Texas legislators have plenty on their plate already. All 150 House seats are up for election in 2008, along with a portion of the Senate.

Then the lawmakers report for duty in January 2009. They need not mess with what essentially is a private business dispute between the National Football League and cable television providers over who should watch which pro football games.

The issue boiled to a head in Texas leading up to a recent Dallas Cowboys-Green Bay Packers football game (which the Cowboys won, by the way). Fans throughout the Panhandle and elsewhere in Texas were incensed that they couldn't watch the game without buying access to it through the NFL network.

As a result, sports hangouts throughout Amarillo were packed to the rafters with fans watching the game on TVs plugged into the NFL Network.

Well, Cowboys owner Jerry Jones and NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell testified the other day before a House committee - that included Rep. John Smithee, R-Amarillo. They tried to woo lawmakers to their side.

The NFL is within its rights as a profit-making enterprise - and no one doubts that it is making huge amounts of dough - to get into the broadcasting business. As for the cable providers, they, too, are within their rights to compete with the NFL.

This is the public's concern only because football fans - and Texans take a back seat to no one in that regard - are caught in a private-enterprise power play. This isn't a matter that needs to be decided by yet another law.

http://www.amarillo.com/stories/121507/opi_9194007.shtml