During the fall semester, there are

several things that Eastern student look forward to. One of those

things is NFL football every Sunday.

Many Eastern students spend their

Sundays watching nothing but NFL football and checking their

fantasy team scores.

I think the majority of Eastern

students are Bears fans, followed by Packer fans, and then Colt and

Rams fans bringing up the rear.

For us Bears fans, going to a school

in the middle of Illinois you would hardly believe that we are just

a few miles from not seeing the blue and orange every week.

For my radio show, I check the NFL

distribution maps, which inform viewers what games will be shown in

their area and which announcers will be calling the game.

Charleston is on the border every week

between either receive the Bears game or the Rams game; sometimes

you would just have to go as far as Effingham to watch the Rams

instead of the Bears.

I believe this is a problem since

Eastern is situated more toward central Illinois and not Southern

Illinois.

We should not have to worry about

watching another team instead of our Bears.

This is the only thing that concerns

me when it involves the NFL and Eastern because being here offers a

little bit more than other places do.

Eastern use to have two CBS channels

before the one of the channel which on some weekend enabled eastern

viewers to get two different games on CBS while Fox still had

Double-Header coverage for the week.

Eastern should take it a step further

and either expand to the NFL Network or better NFL Sunday Ticket.

If Eastern were to get the NFL Network, I believe it would boost

the Charleston economy because of the Thursday night game the NFL

Network broadcasts beginning in week 10.

Students would want to spend money on

food and beverages because they would be excited to watch NFL

football on Thursday night.

Jimmy John and Dominos would probably

see an increase in deliveries depending on how big the Thursday

night game is.

It would also provide students with a

stress relief from homework and studying, they can watch the game

as a break from school work and then go back to work after the game

is finished. There would be a few happier and stress relieved

students on Friday morning.

Eastern should also look into getting

NFL Sunday Ticket as away to reward the students with as much

football as they can handle. It would be nice to get a choice of 12

games every Sunday outside of the primetime games.

There are students who are fans of the

other teams such as the Denver Broncos, New York Giants, Miami

Dolphins, and San Francisco 49ers. Eastern getting either NFL

Sunday Ticket or NFL Network, but it would be fun to see the

students reaction to either programs being added to the cable deal

that Eastern currently has.

srpuschmann@eiu.edu.