An open letter to the National Football League, from a guy who used to turn on the TV on Sunday and, you know, watch football.

I do not want your app. I do not want your bundle. I do not want a QR code, a ZIP code lookup, a “which market are you in?” popup, or a 14 day free trial that auto renews at $82.99 while I am trying to figure out whether the kickoff is on CBS, Fox, Peacock, Prime, Netflix, or some channel that only exists if I already pay YouTube TV and Sunday Ticket.

I want to watch football.

That used to be a sentence. Now it is a part time job.

Picture this. It is Sunday. Kickoff is in 11 minutes. Your team is playing an out of market game at 1, your buddy’s team is on at 4, and the night game is the one everybody is talking about. You open the TV. Nothing. You open the sports tile. Still nothing useful. You Google “where to watch [team] vs [team] 2026.” The first result is an article that reads like a ransom note written by six media lawyers.

You need local CBS or Fox for the in market afternoon game. Unless you are not in market, in which case that game is blacked out and you need NFL Sunday Ticket, which lives on YouTube. If you want it cheaper you also need YouTube TV, and if you already had Sunday Ticket last year they charge you more for the privilege of being loyal. The 4 o’clock game might be on the other broadcast network. Sunday Night is NBC, which is also Peacock, unless you are already paying for a live TV package that includes NBC, in which case congratulations, you paid twice for the same game and still do not have Thursday.

Thursday? That is Prime Video. Except Week 1 Thursday this year was Netflix, because the league flew a game to Melbourne and sold it to a service whose entire brand used to be “are you still watching?” Christmas is a Netflix doubleheader. Black Friday, Christmas Eve, and New Year’s Eve Thursdays are Amazon. Monday is ESPN, sometimes also ABC. International morning games are NFL Network. There is a Peacock only Saturday in Week 17, because of course there is. RedZone is another add on. Your local team on your phone might be NFL+, but only on the phone, and not the full slate on the TV, and not the out of market games, and not the exclusive streamers.

By kickoff you have opened five apps, entered two passwords you forgot, accepted three new privacy policies, and discovered the game you wanted is “not available in your area” on the service you just paid for, but is available on a different service you canceled in April because you thought you were done.

That is not fandom. That is a scavenger hunt designed by people who have never once sat on a couch with a beer and a remote that just worked.

Why is it like this? Because the NFL sold the sport in pieces to whoever wrote the biggest check. CBS and Fox still own the Sunday afternoon windows. NBC owns Sunday night. Disney and ESPN own Monday and a pile of playoff inventory. Amazon bought Thursday Night Football. Google and YouTube bought Sunday Ticket. Netflix bought holiday tentpoles. Peacock, Paramount+, and Fox One exist so each conglomerate can also sell you the same game a second time as a streaming exclusive. Local blackouts from the old cable era never died. They just put on a hoodie and moved into your living room. The league makes north of $10 billion a year on media rights. The product is more popular than ever. The viewer is the only one who has to assemble the product with a screwdriver and a credit card.

If you actually want access to every game when it is on, not “most,” not “your team plus whatever is local,” every game, here is the current shopping list. Mix and match at your own financial and spiritual risk.

You need a live TV service that carries local CBS, Fox, NBC, ABC/ESPN, and NFL Network, such as YouTube TV, Fubo, or DirecTV Stream. Or you stack the a la carte apps: Paramount+ for CBS, Fox One for Fox, Peacock for NBC and that extra exclusive, and ESPN Unlimited for Monday Night and NFL Network. You need NFL Sunday Ticket on YouTube, the only legal way to get out of market Sunday afternoon games. New customers can get it cheaper. Returning customers get to pay more. It still does not include Thursday, Sunday Night, Monday, Netflix games, or the playoffs. You need Amazon Prime Video for Thursday Night Football and Amazon’s holiday and playoff extras. You need Netflix for its five national windows this season: the Australia opener, Thanksgiving Eve, the Christmas Day doubleheader, and Week 18. Optionally you add NFL+ if you want local and primetime on a phone and RedZone without another add on. An antenna covers the broadcast windows in your market only. It does nothing for Thursday Prime games, Netflix games, out of market Sundays, or ESPN.

Walk up to the register today and buy what it actually takes to have every game each week for the season, roughly September through February, and the bill looks like this.

YouTube TV at about $83 a month for six months: $498.
NFL Sunday Ticket if you are a returning customer on YouTube TV: $378. New customers can get it for $240.
Prime Video at about $9 a month for six months: $54.
Netflix at about $9 a month for six months: $54.
Peacock at about $13 a month for six months: $78.

That is $1,062 if you already had Sunday Ticket last year. It is $924 if you are new to Sunday Ticket. Use the cheaper YouTube TV Sports plan instead of the full base plan and you can knock the returning customer total down to about $954. Either way, you are writing a check in the neighborhood of one thousand dollars for the right to locate a football game without getting told it is in another app.

That is not a package. That is a cartel with a remote.

Dear NFL: you do not need another partner. You need a product a normal person can find. One place. One login. Every game. Charge what the market will bear. Fans have proven they will pay. Just stop making us collect stamps like we are in a Soviet bread line for a 1 p.m. kickoff.

We are not asking for free. We are asking you to stop treating “where is the game” like a skill issue.

Figure it out. The ball still only needs to be in one place at a time. The broadcast should too.

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