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The House Judiciary Committee’s hearing on whether major sports leagues, the NFL in particular, benefit consumers or violate the Sports Broadcasting Act of 1961 by funneling games behind increasingly expensive paywalls was a one-sided debate.
During the two-hour hearing, Republicans and Democrats on the committee did something rarely seen in Washington, DC these days: They mostly agreed.
Then another rare sight, as if seeing a unicorn wasn’t enough … the witnesses invited to testify all came to the issue on pretty much the same page and were generally not interrupted by committee members eager to get their time back.
JUDICIAL COMMITTEE REPORT ACCUSES NFL OF EXTENDING ANTITRUST EXEMPTION
NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell stands with the Vince Lombardi Trophy after the Seattle Seahawks vs. New England Patriots game at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, California on February 8, 2026. (Simon Bruty/Sports Illustrated via Getty Images)
It was like watching an All-Pro team bulldoze a roster of undrafted free agents who decided not to take the field.
And the NFL was the latter in this scenario because commissioner Roger Goodell was invited to testify but declined. And the league didn’t have anyone speaking on its behalf.
When Pakinomist Digital reached out to the NFL after the hearing to request its side of the story, there was no response. The NFL went dark on all issues related to this important hearing.
And the sense here is that the league may come to regret going silent because the calls to prevent it from diverting its games to paid streaming services were loud behind microphones. Consumer complaints about rising prices to watch games on these streaming sites were manifold and irresistible.
NAB COMMISSIONERS BACK FRUSTRATED AMERICAN SPORTS FANS AS LEAGUES TURN TO STREAMING SERVICES
So the NFL was televised this afternoon on Capitol Hill.
Rep. Scott Fitzgerald, R-Wis., leaves a meeting of the House Republican Conference at the Capitol Hill Club on February 28, 2023.
Member after member expressed concerns that the major sports leagues in general, and the NFL in particular, benefit from the antitrust exemption under the Sports Broadcasting Act while conducting their business outside the bounds of the law’s antitrust exemption that protects them.
Judiciary Subcommittee on Administrative State, Regulatory Reform and Antitrust Chairman Rep. Scott Fitzgerald, R-Wis., explained what the SBA should do.
FCC Chairman Questions NFL’s ANTITRUST PROTECTION AS LEAGUE SWITCHES TO STREAMING SERVICES
“Congress believed that joint television agreements would help make gaming more widely available to the public,” Fitzgerald said in his opening statement. “It would also preserve the competitive balance between the teams and keep the professional sports league financially viable.
“On the other hand, Congress sought to maximize the public interest by limiting the exception to “sponsored telecasting” only, to ensure that fans would have access to their favorite sports teams. Sixty-five years later, however, it is fair for this body to ask whether the professional sports leagues have held up their end of the bargain. In my opinion, because they don’t pay and sports fans pay.”
Fitzgerald took a stab at the league’s claim that 100 percent of its “local market games” are available free, over-the-air, and 87 percent of games have “primary distribution” on broadcast television.
Fitzgerald showed a clip from the Sunday Ticket’s own website trying to convince consumers to buy the product by warning that in the first month of the season, “94% of teams tend to have games on CBS and FOX that are shown to less than half the country.”
Streaming service EverPass Media announced that it will become the exclusive commercial provider of NFL Sunday Ticket beginning with the 2026 season. (Aaron M. Sprecher/Getty Images)
So the Sunday Ticket’s pitch to fans directly contradicts the NFL’s claims.
And what did the NFL say about that?
Nothing — because Goodell refused to testify, no one else took his place to represent the league’s interests, and the NFL didn’t want to comment on the case.
Curtis LeGeyt, the president and CEO of the National Association of Broadcasters, came to the hearing to advocate for America’s free local television and radio stations.
“NAB is not asking to repeal the Sports Broadcasting Act,” LeGeyt said. “What we’re asking is for the committee to confirm to its guardians that it’s meant to govern the negotiations between the league and the broadcasters. It’s not meant to be able to hide sports behind paywalls.”
LeGeyt also said the law is being “abused,” and he urged the committee to make sure it is enforced.
Of course, the NFL had no one present to push back on the idea that it breaks the law. It had no one to argue that millions of Americans are already behind the so-called paywalls and that a new generation of people are not patronizing over-the-air TV.
And the reason the NFL couldn’t do it is why? Because Goodell declined the committee’s invitation to do so, and the NFL found no ally in this hearing.
CLAY TRAVIS SAYS NFL SHOULD OFFER SEPARATE SUNDAY TICKET OPTION TO SAVE FANS MONEY.
OutKick founder and Pakinomist contributor Clay Travis interviews former President Trump during halftime of the Georgia-Alabama football game in Tuscaloosa, Ala. (Charles Hunnell/OutKick)
Pakinomist contributor and OutKick founder Clay Travis brought the kind of populist thinking that made his site a rising star in the media landscape to the committee.
“All of this,” Travis said in his opening statement, “should be examined through the prism of the reasonable sports fan, people like me and your constituents, ordinary fans who just want to be able to see their favorite team at a fair price without being ripped off.”
Travis highlighted what is happening in Buffalo now and the second week of the NFL season. The Bills will play their first ever game in their new stadium on September 17, 2026 against the Detroit Lions on Thursday Night Football.
Buffalo’s new $2.2 billion stadium that will host the game was funded in part by New York taxpayers, who are paying $600 million, and Erie County taxpayers, who are paying another $200 million.
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But while the game will be broadcast free over the air in the Buffalo TV market, Bills fans in nearby Rochester and Syracuse, who help fund the facility with their tax dollars, will need an Amazon Prime Video membership to watch the streaming broadcast.
They are taxed to pay for the stadium. And they have to pay to watch the game from home.
And what did the NFL say in response to this seemingly unfair situation? You guessed it. Nothing.
FOLLOW ARMANDO SALGUERO ON X: @ARMANDOSALGUERO
