Congressional leaders intervened to make sure people could see NE QB Tom Brady and his teammates' Dec. 29, 2007 football gameThe NFL is making football fans around the country happy tonight by showing the New York Giants vs. New England Patriots game not only on the NFL Network station, which has limited availability on cable systems, but instead also running it on two over the air networks, CBS and NBC.

A happy ending?

No.

Decidedly not.

The league made the decision only after pressure from Congress which included overt threats to take away the league’s antitrust exemption—an exemption that should be unnecessary anyway because the league does not have an unfair monopoly on anything.

This is just the latest example of overweening, overpowering, stifling government regulation of the economy, the society and the culture.