Is The NFL Network Really At Fault?

This is from Friday's Houston Chronicle, but I just got around to reading it today, which is probably a good thing because it would've put me in a bad mood over the weekend.

Towards the end of this David Barron media column, he chastises the NFL Network for not making tomorrow night's Texas Bowl, featuring Rice versus Western Michigan, available on one of Houston's local, over-the-air stations. And in some ways, this is a valid complaint, especially in that the NFL Network made the game available to an over-the-air station in Grand Rapids, Michigan, which is Western Michigan's home TV market.

Barron omits some important items, however. Like, did the NFL Network make the game available to a Houston TV station? If so, what did the NFL Network demand, money wise, from the Houston stations? There are no comments, no quotes, no statements from the NFL Network or from any general manager/programming director/sports director at any of the Houston TV stations.

So, we don't know all of the facts. Barron doesn't like the NFL Network, and he doesn't like that the Network is not available throughout much of the country -- he doesn't say that in this column, but he's written this in the past. So it's likely there is some bias in his writing. And it's quite possible that this is all the fault of the NFL Network. But the support for this contention isn't there. It's quite possible that all of Houston's TV stations thought this game just wasn't worth the cost.

But I've got the NFL Network, so I don't really care. Not that I'll be watching the game. I'll be at Toyota Center watching the Houston Aeros. I'd just like for all of the facts to be put out in the story.