The NFL continually ruins my passion for football

HELLO! I can't beleive it. I registered and moments later I'm posting......I was on the waiting list to be able to post on the steelers main message board for 7 years!!! No lie 7 years lol. but let me now get to my point.

I live in PA about 2 hours from Harrisburgh and 3 hours from Pittsburgh......yet won't be able to watch the steelers because the ravens are a secondary market to PA when they play away games........this is the thrid time this year...and it happened about 4 times last year as well. This makes me so incedably angry and is just another thing the NFL has done in Goodells era that has hit my love for watching football hard. We all know what happened last year with the James Harrison stuff and the NFL's act of villifying physical football. Now this year I must watch refs throw constant questionalble flags against the steelers....I know alot of people think that Ike Taylor just plays too physical and grabs receviers....and legitimately gets called for pass interference.....but trufully he does exactly what Revis does and always gets called and revis never does....I'm sorry but half the reason revis is so great is because of what he gets away with. The other team holds our LBers almost constantly and the refs only call one a game.....it's almost as if the refs call holding on it once and say "ok theres your holding call now play football" the other team just keeps holding and says back "thank you, we will" to the refs lol. NOw everytime i sit down to watch any football game, steelers or no.....after every tackle no matter what, you think....there gonna be a flag......and everytime they show the replay of someone being tackled you kind of watch it and think that could have been a penalty right? I mean theres WAYYYYY to many rules and I've seen so much stuff called I have no idea whats not illegal until the refs tell me its not........every tackle looks flagable.....It's understandable i guess to be so paranoid about this stuff when I've seen JH get a personal foul for distributing to much of his weight on a QB. So all this floats through my mind and makes me think wow.....football is getting lame......so lame. Then the NFL comes along and says "lets have people not be able to watch thier fav. team.....but instead make them watch the hated rival".....or even better lets try to turn those fans into fans of the other team by making it a priority to force local stations not to play the games of their in state teams. It just makes no sense even from a buisness stand point to me......I mean why would you try so hard to appeal to a scondary market insstead of the main one. Steelers have a huge.....huge fan base and I just find it so sad that i live in PA and yet the NFL forces me to watch the ravens by not giving me an alternative.....I know direct t.v sunday ticket......but i already have dish and I live 3 hours away from my favorite teams HOME FEILD!!!!!! So i just feel like saying NO!!!!! **** YOU GOODELL I'm not going out of my way......(switching to direct t.v) or paying any extra money to watch my local team on t.v......I wont go online and serach for a way to watch it or anything else. **** you and the NFL you've created.....I'm not in the mood anymore....football has always been a buisness i know......but now thats all it is....and I know the reason i have to put up with this is so the NFL can suck as much money from the american people and buisnesses that it can. So again **** YOU GOODELL AND YOUR NFL. You've made football no fun and watching football no fun. First you villify my team....you have the refs calling BS penalties on us and any time the steelers do commit a penalty you better be sure the refs dont miss it.....like all the helmet to helmets, holding calls, roughing the passer and pass interfernce calls they miss against the opposing team. And now you wont even let me watch it........Sorry for the rant and thank you if you read it all. All i really wanted to know is does anyone else that lives in PA have this problem hahaha.

 

welcome aboard ben.....there is one less visitor to the OLD board

man that must suck i live in eastern ky and have the steelers game every week....guess you need to move to the best place in america to love....JJ

 

I agree with pretty much everything you said but it was kinda difficult to read. You should break it up into a few paragraphs. But anyways you made some good points.

 

I agree good sir! In fact I have a shirt that states my sentiment. I wore it every time I played tackle football last year as my own little rebellion.

 

thank you everyone for the warm welcome and you're comments. All my friends are fans of other teams, so it was very nice to be able to vent all my "whiney" complaints and frustrations and not be mercilessly berated for being a " cry baby" haha.

I was worried it would be hard to read and thank you for taking the time to read it. It was a blinded rant, as I was overwhelmingly angry at the time and thought nothing of making it legiable lol. I am new to this and hopefully over time will improve......and that goes doubly for my spelling.

I look forward to talking steelers with you from now on. thanks again for the welcome

GO STEELERS!............remove goodell.

 

I live in SE Virginia (Norfolk/VA Beach TV stations) and I think the only Steeler game this year that has not been shown locally was the Seattle game (It was on the same time as the Washington game and they are what is considered local market here). It is nice that the local CBS usually carries the Steeler games. There are a ton of Steeler fans here and for sure we are only second to Skins fans.

My parents moved from SW PA to a section of PA north of Baltimore (to be near grandkids, my sis lives out that way) and they are now in Raven territory. One issue in that part of the state is that so many people there have moved up from MD to PA for the lower standard of living/taxes, etc. Many people also work near Baltimore and live in PA area for those reasons.

 

Washington DC here. I have to deal with both the Redskins and Raisins games overriding my beloved Black and Gold. But I feel for you. No reason PA shouldn't be watching either Pitt or Philly when they're on.

 

Tough for you guys. I live in Tampa and buy Direct TV so I can still follow the Steelers. In addition, I have Verizon FIOS with Red Zone so the ocverage is pretty good. I am surprised at how many Steeler games are on local television here.

By the way, for those who don't know, to get the NFL package you have to subscribe to the lowest tier of Direct TV but you can suspend it for six months once the playoffs start and all games on on so that saves some money.

 

Just one more detail to throw out there to let you know how torturous it all truly is.
I live within walking distance of the cut of line to where my local channels would come from Altoona
And therefore I would get every steelers game no problem. WALKING DISTANCE!!!!

Ok, I'm done with the self-pity.

 

Can you pick up the Altoona channel with an over the air antenna?????

I have Dish and when there is severe weather the signal can be lost -- I have a set of "rabbit ears" attached behind the TV and just swich my input source to that and I get all the local channels (and there are actually channels that I get that I don't with the Dish). They are usually in HD too.

Just a thought and worth a try, if you are that close.

 

Sirius radio is another viable option. I've been using it for about six years. You get to hear comments like "Habeus Grabbus".

 

Depending on the atmospheric conditions, I can sometimes get a radio station (I think it is am 970 or something out of WV). You can also strean the radio on the internet (though sometime I have a problem with this if I travel overseas as they block it, which I hate -- I mean what's the point of that?).

 

SE Ohio here. We used to have 2 CBS stations on our cable system; one from Wheeling and one from Columbus. Time Warner felt like that was overkill (but we have 3 NBC affiliates???) and removed the Wheeling station, which always had the Steelers. Now I am stuck with Cincinnati or Cleveland, so I do feel your pain ben...

But I am not really sure how the NFL plays into this. I thought they only dictated primary markets? I know that Columbus has a choice and can broadcast any of the 3 (Pgh included), they just choose the Ohio teams.

 

I hear you, OP...I really do. I was subject to it for years and it boggled my mind. I got so mad!!

Then I finally broke down and got Direct TV with NFL package. It is HEAVEN!! Worth every bit of the $150.00 charge as well as getting the NFL Network games as well. Every Sunday, I can watch whatever game I want (after or before the Steelers game, of course!).

Only way to fly, but I know it isn't the cheapest way and there has to be another alternative to get the game YOU want.

 

I totally agree. I have lived in PA. NJ, OH and now NH. I hated to pay for Direct TV but finally did it last year - there is no going back. No more having to watch the Patsies on TV while tracking the Steelers online. I know it is expensive but it is a quality of life thing.