The NFL just signed an $113 billion TV deal while fans pay nearly $1,000 a year to watch football.
Now Congress is demanding the man who made that deal answer for it.
What Roger Goodell did next is the most NFL thing that has ever happened.
NFL Streaming Costs Hit Nearly $1,000 a Season and Congress Wants to Know Why
In 1961, Congress gave the NFL something almost no other American business has ever received – a blanket exemption from antitrust law.
The deal was straightforward: leagues get to sell their TV rights as one package, and in exchange, every game stays on free broadcast television.
JFK signed it. Congress called it the Sports Broadcasting Act.
For decades, it worked exactly as designed.
Then the money got big enough that the NFL decided the second half of the bargain didn't apply anymore.
Thursday Night Football went to Amazon Prime Video.
Christmas games went to Netflix.
NFL Sunday Ticket – the only way to watch out-of-market games – went to YouTube, and it'll run you $276 just to start.
Add Peacock for Sunday Night Football. Add ESPN for Monday Night Football. Add Netflix. Add Prime.
By the time you've assembled everything you need to watch the full 2026 season, you've spent nearly $1,000 – and that's before your internet bill.
Clay Travis Told Congress What NFL Sunday Ticket Is Really Costing Fans
Jim Jordan invited NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell to the House Judiciary Committee to explain how that's consistent with a law designed to guarantee free access to games.
Fox News contributor and OutKick founder Clay Travis took the seat Goodell left empty.
"Every single day, sports fans are getting gouged now for the opportunity of watching their favorite teams," Travis told the panel.
"Fans now pay far more money every year for something that by law in 1961 you all guaranteed for them should be free."
Travis said the NFL "quite clearly … is violating the plain intent of the law."
Rep. Scott Fitzgerald, chair of the antitrust subcommittee, backed him up with the numbers.
The NFL's first league-wide TV deal in 1961 was worth $4.65 million annually.
The 2021 deal is worth $113 billion across 11 years.
"Because they do not follow America's antitrust laws for television agreements, they can charge consumers inflated prices that would otherwise be illegal," Fitzgerald said.
FCC Chairman Brendan Carr had already warned the league: put enough games behind a paywall and the antitrust exemption disappears.
Roger Goodell Refused to Testify as the DOJ Probe Into the NFL Closes In
NFL general counsel Ted Ullyot sent Jordan a letter the week before the hearing.
Goodell wouldn't be coming.
The excuse was "ongoing litigation related to the topic of the hearing" – a reference to the Sunday Ticket antitrust case still grinding through the courts.
Jordan had already told the public exactly what the hearing was about: "Back when the Sports Broadcast Act was passed, the promise was you'll get to watch every one of your team's games for free."
Goodell has sat before Congress exactly twice in his career – once in 2009 on the concussion crisis, once in 2022 over the Washington Commanders scandal.
Both times, the NFL had something to hide.
This time, with a DOJ antitrust probe opened in April 2026 and the House Judiciary Committee issuing a formal report calling the SBA "a special-interest antitrust exemption gone awry," Goodell made the same calculation.
Stay home. Send the letter.
Goodell apparently didn't notice that three separate branches of the federal government came for him at the same time.
The House Judiciary Committee wrote to him in August 2025.
The DOJ opened its probe in April 2026.
FCC Chairman Brendan Carr warned publicly that too many games behind a paywall ends the exemption entirely.
That's Congress, the Justice Department, and the FCC – simultaneously – all pointing at the same law and the same league.
A smart man shows up, makes his case, and tries to slow that down.
Goodell stayed home, which means the three-front squeeze on the NFL's antitrust shield just lost its only chance at a defense.
The exemption the NFL has exploited for 65 years now goes into the next round of hearings with no one in the room willing to argue for it.
Sources:
- Ariel Zilber, "Congress takes aim at NFL's antitrust exemption over soaring TV costs for fans," New York Post, June 10, 2026.
- "New Report: The Sports Broadcasting Act: A Special-Interest Antitrust Exemption Gone Awry," House Judiciary Committee Republicans, June 10, 2026.
- "NFL commissioner Roger Goodell won't testify before Congress about league's TV and streaming deals," Fox Sports, June 3, 2026.
- "NFL fans' 2025 bills come under focus as FCC probes the rise of sports streaming services," Fox News, February 26, 2026.
- "2026 NFL season streaming costs, subscriptions revealed," The Big Lead, April 6, 2026.
- "FCC chairman questions NFL's antitrust protection as league shifts to streaming services," Fox News, 2026.