December 31, 2007
Cleveland Plain Dealer (OH)
Editorial 

So the New England Patriots ran the table, and if you cared to see it happen, you were able. Fans didn't need the NFL Network, after all. Nor did they need Patriots coach Bill Belichick to slip them copies of his secret game videotapes.

It didn't always look as if this would end so well for the fans. The NFL engaged in a lot of chest-thumping and trash-talking, right up until the middle of last week, about how it wasn't going to let anyone but subscribers to its very own NFL Network - who amount to not even 40 percent of U.S. residents with TVs - see the Patriots make their bid to become the first NFL team in history to go 16-0 in the regular season. 

But in the end, the league saved itself some embarrassment - and a good deal of football fan wrath - by allowing instead an embarrassment of televised riches: The NFL Network feed was simulcast on both CBS and NBC.

Not only did fans not need the NFL Network, they didn't even need cable. Now that's a "throwback" game.