Devoted to Managers and those that seek to improve their management skills

The move by the National Football League to go to Texas lawmakers in an attempt to force a deal with the cable companies, was irresponsible and wreckless.

At issue is the four-year-old NFL Network, which is available in 35 million homes across the U.S. The "Network" and NFL owners want the games it offers to be aired through a basic cable deal, which would have consumers pay about 60 to 70 cents a month to get it.

Cable companies on the other hand, Time Warner Cable (TWC) in this case in Texas, want to offer it on a surcharged sports tier, where subscribers would pay more for it, from the fee being passed on to them. The NFL Network has rejected Time Warner's offer, thus the appearance before Texas lawmakers.

NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said, "This is about fans and consumers having access to the programming they want."

Representing the Texas Cable Association, Todd Baxter, general counsel, responded saying that when the league pulled games off of free TV and put it on its exclusive network, that's what hurt fans, not the cable companies.

"The billionaire NFL owners have every right to make more money, but they need to be intellectually honest about it and stop blaming the cable companies," Baxter said.

This is wrong to me by the NFL, in that bringing a case where businesses are in negotiations before a lawmaking body not only sets a bad precident, but also asks elected officials to do something they're not trained or responsible for.

It's nothing new to see companies go before a legislative body to manipulate them to get their way, but to use it to sway negotiations is ridiculous. The only reason this fiasco was allowed to happen, was fans called up their representatives in large numbers because they weren't able to watch the Dallas Cowboy game against the Green Bay Packers. They had to make a show of getting together to placate their constituents. Otherwise I don't believe there would have been a hearing at all.

What I don't like about this is many companies and organizations say they want less government interference, but here they are pushing them to get involved; at least from the NFL's actions.

If the NFL wants cable companies to carry their network, than they either need to agree to their desired terms or go without. They made that decision when they created the exclusive network.

To bring the goverment into it is to waste their time on trivialities, and bring them into the market where they don't belong.