NFL Blackouts = Not Wavy

Being an NY Giants fan in a Washington Redskins market, local blackouts aren't really something I've had to deal with.  But seeing a few articles today about the possibility of the Jacksonville Jags suffering from local blackouts this year made me curious.  So I wikipedia'd the whole thing and it left me feeling uneasy.  For those who are unfamiliar, a blackout means the NFL will not broadcast a local game unless the tickets sell out.  So if everyone in Green Bay doesn't go out and fill up Lambeau Field, no one in Green Bay gets to see shit!  There's more to it than that, but it's kind of unsettling that the NFL has that authority.  I get that there are financial/business reasons behind all of this, and I can understand the NFL wanting to cover it's behind.  But there was one stipulation that really ticked me off.

If the blacked-out home game is played on a Sunday afternoon, all local stations inside the 75-mile radius must show a different NFL game during that time slot (the network typically chooses the game). Also, NFL Sunday Ticket cannot offer the game into that area. As stated earlier, the doubleheader network can broadcast only one game into that team's primary market (usually the #1 game), which is also designed to prevent people from opting to watch the other locally televised NFL games instead of going to the local team's game. Again, the secondary markets would still carry a doubleheader. Sometimes, the networks will switch time slots so that the doubleheader network can still show its featured 4:15 game.

Whoa, so wait a minute.  You mean to tell me that an NFL Sunday Ticket game, which I'm paying for out of my own pocket to see, can be blacked out under these stupid rules?  That's complete and utter bullshit.  I may not have purchased a ticket, but I've directly put money in the NFL's (and DirectTV's, too) pockets!  I deserve the right to watch whatever fucking game I want!  I love the NFL dearly.  It's just about the most entertaining sports league in the world as far as I'm concerned.  But I find myself growing more and more sick of the behind their scene business practices.  And this whole blackout thing may become a reality for more and more people as the economy worsens and we fans are unable to throw money away on overpriced tickets.