Chris Russo Can't Figure Out How To Access Sunday Ticket On YouTube

Chris "Mad Dog" Russo does not use an email service. He does not control his social media pages. He reads physical newspapers. Unless someone shows him, he doesn't know what's written about him online.

He does, however, have internet in his home. But that is only to stream live sports. And therein lies his gripe.

Since 1994, DirecTV has exclusively offered NFL Sunday Ticket, allowing subscribers to watch all out-of-market matchups. DirecTV offered the service as an add-on cable package (and later to streamers).

But DirecTV is no longer the home of Sunday Ticket. YouTube is.

Therefore, viewers no longer have the option to watch the package on cable. Through YouTube, Sunday Ticket is available to streamers only.

Thus, Chris Russo tried to sign up for the new version of Sunday Ticket on Monday. Here's how it went:

Russo hasn't been that angry since he learned he had to sign up for AppleTV+ and "The Peacock" to watch MLB games.

" is baseball fooling around," said Russo. And I’ll tell you, that’s dangerous. That’s dangerous.”

His points are valid. The advent of streaming is a disservice to sports fans.

Let's consider the upcoming NFL season:

Fans have to subscribe to Amazon Prime to watch Thursday Night Football. Peacock will exclusively stream one regular season game and one Wild Card weekend matchup this year. Some international games will also air only on ESPN+.

No wonder the technology-challenged, like Chris Russo, are irate.

But it's not just people like him. Streaming has made it more expensive for viewers to watch sports. Streaming is. Fans still have to pay for cable in addition to several different streaming services.

Viewers have to access three streaming services (ESPN+, Amazon, Peacock), two cable channels (ESPN and NFL Network), and four broadcast networks (Fox, ABC, NBC, CBS) just to watch the NFL this fall.

College football fans have it no better. Did you know only Peacock subscribers can watch the 2nd-ranked Michigan Wolverines face East Carolina in Week 1?

UFC fans have to subscribe to ESPN+ to watch any pay-per-view event. As do NHL fans to view most regular-season hockey games.

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That said, YouTube will be an improvement over DirecTV as the home of Sunday Ticket, the lack of cable offering notwithstanding.

Through DirecTV, the service was often nonfunctional. It would tell paying subscribers they were not subscribers at various points throughout the season, including Week 18 last year.

The customer service was egregious. The streaming component frequently crashed and directed users to dead links. The interface was also convoluted.

If nothing else, we suspect YouTube will provide a functioning service this season.

But we hear you, Mad Dog.