What a Game!

Everything went wrong for the Cowboys last night. Romo looked awful, throwing 5 interceptions and losing a fumble. What was supposed to be an easy blowout win for Dallas quickly turned into a nightmare.

But as you probably know, they came back and scored 9 points in the final 20 seconds to win on a field goal as time expired. They improved to 5-0 and are set to play the 5-0 Patriots next Sunday in Dallas.

Looking forward to the game, many people predicted a blowout. I was listening to some pre-game blab on the radio and they were predicting scores like 37-3, or 34-10. But when Buffalo picked off Romo's first pass of the game and returned it for a touchdown, it was obvious this game was not going to be how anyone expected. The announcers on ESPN called it the best game of the season. After the game, some journalists would dub it an instant classic.

I don't know about all of that, but it was a great game -- a game I almost wasn't able to watch because it was broadcast on ESPN, which of course we don't receive on our Over The Air antenna. It was a situation I've found myself in many times over the years: a big, important sporting event which I am unable to watch because it's either broadcast on a channel I don't receive, or our local affiliate chooses to broadcast a different game or program instead of the one I want to see.

This happened a couple of weeks ago when Dallas played Miami. It was a Sunday morning, and the 10 AM game was supposed to be Cowboys vs. Dolphins. I wasn't going to church this day, so I turned on the TV around 9 AM to see all the Fox guys doing their pre-game routine. It ended at 10 AM, but instead of switching over to the Cowboys game, our local Fox affiliate switches to... That 70's Show. That's right. After spending an hour previewing all of the NFL games that day, our Fox affiliate, in all of its infinite wisdom, decides nobody wants to watch the actual football game this Sunday morning. The pre-game show plenty.

Two weeks later it was Cowboys vs. Rams. Lacey likes the Rams; I like the Cowboys. Our local Fox affiliate? They like Seafa^H^Hhawks vs. Cardinals.

So what's a guy to do? Your favorite team is being broadcast on national TV, but your local affiliate isn't interested in carrying the game. Or, it'll cost $50/month just to get a sports channel so you can watch them once a week. In my next post, I'll tell you the solution I've found to this problem that has allowed me to watch every game this year without spending a nickel.