games with my dad, my brother, and my uncle. Then, the NFL gave us the wondrous creation that is NFL Redzone and that really made Sundays during NFL season an experience worth treasuring.

Seriously, I cannot overstate how much NFL Redzone has enhanced and improved the experience of watching NFL football. There’s just something magical about turning on my TV at 1:00 p.m. on a Sunday afternoon, turning up the volume, and not touching my remote for the next seven hours while commercial-free football plays out before my adoring eyes.

Today, I plan on carrying out my preferred NFL Sunday ritual that I’ve shared before, complete with a fresh pizza and a six-pack of beer. However, this season will come with an additional bonus that I hope further enhances the experience.

Earlier this summer, I decided to shop around for a new couch. The one I’ve been using has definitely showed its age. It’s not even something I bought. Shortly after I moved into my current home, I needed furniture. And the couch I ended up getting was just an old loveseat my uncle had been looking to get rid of. So, he gave it to me for free once he found out I had moved to a new place.

That loveseat served me well, but it was old even when I got it. Now, after years of sitting on it, I’m ready for an upgrade. So, a couple weeks ago, I purchased a brand new couch on which I hope to spend every Sunday afternoon in glorious comfort. This isn’t used. I didn’t get this discount as a garage sale. I actually saved money to get it and I can attest that makes a difference.

It’s been a long, arduous wait for a new NFL season. But later today, that wait will finally end! A new NFL season is here. So, for the rest of the year and most of January, my Sundays will revolve entirely around watching football. Being able to do so on a new, comfortable couch is just a hell of a bonus.

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September 11, 2021 · 8:52 am

On The Eve Of The Week One In The NFL Season: My Ode To NFL Redzone

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Tomorrow is going to be an awesome day.

I know this because I love football and tomorrow is the first Sunday of the NFL season. I make a bit deal of it every year. I tend to speak in excessive hyperbole every time football season rolls around and I make no apologies for that. I don’t care if I sound like some crazed sports fan. I just love football that much.

For the next several months, I plan on building my entire Sunday afternoons around watching NFL football. That’s only going to make every weekend more awesome by default. The only thing that could make it better is if I found a beautiful woman who loves watching football on Sundays as much as I do.

However, on the eve of the first Sunday of the first week of the NFL season, I wanted to take a moment to acknowledge something that has played a huge part in my love of football. That something is a wonderful little innovation the NFL created in 2009 called NFL RedZone.

To the uninitiated or uninformed, NFL RedZone is a cable TV channel that plays from 1:00 p.m. EST to 8:00 p.m. EST every Sunday during every week of the NFL regular season. It basically cycles through every game, covering every touchdown and focusing on games in which a team is close to scoring. It skips all commercials and makes it a point to capture every big moment from every game that Sunday.

I cannot overstate how much this channel has enhanced my football watching experience. Basically, I just tune into the channel at 1:00 p.m. as soon as I have my pizza and beer ready. Then, I don’t need to change the channel or touch anything on my TV for the next seven hours. That seven hours is basically the fan equivalent of football Heaven.

Yes, it does cost extra to get and it’s not cheap, either.

I still pay it gladly every year because it’s worth every penny.

Before NFL RedZone, I still loved watching football. It was just difficult to keep up with all the action. I could only ever watch two games on a Sunday afternoon, plus the Sunday night game. I still enjoyed it, but it was somewhat limited. If even just one of those games was a blowout or not a very intriguing match-up, I might just turn my TV off and do something else.

It was often hit-or-miss, but with more hits than misses. Then, once I discovered NFL RedZone, every Sunday became a hit. I got to see everything the NFL had to offer every Sunday. I could follow teams and players I couldn’t usually follow. It was like going from a tricycle to a Lamborghini. After that fateful first experience, I’ve built my NFL Sundays around it and I haven’t looked back.

I plan to do the same tomorrow. I plan to teach my future children how to experience it, as well. I hope to share the joys of NFL RedZone on Sunday afternoons with whoever enters my life. It’s a hell of a feeling and one I look forward to every year.

Now, the wait is almost over.

Tomorrow, the season begins and NFL RedZone will be my guide.

I can’t wait.

I am so ready for some football.

To all my fellow football fans out there, I hope you experience the same joy tomorrow afternoon that I hope to experience.

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September 12, 2020 · 9:41 am

How I Prepare For NFL Football On Sundays

It’s almost here! In less than 24 hours, I will enjoy my first of 17 doses of regular season NFL football. In a year where my excitement and optimism has been crushed at every turn, I can’t put into words how excited I am. I also can’t fully articulate how much I need this.

I love sports.

I love football.

I love building my Sundays around watching NFL football.

It’s among my favorite regular joys. Now, I understand the NFL season will be different this year. There’s also a very real chance that the pandemic could significantly impact the season. I’m already bracing for games to be cancelled, players to be benched, and scandals to unfold. If it gets really bad, there’s certainly a possibility that an entire week of NFL games could be scrapped.

That’s a nightmare scenario that the NFL has many reasons to avoid. I’m not convinced they will, but at the moment, they’re scheduled to start the season on time, albeit without full stadiums. For me, that’s good enough.

In that spirit, I’d like to share some details as to what I do every Sunday to maximize my NFL experience. Sometimes, I do mix it up, but I have a few favorite rituals that I’ve refined over the years to ensure I achieve football nirvana every time.

It all starts early on Sunday morning. I’m an early riser by nature so I’m usually up around sunrise. It usually starts like most days. I check my email. I brew some coffee. I go through any and all unfinished work I might have, be it a blog post, a short story, or a video for my YouTube channel.

Then, I go for my daily run. I always make it a point to run a little extra long on Sundays. You’ll understand why very soon. If possible, I try to squeeze in some weightlifting. That’s not always an option. In a year like this, I may have to table that.

After I work out, I take a nice long shower. I usually shave afterwards, if my beard has become unruly. Once I’m done with that, I throw on some clothes and head out to get my groceries/football supplies.

I usually try to time it so that I leave at around noon. While I’m getting my groceries, I order a pizza, usually a large with extra cheese, bacon, and pepperoni. I also make sure I get a six pack of beer, if I don’t have one in the fridge already. If everything goes smoothly, I’m usually on my way home with about 15 minutes to spare.

With those 15 minutes, I put on my most comfortable pair of pants and my favorite football jersey. I then turn on NFL Redzone, grab a beer, serve myself a slice of pizza, and take my place on the couch.

Once the action starts, I rarely leave that couch, aside from bathroom breaks and beer. For the next seven hours, I am locked in. Most of the time, I keep the TV on Redzone, but if there’s a major game on one of the networks, I’ll flip to that one every now and then.

During that time, I am the most relaxed and content person you’ll ever going to see. The feeling of watching NFL football all Sunday while drinking beer and eating pizza is just the ultimate way to cap the weekend. It’s glorious. It’s joyous. Sure, I’ll yell at the TV every now and then, but I’ll have a damn good time every step of the way.

When all is said and done, that pizza is usually half-eaten. Most of that six pack of beer is long gone. I’m full, a little drunk, and utterly satisfied with all the football I’ve consumed. This weekend, I look forward to enjoying that feeling once more. I encourage my fellow football fans out there to do the same, especially for a year like this. If you have your own Sunday ritual for NFL football, please share it in the comments. I’d love to know. I’m certainly open to new ideas for making Sunday football even better. For now, I am ready for kickoff!

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