Sydney Australia Gets NFL Network

It took me traveling halfway across the world to finally catch an NFL Network televised game. I live in Los Angeles which is where the NFL Network is based, but my local cable system does not offer the channel. In Australia however, 17 hours ahead in time, and only about what, 10,000 miles away in distance, I was able to watch NFL Network games. Go figure.

First I saw my Bengals get embarrassed by the Niners on the Saturday night game two weeks ago. Less than a week later, I got to see the Steelers bring the pain to the Rams on Thursday night. Both telecasts were commercial free — it was amazing. The only thing that would have made the games better were if Gumbel weren’t doing the play-by-play; it’s really embarrassing how bad he is. I heard Gumbel screw up names, plays, and strategy analysis. I didn’t even have a spotting board or producer with me and I still knew the names of guys making plays on the field better than him.

So with the final game of the regular season for New England set for kickoff Saturday night against the Giants on NFL Network, I may have left Australia about a week too early. It sucks that most of the country won’t be able to get this landmark game. Further, I’m left scratching my head wondering why we can’t get our asses together to have it air 10 miles away, but they can figure it out 10,000 miles away. Incredible.

UPDATE: Per Signal in the comments, the game will now be simulcast on NBC and CBS