The NFL is America’s favorite pastime. Everyone would sit with their friends and families on game night and root for their team. I would even say it’s the ultimate team sport that builds a team, even outside the gridiron and in family living rooms. But with the NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell’s wish to expand the sport globally, access to the national fans is decreasing. And it’s hitting Wisconsin at heart this year.

The Green Bay Packers have a prime time road game against the Los Angeles Rams on November 25 at 8 p.m. E.T. Yep, it’s Thanksgiving Eve. There’s a hurdle, however. The game can be streamed exclusively on Netflix. Meaning, you either pay for a subscription to the streaming service or you miss the game. To avoid either, Senator Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) has introduced a bill she has been targeting for at least a month now.

“As the cost of just about everything continues to rise, the NFL is once again asking Wisconsinites to spend their hard-earned money on another streaming service,” Baldwin said. “Enough is enough. My For the Fans Act would stop this exact scenario and prevent Wisconsin Families from being forced to pay for Netflix just to watch the Packers play this Thanksgiving.”

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Since the 1980s, when the NFL first began broadcasting its games on national cable, local markets have had free over-the-air access. However, with the sport’s globalization attempts and monetizing the ever-growing game, the NFL is switching to streaming service providers. For them, it is equal to more money and more impact. But for the homegrown fans who have loyalty to their teams, this is the toughest turn of events. That’s exactly what the For The Fans Act aims to end.

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It would require all nationally-televised games involving a team from a given state to be available throughout the state for free. It can be through broadcasting or a streaming service, but Baldwin wants it to change how the game is being sold.

“It is leveling the playing field for fans,” Baldwin told The Athletic’s Andrew Marchand in April. “Sports leagues and teams of all sizes will continue to be able to make money from advertising and media rights. We just want to have some basic ground rules to bring down costs for fans.”

Baldwin’s actions come at a time when the NFL is facing political pressure on multiple fronts. The Department of Justice is already investigating the league for allegedly exceeding its antitrust exemption. But this isn’t Baldwin’s first attempt to keep the football loyalists connected to the NFL. She has been fighting the Packers’ access problem on the local-broadcast side as well.

She introduced the Go Pack Go Act in 2022 to make sure Wisconsin subscribers in border counties could still watch Packers games on Wisconsin stations, and her office said the bill was meant to keep all Wisconsinites connected to Green Bay broadcasts.

Her latest bill goes after a different version of the same problem. The For the Fans Act, according to Baldwin’s office, is meant to stop sports blackouts and cut down on the kind of streaming restrictions that leave fans paying more for less access. As it stands now, the Packers-Rams game will be televised by network affiliates in Green Bay and Milwaukee. The rest of Wisconsin will need a Netflix subscription. It also applies to any Packers games on Amazon’s Prime Video.

The Senate office also understands the weight of this burden. In one release, Baldwin said that more than 400,000 Packers fans in 13 Wisconsin counties are assigned to out-of-state TV markets, and that some Wisconsin families could face the possibility of paying more than $1,500 a year to watch the Packers, Brewers, and Bucks.

The Thanksgiving game matters beyond just one holiday night.

Baldwin is using the Packers as the clearest example of what she says the league keeps doing: moving games behind paywalls and calling it progress. As it turns out, even the most powerful man in the country shares the same view.

Donald Trump speaks out against streaming charges

The President of the United States of America has also spoken up against streaming platforms and sports-media costs recently. This gives Baldwin’s bill a national backdrop. While Trump is not driving this bill, he is part of the same public argument over what fans have to pay to watch games.

“There’s something very sad when they take football away from many people. Very sad. I don’t like it,” Trump said on Full Measure with Sharyl Attkisson. “They’re making a lot of money. They could make a bit less and let the people see.

“You have people who live for Sunday. They can’t think about anything else, and then all of a sudden, they’re going to have to pay a $1000 a game. It’s crazy. So, I’m not happy about it.”

Baldwin had previously addressed Trump’s $1000 dollar per game scare through her initiatives. She is trying to turn a Packers problem into a broader consumer-rights fight, and the Thanksgiving Netflix game gives her an example to make her case.

The Go Pack Go Act was the local fix. The For the Fans Act is the larger one. Together, they are Tammy Baldwin’s answer to a sports business that keeps pushing fans into more subscriptions and fewer easy ways to watch. The NFL may call it a holiday showcase. But Baldwin and Donald Trump are calling it just another bill on the fan’s tab.