WASHINGTON (AP) – Senators have asked the NFL commissioner to tackle the issue of making more game day TV broadcasts available to local fans for free.
The league has said it provides free broadcasts in the home cities of competing teams. But 13 lawmakers said in a letter this week to Roger Goodell that the NFL is too narrowly interpreting what is a home city.
“The policy leaves behind NFL fans across the country simply because they live outside cities to which the NFL has granted franchises,” according to the letter made public Wednesday. For example, the NFL does not consider the western Pennsylvania town of Johnstown part of the Pittsburgh Steelers’ home market, the letter said.
played by their closest team or the team it has been historically aligned to.
The NFL did not immediately respond to a request for comment Wednesday.
Signing the letter were: Sens. Arlen Specter, R-Pa.; Jack Reed and Sheldon Whitehouse, both D-R.I.; Pete Domenici, R-N.M.; Mike Enzi and John Barrasso, both R-Wyo.; Joe Lieberman, a Connecticut independent; Dick Durbin, D-Ill.; Patrick Leahy, D-Vt.; Ken Salazar, D-Colo.; Bernie Sanders, a Vermont independent; Wayne Allard, R-Colo.; and John Thune, R-S.D.
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