Not long ago, NFL games were on broadcast TV. Free. You turned on the television and watched the game. That was the deal.

That deal is gone.

Today, NFL games are scattered across CBS, NBC, ESPN, Fox, Amazon, YouTube and Netflix. To watch every game last season, fans paid close to $1,000 in cable and streaming subscriptions. That is not a sports budget. That is a car payment.

The NFL has an antitrust exemption that allows it to negotiate media rights as a league rather than team by team. That exemption was granted in 1961 to protect fans and ensure broad access to games. Instead, the NFL has used it to fragment its broadcast rights across as many paid platforms as possible, squeezing every dollar it can out of the fans who made the league what it is.

The Justice Department has now opened an investigation into whether the NFL's streaming deals violate antitrust law. That is a start. But an investigation is not enough.

Congress must modernize the Sports Broadcasting Act to reflect how people actually watch sports today. The NFL's antitrust exemption should come with real obligations to fans, not just profits for broadcasters and league owners.

Football belongs to the fans. Not to the highest bidder.

Sign this petition and tell Congress: update the law and make NFL games affordable and accessible for everyone.