Confessions of a RedZone Channel Hater: TRAINA THOUGHTS

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1. There are a small handful of things that you are just not allowed to criticize on the Internet. Ever.

Beyoncé. Chick-fil-A. Dogs. The Rock. The NFL RedZone channel.

I threw caution to the wind on Sunday and confessed to not loving the RedZone Channel on Twitter.

Quick backstory on this. After being a 20-year DirecTV/Sunday Ticket subscriber, I cancelled the service earlier this year after a technician didn’t patch 20-plus holes he put in my roof while moving a dish, which caused thousands of dollars in damage that DirecTV refused to reimburse me for.

For those 20 years, I never watched the RedZone channel. I was always a Game-Mix viewer. I always wanted to watch whatever game I wanted whenever I wanted. I never had a use for the RedZone channel.

Without Sunday Ticket this season, my plan was to rely on sports bars, illegal streams, my buddy Sal Licata (who has Sunday Ticket and gave me an open invite to his house every week) and RedZone to get me through every Sunday.

My thinking was that I just needed these options for the 1 p.m. games because the best game of the day is usually on national TV at 4:25 and there were only two or three other games in that time slot, so I could manage things fairly easy.

However, I quickly realized RedZone was not for me. To be completely control-less over what I watch does not sit well with my personality. I also don’t need ANY highlights from a meaningless Redskins-Dolphins game while other games are going on.

The truth is, there need to be three RedZone channels. One for fantasy players, one for gamblers and one for people who just care about football.

I am well aware that I’m out on an island on this. I fully understand the RedZone’s immense success and enormous popularity. It’s easily one of the best sports innovations of our lifetime.

But for me, going from Game Mix for 20 years to RedZone, can’t be done. I went from having the full meal to just nibbles here and there. 

While I knew saying this out loud on Twitter would make people think less of me, I didn’t expect to hear from a RedZone host. But I did.

As you can see, unlike most people on Twitter, Andrew Siciliano gets it. And he’s such a good sport that he accepted my invite to come on the SI Media Podcast this week for an interview, so stay tuned.

2. Very nice job by WWE superstar John Cena here with a hefty donation to the Los Angeles Fire Department.

3. Apparently there are many definitions of "most-watched" out there.

Fox claims that Ohio State-Wisconsin was the most-watched college football game on Saturday.

ESPN claims that Notre Dame-Michigan was the most-watched controlled (whatever that means) Big Ten game of the day on Saturday even though Ohio State-Wisconsin was also a Big Ten game and Fox already claimed that wast the most-watched game.

CBS claims that Auburn-LSU was the most-watched college football game on Saturday.

4. This is one hell of an effort from Texans wide receiver DeAndre Hopkins. 

We still give the edge to best Halloween costume so far from an athlete, though, to Packers tight end Jimmy Graham.

5. The New York radio wars between WFAN's Mike Francesa and ESPN Radio's Michael Kay just got very interesting with Kay beating Francesa in listeners on radio and via streaming for the first month of the three-month ratings book.

6. The latest SI Media Podcast features a great conversation with High Noon co-host Bomani Jones. Jones talked about how he navigates controversial topics at ESPN, the LeBron James backlash over the NBA/China story, why the media has punted on the Tyler Skaggs story, why being too smart is bad TV, Eddie Murphy's comeback, why Stevie Wonder may not be blind and much more.

You can listen to the podcast below or download it on Apple, Spotify, Stitcher and Google Play.

7. RANDOM YOUTUBE VIDEO OF THE DAY: Despite Jim's negative attitude, The Office always celebrated Halloween in style.