These previous posts have questioned the judgment of the National Football League owners in restricting viewership of NFL games through the new NFL Network. In this American.com op-ed, Will Wilson — who shares my lack of ability to win football pools — wonders the same thing:

For casual fans, as opposed to the diehards, spectator sports are a cultural artifact with unique rhythms and socialization rituals: we clean in the spring, we shop the day after Thanksgiving, and we watch football on Sundays. For casual fans, interest in the culture of football on Sunday afternoonsóand, crucially, around the water cooler on Monday morningsódepended on a rhythm that was broken once games began taking place midweek. Casual office pool participants didnít want to structure their weeks like hardcore fans. For them, the choice wasnít between football and no football, as the NFL would like to believe, but between football and reading, or sewing, or learning Mandarin, or watching sitcoms, or whatever it is that people do on Thursday evenings in December. These casual fans werenít interested in the game for the gameís sake. They were involved because the game opened up a social interaction without much time commitment. Many people in my office only watched on Sunday in order to participate in the pool, and participated in the pool because it only involved Sunday (with a Monday bonus if they were still in the running). For them, the NFL vanished between Tuesday and Saturday. When Thursdays became mandatory, the NFL ceased to exist for them altogether. [. . .]
All of this raises one question: why are professional sports leagues threatening to stamp out the cultural ties that keep casual fans interested in sports? Surely they are shrewd enough to recognize the riskóattempts to capture all possible present profits drive potential and future users to other hobbies. Fantasy sports are a billion dollar a year business, but much of that would erode quickly if initial entry costs were raised.
Both leagues have a ìlast period problemîóa phrase not from the language of sports, but of economics. Todayís ballplayers and owners donít care if tomorrowís ballplayers and owners make a dime, so theyíre willing to discourage potential fans of the future in order to capitalize on the diehards right now.

It is already absurdly expensive to attend an NFL football game in person. When the flap between the NFL owners and the cable companies over the NFL Network is eventually resolved, it will be more expensive to watch television because of NFL football. Maybe this is the way for NFL owners to maximize profits, but there are many other things to do in life than watch NFL football games. Just ask folks in L.A.