Granted, you need a computer, subscription to it, hopefully a great set of speakers and a high powered CPU to make it the best it can be. But oh my, when you tune in live to the game, on a high speed connection, there’s nothing else like it. Gone are the days of sitting in dad’s truck parked in the driveway so you get the signal. Now it’s a giant sound, live feed, inside the house on rockin speakers, with live stats on the screen and even a little graphic of a scoreboard to mark progress.
And perhaps the best part of it all, is that you can switch sides with online radio. To listen to online radio for the games, you can choose which team’s coverage you want to hear. Home team, away team, you decide. You can switch to another game during halftime. You can switch to another game when yours is a blowout. You can see the rest of the scores from all the other games, and pick the closest game or pick the match going into overtime and tune in for the action. It’s the best online radio I’ve ever tuned into.
Granted, DirectTV’s NFL Sunday Ticket brought live football farther than probably any other technological advancement in the history of the game, aside from instant replay. And I haven’t had the opportunity to subscribe to NFL Network yet, but will do so the minute it’s available where we’re at. That said, the online coverage and the way it’s set up is a football fanatic’s dream come true. I’ve had days where the DirectTV feed was pure crap. Where the camera work is sloppy and slow, the graphics are hard to read, the down stats aren’t even on the screen, and the commentators are talking about their own lives while the game’s on the most important third down of the matchup. That’s what happens when your team is not the featured game. On those kinds of days, a fanatic household like mine turns down the volume on the television and cranks up the live radio feed online. Then it’s a whole different ballgame, so to speak. Coverage is everything to the football fan, and online radio is where it’s at for the pure of heart.
And then of course it goes without saying that sometimes that satellite is behind a storm, craps out, whatever it’s called when it’s not feeding. Or the electricity goes out for whatever reason. My laptops can run on battery, and if you’re like me, not missing a single down is nirvana, and online radio can deliver. Never before in the history of football was this possible, to get live coverage of all the games, at your fingertips. It’s the most exciting thing to happen to American Football since its inception.