Eric moved out of the country and tried to take the NFL with him via NFL GamePass, the service — not available in the U.S. — that lets fans watch games online from abroad.

One problem with the otherwise miraculous concept, which the NFL really, really needs to make available here — it hasn’t worked so far this year. Eric writes:

I, like many other Americans, live abroad. And, like many other Americans, love football. The NFL offers a service for people outside of the US called, Gamepass. Not only can you watch HD football, you can pause and rewind as well. All this for only around $240. Yeah, quite a chunk of change to watch what people in the US get for free. Plus, we get all the commercials too!

So, imagine my surprise when I couldn’t even get to the login page this Sunday. I wasted 2 1/2 hours this Sunday trying to login. This was happening to everyone, based on what I was reading online. Many were getting the message, “too many connections.” Crazy huh?

I decided to send a complaint to the NFL. The first two times, when I clicked send on their website, I got an error and had to start all over again explaining the problem.

I am sending this to Consumerist.com because I have seen you right the wrongs before. All the people outside the USA, who love football, and paid lots of money, would love to get the NFL’s attention on this issue.

According to a report in the U.K’s Telegraph, the NFL is, er, taking the problem seriously. A spokesman told the paper:

We experienced a network delivery problem that caused poor video quality on Game Pass HD during Sunday’s games. Steps have been taken to address the issue and we do not expect a recurrence. We will refund the fans who were impacted one week worth of Game Pass HD service. Those fans will receive an email from NFL.com this week explaining how to receive their refund.

I’m probably a bad person, but I feel sorrier for myself, for not being allowed to order NFL GamePass, than for Eric. The NFL is pretty much the only reason I get cable — I live too far out in the boonies to pick up channels over the air — and would love to cancel it and give the NFL $240 a year. Well, that is if they could actually get GamePass to work.

NFL Game Pass streaming collapse ‘won’t happen again’, says League [Telegraph]

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