I don’t have a cable/standard tv service. It looks like YouTube has a standalone package for $400 (!) I’m mostly interested in regular season games and follow whatever my fantasy football player teams are playing, so they aren’t usually broadcast in my area over the air.
Outside of villainous piracy what would be the best option?
An antenna will get you the games broadcast in your market. Other than that YouTube tv with Sunday ticket is the only non-privacy way that I’m aware of.
Angelic piracy
Don’t want to pirate, don’t have cable, don’t want to buy the package on offer, DO want out of market games. I believe this is what we in the know refer to as “kinda fucked.” The only thing I can think of beyond going to a sports bar is slightly less villainous piracy by trying to find a good VPN that manages to keep its IPs from getting flagged, and pay ~half the US rate for a Game Pass subscription.
Outside of piracy? I guess go to a bar and watch. Pretty easy to find streams nowadays to watch at home…
NFL contracts out to several different network/cable and streaming services, so you have to subscribe to several to get all the games legally. A digital antenna and NFL+ are probably your best bet to get the vast majority of games without a full tv package.
RedZone is my preferred way to watch. Some people find it too jarring and die hards want to watch only their team but to me having the entire day with no commercial breaks is an absolute game changer.
For out of market games though, your options are Sunday ticket or streams. I use sportsurge (.net or .io are both good) if there’s a game I want that isn’t one of the prime time games.
Friends/Neighbors/Family with NFL service or split cost 4 ways.
Bars with NFL service
Antenna
If you think that you don’t want to pay $400 to watch 2 hours of commercials for 40 minutes of action so the NFL can make $12 billion…
Sports surge
720 pier
Wear protection, use VPN