I am a longtime DirecTV customer and could not be more satisfied with their service. I am also a subscriber to MLB Extra Innings as it allows me to watch every game of my teams in New York from Florida. I also watch Football every week during Football season. I am an avid NY Giant fan but I also keep an eye on the Jets. What keeps me from investing in the NFL package is it seems that Football Season just isn’t long enough for the price of the package.

At least the MLB package allows me a full 162 game regular season for around $270 a year but I am a regular subscriber so I get a reduced price. If the NFL season was longer I would certainly consider adding the package onto my subscription.

How do you all feel about this, should the NFL have a longer regular season and is the NFL Sunday Ticket package worth it either way?

It should be, but only like two more games. And there should be more games out of the states, too.

Videogamegod : I wouldn’t be opposed to them doing a twenty game season not counting playoff games… Since they only play games two to three days a week it doesn’t seem so bad but that would make it easier to consider investing in the DirecTV package at over $300 if the season was longer at least it would soften the blow a little and be a good lead in to Baseball.

I think it's fine the way it is. I don't want football getting too close to the beginning of baseball season 8)

NotJon :
Well, Football in general goes close to Baseball season as there was the brief XFL and now there is the United Football League. I did enjoy the one week preview of NFL Sunday Ticket but I think $300 for a 16 week season is a little much… If the season were 20-25 games before playoff games are taken into account I could see that price being somewhat justifiable.

I have paid for the Baseball package for years and I will keep it probably even if I were to move back to New York… They have enhanced the package allowing people to gain access to virtually every regular season game. I’m not sure how digital cable does it’s version but the one year I had it via digital cable I felt it was sub-par because I couldn’t get access to the New York Weekend games from WWOR-TV or WPIX-TV in New York. Since switching to DirecTV almost ten years back each year the package has improved and there hasn’t been that much of a price increase. In regard to their NFL package it seems like it gets more expensive by year.

Oh don't mind me, I just get very defensive when it comes to baseball.

NotJon : I don’t mind at all… I live in Florida but I refuse to go against my roots no matter what the situation is. I was not in favor of the new stadiums they built for our baseball teams, especially new Yankee Stadium but I can’t go against them despite my opinion. Real Yankee stadium was a landmark and should be treated as such. Just my opinion.

Yea I think the season length is fine the way it is also. But I wouldn't want to pay 300 dollars for that service either. Thats overpriced, they probably make a good amount of money off of that and could easilym lower it. They just know how much football fans would want it.

tonetone714 :
Well they probably make a lot of revenue from their exclusive agreement with the league making the package exclusive to DirecTV and they probably make a lot of money off of sports bars and other establishments who can get around the infamous local blackout rules. In their defense though the other packages they offer MLB, NHL, NBA, and, College are reasonably priced.

As I said before I have been a customer for nearly a decade and don’t have a bad thing to say about the service though the added fee for HD feeds of Pay-Per-View events is something that I think could be done without but at the same token HD is not fully integrated as the norm yet so it is probably considered as a premium for cable and satellite distributors.

If I have it my way though I will never go back to cable.

It would be interesting to have a longer NFL season, but I am kind of opposed to it because games might only be 2 or 3 days a week, but you gotta take the physical strain into account, I would only be for it if there was a big extension of franchises in the league.

bvd1022 : Yeah, I can't believe they tore that place down. It was as part of the city as the Statue of Liberty, Empire State Building, pigeons, etc.

NotJon : Yeah you got that right… If there was ever a venue or building that was a historic landmark Real Yankee is the definition of it. I am a believer in preserving tradition and the bottom line is that the Steinbrenner’s could have renovated and added all that “Modern” amenities to the stadium and it would have cost far less than what the new stadium cost the tax payers.

