Even if Favre plays this year, he won’t be on my screen

I mentioned at the very end of yesterday’s blog post that the NFL season was about to kick off and I left my readers with a resounding “uh-oh”. The reason for the “uh-oh” is that my new antenna-only television setup is going to cripple my ability to watch my favorite NFL team, the Green Bay Packers.

You’d think I would be used to not seeing the Packers given that I have lived in Indiana now for almost 16 years. But don’t forget during 12 of those years I had DIRECTV with the Sunday Ticket package that allowed me to see every single NFL game, not just the Packers.

So it’s crunch time, what am I going to do? I wish I had a solution but all I really have are a bunch of compromises. They are compromises because there is no legal way to watch the NFL over the Internet unless you live outside of the United States. The only exception to this is the Sunday Night game on NBC, who recently announced they would stream the game over the Internet. Thanks, but I already get NBC on my antenna. That’s the one night game I actually can watch.

Here’s a quick list of ways I think I might be able to see the Packers this season:

Pray every Sunday morning when the Indianapolis Colts and Green Bay Packers play at different times that my local affiliate will choose to air the Packers during the alternate time slot.
Become really, really good friends with a neighbor that has DIRECTV with the Sunday Ticket.
Head to a local sports bar and eat and drink reaaaaaaaaaaaaally slooooooooooow.
Log on to the web site of a radio station that broadcasts the Packers game and listen to the audio stream of the game.
Log on to www.nfl.com and watch the web-based, flash animated play-by-play on my computer.
This last one may be my secret weapon. Purchase a Slingbox player and connect it to a television of a friend or family member in Wisconsin. I’ll spare everyone the technical setup and description of a Slingbox player. Believe me, if this works, I’ll blog about it!