Ike, ESPN: No Ravens-Texans For You!

Hurricane Ike is ruining everything. First, it caused the Astros to postpone two games against the Cubs, then it caused all sorts of chaos with damn near every college football program in Texas and now it might cost Ravens and Texans fans the chance to watch their team play. (Oh, and it could also cause death and destruction.)

The game between Baltimore and Houston was moved from Sunday afternoon to Monday night because of the storm. This seemed like a fine plan, but there's one problem: ESPN owns Monday nights from August through December.

We’ve confirmed via communications with NFL spokesman Greg Aiello and ESPN spokesman William Hofheimer that fans of the Ravens and Texans who don’t live in Baltimore or Houston and who have purchased Sunday Ticket specifically so that they can watch the Ravens or Texans play won’t be able to do so this week because of ESPN’s exclusive prime-time rights on Monday night.

This Monday, ESPN will be airing the Eagles-Cowboys game. And so the Ravens-Texans game can’t be televised, except in the teams’ home markets.

The game is being carried by CBS affiliates, so basically ESPN is trying to preserve as many viewers as possible by blocking fans from watching the Ravens and Texans. By rule, The Worldwide Leader has every right to do this, but that doesn't make it right. Just like my boss has every right to come over to my cubicle right now and tell me to go home because "casual Friday" doesn't mean you don't have to wear pants to work. That would be wrong, because, dammit, I'm comfortable, and so too is keeping displaced fans from watching their team.

But perhaps my outrage is misdirected. Really, Grothar, the god of weather, is at fault here. Or maybe it's all this global warming, maaan.

This post originally appeared on the Sporting Blog. For more, see The Sporting Blog Archives.