Forget the league's problems with expanding the network's subscriber base. The product itself stinks. Some of their on-air talent - Mike Mayock, Alex Flanagan, Solomon Wilcots, Paul Burmeister and Steve Mariucci - is very good. Others are just plain awful. Jamie Dukes? And what on Earth was Bornstein thinking when he picked Rich Eisen to be the "face" of the network?

"We think it's a terrific product and we've heard that from fans," Roger Goodell insisted. Asked whether the network is losing money, Goodell said, "It's not." But a league executive told the Daily News that the network is losing about the same amount of money right now as NFL Europe was when the owners pulled the plug on that a couple of years ago.

Said Goodell: "We're going to be patient. We're going to be determined and make sure it gets the broadest possible exposure, which we think is what fans want."