Who’s ready for a WILD NFL Wild Card weekend?
No, I’m seriously asking. Because in order to actually be ready, you’ll have to have a subscription to NBC’s streaming service “Peacock” in order to enjoy all of the games this weekend.
Obviously, the decision to put an NFL playoff game between the Kansas City Chiefs and the Miami Dolphins (which cost Peacock a cool $110 million) exclusively on a streaming service has rubbed some people the wrong way.
Those people seem to forget that Thursday Night Football is exclusively on Amazon Prime Video nowadays, but maybe it’s different because it’s the postseason?
One person that’s really upset about it is sports analyst Charles Barkley. As he was finishing up an interview on ESPN Chicago’s Waddle & Silvy show, he almost out of nowhere took some parting shots at the NFL:
“Oh, man. Can I take a shot at the NFL? Showing this game not on cable, that’s low class. That’s not cool, they’re just being greedy pigs. I’m glad some NFL players are taking some shots at them.”
Greedy pigs…now that is a strong accusation from “Chuck.”
And Barkley was right, there are NFL players calling out their own league about the exclusive Peacock game. In fact, a defensive end from the Kansas City Chiefs sent out a post on X (formerly Twitter) last week voicing his displeasure with the league’s decision:
Barkley said that he’s going to be busy during the game anyways, so he won’t get to watch it. He made it very clear though that if he was able take in the game between the Chiefs and Dolphins, he would choose to boycott it (not subscribe to Peacock).
Charles had a lot in the tank with this take, and continued on his fiery rant against the NFL and Peacock by saying:
“I know the NFL is the biggest thing in the world, but to put this game on Peacock and make people have to buy Peacock, that’s just low class. I’m disgusted.
They sold the game for 110 million. And I know that’s a lot of money, but the NFL is making $20 billion a year. To screw your fans like that, it’s just not cool at all. That’s just flat out greedy and I’m disappointed in the NFL.”
You know what? I’m disappointed too, Charles. I will stand strong and not pay for NBC’s Peacock. Instead, I will go over to a friend’s house that already has the streaming service to watch the high stakes game. That should show the NFL…
You can view Barkley’s entire interview with the ESPN Chicago program below (he get’s into his anti-Peacock rant at the 40 minute mark):
