Duel in Dallas: Angry Packers Fans Have to Hit Bars to Watch Game
Packers Gameday at 4:00 p.m. on Newsradio 620 WTMJ
Related Coverage: Woodson Game-Time Decision | Rodgers Impersonates Romo | A Packers Fan in Cowboys Nation | Packers Grieving Loss of Sean Taylor
MADISON, Wis. (AP) -- Now this is what football is all about. Trouble is, a lot of people won't get to see it.
The Green Bay Packers and the Dallas Cowboys, both 10-and-1, go head-to-head Thursday night for bragging rights and possibly homefield advantage in the postseason.
Behind center for Dallas, Burlington's Tony Romo. On the other side, as always, Wisconsin's answer to Elvis, Brett Favre. Pull up the La-Z-Boy, pop open some suds and lose the remote control, right?
Wrong.
The game will be shown only on the NFL Network and in Green Bay and Milwaukee. More than half-a-million other cable customers will have to park it in a bar with a satellite dish, visit friends with a dish or listen on the radio.
That's left plenty of Packer backers seriously peeved.
"The Packers are a ritual for a lot of people. They plan their life around it. Not being able to see the game is traumatic," said Bill Bessette, 46, of Madison, where the game won't be shown on cable TV company Charter.
The NFL Network is available in about 35 million of the nation's more than 111 million homes with televisions. The network's growth has been stymied by a dispute with cable providers that won't carry it on a basic tier.
Wisconsin sports fans already are upset the state's major cable companies -- Charter and Time Warner -- don't carry the Big Ten Network, another sports-only network that carries Big Ten college sports.
Last year, the NFL Network exclusively showed a December Packers game against the Minnesota Vikings. But the Dallas game is far bigger. The outcome could determine the top team in the National Football Conference.
Fans in Green Bay and Milwaukee will get to see the game. NFL rules require games be made available to over-the-air providers in a team's home market. But fans in other Wisconsin cities, including La Crosse, Madison and Wausau, will have to find somebody with a dish.
John Miller, a spokesman for Charter's Midwest region, said the NFL could have chosen to sell the game to any broadcaster it wished. Stacy Zaja, a spokeswoman for Time Warner Wisconsin, said the NFL has refused cable companies' offers to place the NFL Network on a sports tier, insisting it be part of expanded basic cable.
NFL Network spokesman Seth Palansky countered that cable companies insist there isn't enough demand for the network.
"We're trying to convince a company that thinks eight shopping channels and cage-fighting is what people want on their cable boxes more so than football," he said.
Football fans across the country have endured the same ordeal as Packers and Cowboys lovers, said Barry Orton, a University of Wisconsin-Madison telecommunications professor. Little will change until the NFL lets cable providers become partners in the network, he said.
"This whole thing goes away once they get a piece," he said.
Until then, fans can follow the game with online updates, visit friends with dishes, listen to the radio, rent a hotel room with a TV in Green Bay or Milwaukee or find a bar with a dish.
Jenny Annis, co-owner of Legends Bar and Grill in downtown Merrill, said her tavern switched from Charter to satellite about five months ago. She expects 100 people for the game, which is generating Super Bowl-level excitement.
Orton, however, said fans must realize football is a business, not a birthright.
"Nowhere in the Bill of Rights does it say you have the right to watch your hometown football team every weekend without paying more somehow," he said.
Those are fighting words in Wisconsin, where the people literally own the Packers, both on paper and in their hearts.
Tricia Weisheipl, 36, of Madison, plans to go to a bar to watch the game. Her 72-year-old Uncle Jim can't.
He's been in the hospital for several weeks with heart problems. He has a dish at home, Weisheipl said, but he'll be stuck listening to the radio Thursday night in the hospital. It won't be the same, and the stress over missing his beloved Packers in the biggest game of the year is making him feel worse, she said.
"He's livid. He's been watching them his entire adult life," said Weisheipl, who declined to give her uncle's last name. "When you're sick, you want the comforts of home, and you can't have that. I feel terrible for him. We're taking away one of his joys. The Packers are doing so well, of course he wants to watch them. That's part of being a Wisconsinite."
