Bobcat Johnson was not the only local sports mogul to make a fool of himself recently. Carolina Panthers president Mark Richardson, in his capacity as VP of the NFL Network, went up to Raleigh to try and get the General Assembly to basically compel Time Warner and other cable outlets to carry the NFL Network as a basic cable channel.
Mind you, TW and the cable guys are more than willing to offer the network as consumer choice add-on for $4 or $5 bucks a month. The NFL says no. That is not what we want. We want the maximum possible audience number to trot out to our corporate partners so they will hand us larger sacks of the cash.
Oh, wait. Richardson and crew do not actually say that out loud. Instead they trot out some crap about fans and consumers and fairness. Not surprisingly, Richardson has roped in state Rep. Drew Saunders (D-Meck.) to help shill for the league.
Guess what, Mark — if you succeed in screwing over the North Carolina viewing public in the name of increasing the NFL’s broadcast hegemony, I’ll never buy another Panthers ticket again. Your dad was able to sell burgers without a government mandate — can you do anything at all on your own?
