Welcome to the terrible take, a daily segment telling Steeler Nation what's on our minds.

I'm Melanie Freelander.

All the talk this week in the world of NFL was about the schedule release.

Most Steelers fans were grumbling about the significant

disadvantage their team potentially faces. The players probably don't feel as

strongly about that. As defensive team captain, Cam Hayward mentioned in his

podcast a few days ago.

They've known who the opponents were for a while, so the order doesn't really make a difference

to him.

And while fans are stressed about the gauntlet of tough teams in weeks 11-18, Hayward made it clear that those teams will need to prepare for

Pittsburgh as well.

There is one thing that Hayward and the fans can agree on, though, and that is the ever-increasing

cost of watching NFL games from home. It used to be enough to have access to

cable or satellite TV that provided access to the four major networks, CVS, NBC,

ABC, and Fox. That is no longer the case as streaming services like Amazon Prime, Peacock, and now Netflix have entered the game.

The reason is clear.

The NFL doesn't ever miss a chance to make a fat profit and the more broadcast deals they make,

the faster the money rolls in. Based on the most recent deal negotiated in 2021,

the form main networks paid anywhere from 22 to 27 billion dollars for their share of games.

The YouTube Sunday ticket deal brought another 14 billion dollars

and Amazon added over 13 billion, totally more than 125 billion dollars in revenue.

Add Netflix to the mix and it's no wonder the salary cap went up.

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