NFL RedZone Is The Way To Go

I consider myself an obsessive NFL fan. To point: once, when I discovered that a game I really wanted to watch would not be on TV at my house, (we didn't get NFL Network at the time) I successfully convinced my brother (doesn't like football) and friend (just got off work) to come with me to a sports bar in West Newton (Massachusetts) to watch just about 2 hours of the game. On a Thursday night. And the Packers lost, after all that.

The point here is this: I rarely let anything stand in front of my obsession.

You can imagine how shocked I was, therefore, to discover that I'd completely missed the best innovation to come to the NFL since instant replay. I'm speaking of the unspeakably awesome new NFL channel: NFL RedZone.

Whoo boy.

Basically, NFL RedZone combines everything one could like about football, and takes away everything one could dislike. From 1-8 on every Sunday afternoon, NFL RedZone provides a 100% commercial free blast of distilled awesomeness.

Normally, the flow of watching an NFL game on TV can be tedious. For a game with only 60 minutes of clock, most games take over three hours. You've got to put up with endless commercials, penalties, long replay reviews, inane commentary, and Shannon Sharpe trying to speak the English language. It's not always pretty.

I know I sound like I'm on the payroll here, but the service really blew me away.

I started my first NFL RedZone experience at 1 pm. sharp last Sunday. Energetic studio host Scott Hanson informed me that there were 6 games currently going on, and that I would be updated on each and every one of them thoroughly. It's whip-around style coverage that shows you every important or awesome play either live, or a few short seconds after its occurrence.

I saw Randy Moss tiptoe his way to a beautiful touchdown against the Bills live. Seconds later, I saw the incredible Browns return man Joshua Cribbs return a kickoff 100 yards for the TD, whirling and cutting his winding way. Also live. WOW.

Did I mention there are no commercials? That it's in crystal-clear HD? For seven straight hours?

Phil Taylor of Sports Illustrated wrote his column last week in praise of the channel, humorously noting that, "During his seven hours on the air he [Scott Hanson] gets only a two-minute bathroom break and, if he's lucky, a bite or two of a sandwich." Hanson aptly sets the stage before each switch, and one always knows what's going on in all the games currently on.  The people behind this channel are intense and seriously pumped about it, and it shows.

This channel is carried by most cable providers in their basic package (it's channel 899 Hi-Def, for those of you who have Comcast), and actually has been around since Week 1 (September). I can't believe I missed it until now.

For the big fans out there, it's still no substitute for seeing the entirety of your team's game. I watched the Packers/Steelers game last weekend on boring 'ol FOX. And what a game it was...(that still stings)

However, whenever a commercial came up, and for the entirety of halftime, you know where I was. 899 all the way.

As a whole, RedZone offers unequaled coverage, excitement and distillation of the NFL. It seems almost too good to be true, and I hope it's around for some time to come.