Ohio Senator Sherrod Brown sent this letter to (hat tip to the Sports Fans Coalition).
He urges Commissioner Goddell to reconsider the NFL's blackout policy, citing "the average price of an NFL game ticket is $77 - nearly ten times the hourly minimum wage."
The letter focuses on the Ohio teams - Cincinnati and Cleveland - but probably applies to half the teams in the league (especially the Bucs) as they struggle with ticket sales.
Another thing to keep in the back of your mind...I believe every NFL team plays in a stadium partially- or entirely-subsidized by public dollars. It doesn't necessarily give taxpayers the right to watch the games inside, but it could be a leverage point politicians bring up if they decide to get as involved in the blackout debate as they did in the steroid scandals.
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Excellent point, Noah, regarding the connection between tax-payer funded stadiums and blackouts. However, the Senators are barking up the wrong tree. The need to turn their attention to the TV networks and not the NFL. The networks have all the leverage to force the NFL to modify the blackout rules.
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