It’s not often that we give the NHL’s promotion and marketing department props around here. After all, they are a league stuck on a network we can’t seem to find. But Eric over at Offwingopinion mentioned he downloaded four classic NHL games via Amazon Unbox today. Brilliantly, you can download it directly to your tivo.
This has me very excited. Not because I want to download a game where the Red Wings complete a sweep of the Flyers to win the Stanley Cup. (I think that’s the game, Amazon does a poor job of episode descriptions — it just says Air Date: 6/8/1997. I assume that the clincher is the classic game. Or maybe not.) In any case, I am excited because eventually the NFL will get their heads out of their asses and let us download classic NFL games too.
Imagine instead of getting grainy 3rd generation VHS copy of your favorite games, you could actually download a fairly decent version for $3. I’d do it in a heartbeat. I can guarantee that the moment they offer it up, I will buy three Eagles games from the past: 1980 NFC Game vs the Cowboys, the 2004 NFCCG vs the Falcons, and the 1995 Eagles vs Lions playoff game.
The NFL hates the idea that people might figure out a way copy and distribute the videos freely. But if you make it cheap enough, say, $2.99, there’s no need for most fans to spend hours finding the stuff online. I’d rather pay $3 for a game than have to worry about whether I’m going to get a virus from some shady site. Plus, most potential customers of classic games have jobs (except perhaps Raiders fans) and won’t think twice about spending $3. Maybe now that Roger Goodell has everyone scared to death of the new personal conduct policy, he can find some time to assign someone to figure this out.
Links:
[Amazon Unbox]: Classic NHL games
