Red Zone Ready

With a rare Sunday off during the football season, I found myself watching, what else, football for most of the day. But it was a very different experience. I tuned in the NFL RedZone channel to see what all the fuss was about.

Phil Taylor wrote about it in Sports Illustrated last week in the Point After column.

My colleague Kevin Talley has been telling me about it all year long.

The concept is that every NFL game has exciting moments so why not skip all around the league and see what’s happening in every game that’s being played? They do a “look in” during regular broadcasts so why not have a “look in” channel? It starts at one o’clock and doesn’t stop until the last game is over. Seven hours non-stop, without commercials. That’s right, no commercials and constant action.

I will say it’s a little hard to follow at first until you get into the flow of what they’re doing. Because of the bad weather in the mid-Atlantic, there were six early games all going on at the same time. Back and forth, over and over, all over the country, big plays, first down throws, turnovers, missed field goals, interceptions, you have everything going on on the field, and cataloguing it in your head.

It does give you the feeling that everything you’re watching is the most exciting thing that’s happening. I found myself having a rooting interest in just about every game and got to see all the big plays. It’s fun and it’s pretty addicting. Every time you get up to go do something, you’re sucked back in to a new game.

Even though it’s called RedZone, you do see all kinds of plays all over the field. Maybe it’s in response to something they have on DirecTV or Dish Network but I don’t know who’s making money on it. Right now it’s pretty pure and if you’re not following one team, or if you’re really into fantasy (nerdy) you’re entertained the entire time.

And one more plus: blacked out games don’t count on the RedZone. Your game is blacked out, go to RedZone and see the game. As Taylor said in his column, it’s so much fun, I’m sure the NFL will get rid of it. Somehow.