What angered me was initially they said the real stadium would be used for non-baseball/community events not torn down. I haven’t been back home in almost ten years as I was last up there for an extended period seven months before 9/11. I am so use to flying into either Laguadia or JFK and flying over either Yankee or Shea. I don’t know what it will feel like next time I go home. I have friends that work at both places that have been trying to convince me to give each new place a chance but the way I feel about it is by just walking in the doors is condoning what they did.

I know in retrospect with everything going on in the country right now that it may not seem like such a big deal but I feel like what will end up happening is that a generation of kids will be raised with the impression that money should override history and that is a real tragedy. I was raised old school and although I maintain my loyalty to my home teams it’s tough for me to just go with the flow so to speak especially considering that I am a journalist.

In my opinion tearing down real Yankee was like someone trying to tear down the Vatican. It just doesn’t feel right…

I am in favor of the various programs that each team does for the community though so although I have an opinion on what they did with the stadiums and specifically how they paid for it, I can’t knife either for the good that they do for the city.



Hoochman : Well the NFL kind of already operates on a three day a week schedule that usually begins on Thanksgiving where you see games on Thursday, Saturday and, Sunday not counting the Monday night games obviously. I think if they wanted to they could do a 20-25 game regular season with a three day a week schedule and keep the usual bye week in place for every team.

I kind of find myself hoping that the UFL continues to succeed because it offers competition for the NFL and fills a void that the XFL was trying to fill but was not taken seriously because of whom was running the league. I actually enjoyed the XFL games and it would have been interesting to see if it could have continued and perhaps even grown.

With the United Football League now in it’s second year maybe there will be competition for the NFL that is an outdoor league, though I do enjoy Arena Football as well.

No...football sucks! I don't support violence.....i never understood why people like football. A bunch of men in girly tight outfits tackling each other....I'd rather play video games....LOL

YourMajestyKen : I am a gamer as well but I do enjoy sports and the reality is most sports have a potential for violence to begin with. Basketball players have danger every time someone goes for a basket of getting inadvertently hit and taking a band fall on the court which over the course of a game gets slippery due to perspiration of the players. Baseball players always have to worry about a collision either while field or trying to score runs, it comes with the territory.


I cover Boxing for a living so violence never really bothered me. I guess that could have something to do with the fact that I was born and semi-raised in New York who knows? I have also covered wrestling and have even considered venturing into Mixed Martial Arts but I haven’t made a decision on that as of yet but I do follow MMA closely.


I do enjoy playing the games though I will agree with you in part there. It seems that as time goes on the games are getting more and more realistic and I like that but I am a sucker for nostalgia particularly of the 80s and I doubt that will ever change.

I think that the football season should be expanded to twenty games per team. They only have sixteen and I don't think that is a lot of games.

I think they should extend it. Maybe to around 20-22 games or something per season. I always feel that football season should be long, so I don't see why not.

Absolutely not. The wear and tear on the player's bodies in a sixteen game season (up to 20 games counting playoffs) is considerable. I heard somewhere that the average RB career in the NFL is 3 years. Many of these careers are shorted because of injury. A lot of these guys will have lifelong complications from injuries accumulated on the job.

By increasing the length of the season, player fatigue will increase as they go deeper into the season. Fatigue is a precursor to injury. The NFL's injury rate is already nearly eight times that of any of the other major sports (according to a loosely read internet search). A line needs to be drawn somewhere, and I say we should draw it at 16 games.

On a somewhat related note, do you think Brett Favre will ever walk away from football, or do you think he'll be carried away?

I am fine with the current 16 game schedule. If they did do it, I would hope it would only be maybe a couple games and then reduce the preseason. However, then we would here about all these records being broken (naturally since there would be more games).

The season should be extended whats another 2 games hockey is an 82 game season not counting playoffs and it is just as physical as football. and footballs only played once a week when hockey is anywhere from 2-4 games a week if foot ball just drops 2 of there useless preseason games and start the season when those games would be played the superbowl would still be played on the first sunday of feb. and wouldnt interfear with baseball or any other sport that it does not already compet with