The NFL put the Green Bay Packers on Thanksgiving Eve in prime time, and that led to instant pushback from Tammy Baldwin, who has been fighting the case for affordable viewership. Green Bay is headed to SoFi Stadium to play the Los Angeles Rams on November 25 at 8 p.m. E.T. The game can be streamed exclusively on Netflix, and that’s the problem.

Baldwin, Wisconsin’s senior U.S. senator, argues that the league is asking fans to pay for another streaming service just to watch their own team. And now, she has turned that complaint into a new bill.

“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.”

Senator Tammy Baldwin has already 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.

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.

That is why 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, Donald Trump, 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 already 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 a clean 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.

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