Associated Press writer Robert Imrie in Wausau contributed to this report.
Related Coverage: Woodson Game-Time Decision | Rodgers Impersonates Romo | A Packers Fan in Cowboys Nation | Packers Grieving Loss of Sean Taylor
MADISON, Wis. (AP) -- Now this is what football is all about. Trouble is, a lot of people won't get to see it.
The Green Bay Packers and the Dallas Cowboys, both 10-and-1, go head-to-head Thursday night for bragging rights and possibly homefield advantage in the postseason.
Behind center for Dallas, Burlington's Tony Romo. On the other side, as always, Wisconsin's answer to Elvis, Brett Favre. Pull up the La-Z-Boy, pop open some suds and lose the remote control, right?
Wrong.
The game will be shown only on the NFL Network and in Green Bay and Milwaukee. More than half-a-million other cable customers will have to park it in a bar with a satellite dish, visit friends with a dish or listen on the radio.
That's left plenty of Packer backers seriously peeved.
"The Packers are a ritual for a lot of people. They plan their life around it. Not being able to see the game is traumatic," said Bill Bessette, 46, of Madison, where the game won't be shown on cable TV company Charter.
The NFL Network is available in about 35 million of the nation's more than 111 million homes with televisions. The network's growth has been stymied by a dispute with cable providers that won't carry it on a basic tier.
Wisconsin sports fans already are upset the state's major cable companies -- Charter and Time Warner -- don't carry the Big Ten Network, another sports-only network that carries Big Ten college sports.
Last year, the NFL Network exclusively showed a December Packers game against the Minnesota Vikings. But the Dallas game is far bigger. The outcome could determine the top team in the National Football Conference.
Fans in Green Bay and Milwaukee will get to see the game. NFL rules require games be made available to over-the-air providers in a team's home market. But fans in other Wisconsin cities, including La Crosse, Madison and Wausau, will have to find somebody with a dish.
John Miller, a spokesman for Charter's Midwest region, said the NFL could have chosen to sell the game to any broadcaster it wished. Stacy Zaja, a spokeswoman for Time Warner Wisconsin, said the NFL has refused cable companies' offers to place the NFL Network on a sports tier, insisting it be part of expanded basic cable.
NFL Network spokesman Seth Palansky countered that cable companies insist there isn't enough demand for the network.
"We're trying to convince a company that thinks eight shopping channels and cage-fighting is what people want on their cable boxes more so than football," he said.
Football fans across the country have endured the same ordeal as Packers and Cowboys lovers, said Barry Orton, a University of Wisconsin-Madison telecommunications professor. Little will change until the NFL lets cable providers become partners in the network, he said.
"This whole thing goes away once they get a piece," he said.
Until then, fans can follow the game with online updates, visit friends with dishes, listen to the radio, rent a hotel room with a TV in Green Bay or Milwaukee or find a bar with a dish.
Jenny Annis, co-owner of Legends Bar and Grill in downtown Merrill, said her tavern switched from Charter to satellite about five months ago. She expects 100 people for the game, which is generating Super Bowl-level excitement.
Orton, however, said fans must realize football is a business, not a birthright.
"Nowhere in the Bill of Rights does it say you have the right to watch your hometown football team every weekend without paying more somehow," he said.
Those are fighting words in Wisconsin, where the people literally own the Packers, both on paper and in their hearts.
Tricia Weisheipl, 36, of Madison, plans to go to a bar to watch the game. Her 72-year-old Uncle Jim can't.
He's been in the hospital for several weeks with heart problems. He has a dish at home, Weisheipl said, but he'll be stuck listening to the radio Thursday night in the hospital. It won't be the same, and the stress over missing his beloved Packers in the biggest game of the year is making him feel worse, she said.
"He's livid. He's been watching them his entire adult life," said Weisheipl, who declined to give her uncle's last name. "When you're sick, you want the comforts of home, and you can't have that. I feel terrible for him. We're taking away one of his joys. The Packers are doing so well, of course he wants to watch them. That's part of being a Wisconsinite."
Associated Press writer Robert Imrie in Wausau contributed to this report.
posted by The Gryphon at 7:46 AM
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