We’ve spent some time here at Extreme Mortman chronicling Congress’ involvement in sports (here and here)
We contend that Congress legislating professional sports is ridiculous.  Congress, apparently, disagrees.

So imagine our continued incredulity to learn this:

The NFL avoided a potential backlash by fans unable to watch the New England Patriots’ attempt to complete a perfect regular season, announcing yesterday that the NFL Network’s telecast of Saturday night’s game between the Patriots and New York Giants also will be carried by NBC and CBS.

Why did the NFL cave?  Largely due to pressure from Congress. Some examples:

New York Times:

The league’s decision to simulcast the game came amid mounting Congressional pressure to make the potentially historic game more broadly available.

The Connecticut delegation wrote to Commissioner Roger Goodell that the league’s definition of home markets was “unduly narrow,” leaving fans in cities around the state where loyalties are divided between their Giants and Patriots, without the same local broadcast option afforded the New York and Boston markets.

The Rhode Island delegation also protested the league’s market designations that would have deprived Patriots’ fans in Providence and throughout the state of seeing their team go undefeated unless they subscribed to DirecTV or the Dish Network, or got the NFL Netword from their local cable operators.

The league was also warned by Senator Patrick Leahy, Democrat of Vermont and the chairman of the Judiciary Committee, and Arlen Specter, Republican of Pennsylvania and the ranking member of the committee, that it was “exercising its substantial market power to the detriment of consumers.”

Washington Post:

Previously, Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) wrote a letter to Goodell and a cable executive urging a settlement.

Chicago Tribune:

“As a Bostonian, I couldn’t be more pleased that in just five days, the New England Patriots will attempt to become the first NFL team in 35 years to finish the regular season with an undefeated record,” Kerry wrote. “But as someone who represents all of Massachusetts and not just those in the Boston media market, I remain deeply troubled that today as many as 250,000 Massachusetts households, and millions of Patriots fans nationwide, may be denied access to this historic sporting event.”

With this kind of meddling going on, I’m now resigned to joining the bandwagon.  Ny new position: I hope that Congress demand the Washington Redskins beat the Dallas Cowboys on Sunday.  I’d settle for a sense of the Congress resolution, but if they want to withhold funds from the Iraq war effort until the Redskins win the Super Bowl, I’m fine with that.