Think of it as the necessary candy and flowers.
I was brought up into an NFL that relied on regional viewership with barely a whisper of cable coverage.
Now the league is funneling in money from many different avenues. Things like the RedZone Channel nd the NFL Sunday Ticket allow fans to like any team they want — no matter where they live.
But easily the biggest change of the last 25 years has been the influx of fantasy football.
Just let these numbers soak in: Nearly 75 million Americans participated in fantasy football this past year to the tune of $4.