Technology

How to stream the NFL championship games today

Free! Legal! (Pretty) easy!

Jan 21, 2018, 6:46 PM UTC

Wide receiver Stefon Diggs #14 of the Minnesota Vikings celebrates a touchdown.

Jamie Squire / Getty

Peter Kafka covered media and technology, and their intersection, at Vox. Many of his stories can be found in his Kafka on Media newsletter, and he also hosts the Recode Media podcast.

There are two NFL games left before the Super Bowl: The New England Patriots play the Jacksonville Jaguars today at 3:05 pm ET, on CBS, and then the Philadelphia Eagles play the Minnesota Vikings at 6:40 pm, on Fox.

It’s easy to watch the games: Turn on your TV and there they are. You don’t even need a pay TV subscription to watch CBS or Fox (though you may need an antenna).

You can also stream the games pretty easily. There are a couple free, legal options, and several more if you want to pay.

FREE STREAMS:

CBS is streaming the Pats-Jags game for free, via its CBSSports.com site and related apps for a variety of devices, including iOS, Android and Roku.
This year you can also stream both playoff games for free on any mobile phone, via the Yahoo Sports app, no matter what carrier you have. That’s the result of a new Verizon-NFL deal; Verizon subscribers can also stream the game on Verizon’s Go90 app and the NFL’s own mobile app.

PAID STREAMS:

If you are already paying for TV — either via a traditional cable/satellite company or a new internet streaming service — you can probably stream the games.

Fox is streaming Eagles-Vikings via its Fox Sports Go site and apps, but you’ll need to prove you have a pay TV subscription (or the password for your friend or family’s subscription) to watch it.
Paid streaming services like Sling, Hulu and YouTube will probably let you watch the game, assuming they have deals with your local TV affiliate. Most of them have free trials, so you could sample and see for yourself.

One thing we would not advise doing is walking around Philadelphia, because you may be splattered with Crisco or worse:

Speaking of the Eagles: This outpost of the Recode Brooklyn Bureau is a Minnesota Vikings household. And we also have access to the Vox Media Getty photo subscription. So while we are here, let’s remember what happened last week. And if things go south today, we can return to this page and bask in its glow.