John Kerry taking on the weighty issues

John Kerry has been pressuring cable companies and the NFL to reach an agreement so that more people could see Saturday's possibly history-making game between the undefeated New England Patriots and the New York Giants.

Kerry asked football Commissioner Roger Goodell today to move the game to NBC – and threatened Senate hearings if he does not.

“Under the unfortunate circumstance that this matter remains unresolved, leaving 60 percent of households across the country – including thousands in Massachusetts – without access to Saturday’s game, I will ask the Senate Commerce Committee to hold hearings on how the emergence of premium sports channels are impacting the consumer,” he wrote to Goodell today in a letter released by his office.

The Massachusetts Democrat added that he would “consider what legislative measures may be necessary to ensure that consumers are more than bystanders in this process.”

I suppose that would come under Americans' right to life, liberty, and the seeing important NFL games. It might indeed be crummy that the NFL is seeking to make more money by pushing more games to their own NFL premium channel. But Congress has no business trying to tell the NFL and cable companies what they should and should not carry. There is way too much of that already and laws should not be passed on the basis of one football game, no matter how historic.

Of course, John Kerry is not the first one to realize the possibilities of getting involved in sports-related issues. I'm sure we'll see all sorts of congressional hearings based on the Mitchell report. Whatever gripes you might have with professional sports in this country, the solution is not for congressional hearings and some sort of law geared towards showing voters how these congressmen can demagogue on sports.