All fans will have access to Pats game

[ProSense]

All fans will have access to Pats game[/h3>By RACHEL COHEN, AP Sports Writer

NEW YORK - After weeks of insisting they wouldn't cave in, NFL officials did just that Wednesday. Now all of America can see the Patriots' shot at history.

<...>

"We have taken this extraordinary step because it is in the best interest of our fans," commissioner Roger Goodell said in a statement after the league announced it was reversing course. "What we have seen for the past year is a very strong consumer demand for NFL Network. We appreciate CBS and NBC delivering the NFL Network telecast on Saturday night to the broad audience that deserves to see this potentially historic game. Our commitment to the NFL Network is stronger than ever."

<...>

Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., who co-wrote the letter with Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., said he was "delighted" by the NFL's concession.

"I think it was a smart move on their part," he said in a phone interview.

<...>

"I couldn't be more thrilled that as the Patriots rush toward an historic undefeated season, football fans everywhere have won a victory of their own," said Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., who had urged cable and NFL executives to settle the dispute. "With today's announcement, the NFL showed their loyalty to the sports fans who made the NFL an empire in the first place.

"The best news of all is that now no die-hard Pats fans will be shut out from watching their team take aim at football history," Kerry said in a statement.

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For reference.

[flyarm]

1. too bad that the senate doesn't think our privacy is just as important.

shaking head here..i know..football is more important than me being spied on...

or my family's emails being read..and our phone conversations being data based and listened to.

wow ...go football..we know these senators think it is more important than our civil liberties now.

fly

[ProSense]

2. Nothing about this implies that.

This is about people. Sports fans are people/voters/taxpayers too! Would you have Senators ignore the rules and disregard the fans? Say to hell with them and their interests? Why not stick with Bush and the Repubs on that score?

Complaining because Senators are doing their job, no matter how uninterested you are in the issue, is not in line with all the "we the people" posts I've seen on the blogs.

I simply don't understand how anyone believes that all the issues being address day in and out in Congress are related to crises. Here is an issue related to antitrust oversight and fan rights, and people are criticizing (bashing in some instances) Kerry for doing the right thing, again, no matter how mundane it seems to you.

There are enough posts around, many of them posted by me, informing about the things he continues to do to stand up for progressive Democratic values. A small group of people seem too eager to ignore those posts and latch on to any thing that they believe they can easily spin against Kerry.

I spent most of the last day here repeating the same thing over and over, and it was ignored. People weren't even interested in the facts. It's all "me and my frustration, screw everybody else."

Sports fans are frustrated too and this was important to them.

[flyarm]

3. sorry but we have soldiers dying daily..and i don't see the urgency of our dems in the senate

to getting them home to watch the games with their families!..or even getting home for the holidays!

and yes i understand sports my hubby and son were professionals..i just don't see how our senators can get this shit done but let our civil liberties get shit all over ..there are some priorities i find more pressing than a damn football game
and i don't see our senate doing a damn thing about those things..call me silly..but i think habeas corpus is more important and i don't see these senators banging the doors down to restore it...

or i don't see them getting our soldiers home..you know the reason we all worked so hard to get them elected??

i don't remember putting up big bucks and working my ass off to get a football game, baseball game..golf game , soccer game on tv..

but i do remember working my ass off to get habeas corpus restored..and getting the sob's who tapped my phones in jail..or at least get it stopped!

fly

[ProSense]

4. That's fine!

As I said, other people have rights too and there are rules.

This wasn't on the radar until it was posted here two days ago. I saw no one complaining about the Senate taking a recess because soldiers are dying.

Kerry has done more than most to try to end the war.

[flyarm]

7. oh i know Kerry has..i am not angry at him about this ..i am just angry that our soldiers

are still in Iraq and money was appropriated to keep them there..i am just so angy that my girlfriends son is in Iraq for his 4th time..and this time in Bagdad and he tells his mom they are only there babysitting a destroyed nation..

i am sick of it..and i am sick of repiglicans who never served this nation in uniform deciding the fate of these young people..
i could never be angry at Kerry..i love him dearly..

i am just angry that here we are 1 year after winning both houses of government and these bastards in this white house are having a wonderful holiday vacation.. while our kids are still at risk and dying..

and how any of us can enjoy a damn football game when our civil liberties have been destroyed all while our kids serve..thinking they are protecting our freedom and our constitution...it is just a hypocracy that escapes me.

as a mom..i am thinking of those kids first..not after a football game..that is where i am coming from..i ache for their parents..i ache for those kids many who may never come home..

i just looked at the pictures of Iraq and this war..and i was sitting here crying..aching for those we invaded and destroyed their country and their lives..and many who lost there lives..

i just think our senators have more pressing matters than sports..and i don't see the results i hoped we would all see..nor do we even see any results of much at all..

and for that i am angry and disgusted at this holiday time..a time the reflection takes place..for me....i want our kids home..i want our constitution and civil liberties restored..its my legacy to my children..and so far the legacy sucks.

but we will all be lucky to see the football game..

fly

[karynnj]

5. Kerry has been in the forefront on Iraq

and was one of the co-sponsors earlier this month on Feingold's bill to tie the funding to a policy change. Kerry was also one of 10 to vote against cloture on the FISA bill that is now going to be worked on next month rather than rammed through. Kerry also was the only person from our Congress willing to undertake the grueling schedule of a total of 40 hours of commercials flights to spend about 36 hours at the Bali conference meeting with several delegations. The international coverage was both more extensive and more positive than the US coverage.

Whatever time Kerry and his staff spent on this did not mean that they had less time on any civil rights issues. The problem is too many Roadblock Republicans - and Kerry has fought to get them to move to the center as much as anyone else.

[lib2DaBone]

6. TV-Time Out

There is no conection between these young lads and the selling of $6 beers at the stadium. Honest....

[TahitiNut]

8. Bread & Circuses

:puke:

[ProSense]

9. No the opposite of Republican

A Senator doing his job.

Now, is your opposition that the greedy corporations and NFL should take advantage of fans, trying to shake them down for more money, and Kerry should look the other way?

:puke: