If the recent ESPN-YouTube TV blackout made Monday Night Football hard to watch, you are not alone, as legendary NFL pass rusher JJ Watt was feeling your pain.
He is not going to subscribe to any more streaming services. Watt made that clear in his post on X, formerly Twitter, on Monday, Nov. 3, 2025, as the game got started.
“So we're just not watching Monday Night Football[,] huh?” he wrote. “I'm not buying another streaming subscription…”
Watt followed that up by explaining that he has “some sort of subscription” that should allow him to watch Monday Night Football through ESPN+. However, that is not the case.
“The crazy part is, I have some sort of subscription because I watch Espanyol matches on ESPN+[,] but I can’t watch MNF,” Watt said in his follow-up post. I don’t understand it and[,] quite frankly[,] just don’t really care to figure it out right now. Just frustrating. All of it.”
The YouTube TV-ESPN Monday Night Football blackout affected fans around the world
Unfortunately, Watt was not the only one who had trouble watching the Dallas Cowboys and the Arizona Cardinals on Monday Night Football.
Currently, YouTube TV and Disney are in a dispute over the broadcasting rights. YouTube TV isn't willing to pay for Disney's TV networks, which include ESPN, which broadcasts Monday Night Football during the NFL season.
So, in turn, about “10 million” YouTube TV subscribers couldn't watch the game on Nov. 3, according to Business Insider. ESPN has been blacked out on YouTube TV, and that continued during the game.
Their dispute is over the money. Disney reportedly wants YouTube to pay “what it's calling the market rate for its channel.” Meanwhile, the streaming service has warned “that doing so would require it to raise prices for the second time in less than a year.”
So, it's now a stalemate. Luckily, Google has stated that they will refund YouTube TV subscribers $20 if the blackout continues for an “extended period of time.” As Business Insider points out, it's unclear what classifies as an “extended period of time.”
This has left viewers like Watt in the dark regarding watching Monday Night Football on ESPN. Hopefully, it gets resolved sooner rather than later.
