Thinking about this weekend’s football…

…I almost feel like a traitor regarding a decision I’ve made about the NFL games on Sunday.

Deciding about the college games on Saturday is easy. My Texas Longhorns don’t play this weekend, and the TX Tech Red Raiders aren’t listed on the few local channels I can pick up with my rabbit ears, so I can simply play the games that are coming in with the strongest signal. Luckily, the Notre Dame game is on one of my most reliable channels. That’s the one I most want to see. But I’ll have the others on, too. It looks like I’ll have seven solid hours of college football to watch, assuming I’m up by 11:00 AM.

Sunday will be a full day of NFL ball, followed live via NFL Field Pass. It just so happens that the New Orleans Saints, a team I’ve really enjoyed following this season, will be playing at the same time as the Dallas Cowboys. Now, the Cowboys are my “home team,” San Antonio being thought of as the Cowboys’ second home. They hold summer camp here, etc. But… in all honesty, I haven’t enjoyed following their games nearly as much as I have the Saints’ games. So… I’ll probably follow the Saints on Sunday.

A nice thing about my NFL Field Pass membership, if I want to listen to a recorded version of the Dallas game, or any other NFL game, for that matter, I have access to it for free in the “archives.” The only issue will be finding the time to listen to it. That, and finding the desire.

The Weekend’s Football

Saturday I didn’t catch any of the college games. That’s kind of a bummer, but I did take care of more chores than I expected to, so there is that. I’m happy to note that the two college teams I most try to follow, the Texas Tech Red Raiders and the Texas Longhorns, both won convincingly despite the fact that I wasn’t actively cheering them on.

• TX Tech 55 – Rice 10
• TX Longhorns 41 – Wyoming 10

Sunday’s NFL games have been (are) fun to follow. Yes, I could have caught these on TV, but I opted to listen to radio broadcasts instead. The radio play-by-play coverage in every instance is far superior to that lame product offered by the television networks.

• Cowboys 34 – Tamp Bay 21 (Final) Yes! My Cowboys start this season with a win!
• Giants 23 – Redskins 17 (Final) I don’t have much emotional investment in either of these teams, but I like to cheer for the Giants (except when they play my Cowboys) mostly because I want to see Eli Manning win.
• Chicago 2 – Green Bay 10 (at half-time) Again, I don’t really have a favorite in this game, but it’s fun to follow. The first half was brutally physical, as expected when the Bears and Packers play.

I caught the Cowboys game over WOAI AM, my hometown radio station which is part of the Dallas Cowboys Radio Network. And the other two NFL games come to me from NFL Field Pass, which is one fantastic service, in my opinion.

Whether or not I follow one or both of tomorrow’s Monday night games remains to be decided. But I do know for sure, if I do catch one or both of them, it’ll be over NFL Field Pass.

NFL Field Pass, getting better

This is my first year using the NFL Field Pass service to listen to live play-by-play broadcasts of the games (was it even offered last year?) and I’m happy to note that it’s playing much better tonight than it did for most of last weekend.

The problem in most of the games (that I listened to, anyway) last weekend had to do with sound-leveling. If I had my speakers set at a comfortable listening volume during the live game broadcast, I’d be blasted away by how loud the “NFL bump music” was that game on during commercial breaks. This week that’s not the case at all. Monday’s game had good, even sound volume all the way through, and so does the Colts/Eagles game I’m listening to right now.

Happiness.