NFL Fans Are Tired of Struggling to Find Out-of-Market Games

The NFL season has kicked off, and fans are sounding off about one long-standing issue. The league continues to restrict what games fans can watch on television. There are plenty of fans who want to watch out-of-market games but can’t because of how the NFL distributes games depending on where they live. NFL Sunday Ticket is the best option to watch out-of-market games, but that is only available for DirecTV users. This year, the NFL added a streaming service called NFL+, but fans can only listen to out-of-market games.

“Today marks an important day in the history of the National Football League with the launch of NFL+,” NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said in a statement. “The passionate and dedicated football fans are the lifeblood of the NFL, and being able to reach and interact with them across multiple platforms is incredibly important to us. We look forward to continuing to grow NFL+ and deepening our relationship with fans across all ages and demographics, providing them access to a tremendous amount of NFL content, including the most valuable content in the media industry: live NFL games.” Here’s a look at fans complaining about the NFL’s issue with airing out-of-market games.

‘Complete con’

One person responded: “I am in the UK and will never fall for the NFL’s tactics trying to get me to buy [Game Pass] or [NFL+]. Complete con.”

‘Irrelevant’

A fan responded: “Local bar/tavern? It’s not my favorite way to spend an afternoon but it is an option. I also find that in the age of Thursday night, Sunday night and Monday night national games plus regional doubleheaders on Sunday afternoon, DirecTV’s Sunday package is increasingly irrelevant.”

A hack

One person suggested: “If you have a fire stick and want an app that gets you all the games I got you. I can send a link. I get every NFL/MLB/NBA game every PPV fight etc. I don’t want to post the link on here though and it’s either $15 a month or $135 for the year.”

Just like self-driving cars… right?

One person said: “Like we have self-driving cars. But certainly not out-of-market games…”

Clauses?

One person explained: “Guessing there’s probably some long-standing clause from a contract signed when no one imagined the tech to make it possible. Someone who signed a 50-year contract or something.”

The feeds..

One fan wrote: “Also frustrating that the game feed cuts over to another game while you’re watching it. I was watching the Chiefs/Cardinals game and in the middle of the 4th quarter it kicked over Raiders / Chargers gameI thought we were supposed to be able to watch the whole game.”

Just not ‘practical’

And this person asked: “Does anyone know a legit streaming site to watch out-of-market NFL games. I can’t get Sunday Ticket and sitting at the bar every Sunday just isn’t practical.”