It’s football season! I may not be the typical Pittsburgh Steelers fan. I don’t even own a Terrible Towel. Also, I live in Seattle. Actually, I don’t think I own one single bit of Steelers paraphernalia. But last year, even through moving to a place where they don’t air the Steelers games, I never missed a single one. I haven’t for years and years. That all ends now.

Last season, I caught the first few games in Pennsylvania before I moved. During the move, I was able to listen to it on the radio. After the move, I subscribed to NFL.com’s radio thing that airs the radio broadcast of every game. I even hit Fado’s Irish Pub in downtown Seattle, our sort of official Steelers bar to see a few.

The 2009 season kicked off a few days ago with Pittsburgh beating the Titans in overtime. It was a low-scoring, defensive game. It was great to see them in action again. The team looks to be every bit as good as they were last year.

That game is quite possibly the only football game I will see this season. Very likely, it’s the only Pittsburgh game I’ll see. I’m not thrilled about this.

My work hours are to blame. I am scheduled on Sundays from 10-7 (or from 11-8). This means that I somehow manage to miss the early games, the afternoon games and the Sunday night game. I’m also scheduled on Monday nights, so I’ll miss that too. After Thanksgiving (I might actually be able to see the Thanksgiving games… Go Packers, I guess) they begin to air Thursday night games. And even though I have off on Thursdays, I don’t have cable (or anything aside from a UHF antennae), so I’ll miss those too.

Now, it is possible to watch games online. I’m pretty sure it’s not anywhere near legal, but desperate times… oh wait, I’m working during the games, so that’s out too. I can’t even find a place to download the games.

NFL.com, however, does offer a pay service called NFL Rewind. This airs the games via the internet a little bit after they air on TV. It costs more than I can afford, but in theory, I could subscribe, come home from work and watch Pittsburgh every single week. Except that this pay video service (provided by Move Networks Media Player) only supports Windows and Mac. No Linux and thus far, no way to trick it into working on Linux. I used to have Windows XP, but it was eaten by a virus (as is all too common with Windows) and I had to ditch it. Getting a new Windows XP disc is expensive, so that’s out too.

So in reality, I will probably miss every game except for maybe the Thanksgiving games this year. I’m not very happy about this.

I am ready for some football. But it doesn’t look like it’ll happen this year. See ya next season.