Is it “is” or is it “in” in it?

As a Pittsburgh Steelers fan in New York, it’s often a guessing game as to whether I’ll see the Black and Gold on my TV screen or if I’ll have to do a hybrid watch/listen combination to follow my favorite football team.

In other words, if the Steelers play on one of the prime time slots – Sunday Night Football or Monday Night Football – I can watch the game on NBC or on ESPN. If the game airs as part of the Thursday Night Football broadcast, I can fire up my Amazon Prime channel and watch the game there.

If the Steelers happen to play the Jets – or the Bills – or the Giants – then there’s a good chance I’ll see the game locally since those teams are part of Upstate New York’s local broadcast market.

Unfortunately, there are more games that don’t immediately fall into that category … so I have to put together a bit of a “hybrid” viewing package. I’ll fire up my laptop to either NFL.com or ESPN.com and watch the statistical plays. I’ll have NFL Network’s RedZone on my TV, so when the Steelers actually get the ball into the red zone (i.e., 20 yards away from a touchdown), I’ll see the action on TV. And as a backup, I’ve got my Alexa playing the radio broadcast from WDVE in Pittsburgh, so I can hear Bill Hillgrove and Craig Wolfley call the game (as well as all the advertisements for Henny’s Jewelers and other Yinzer-based products and locales).

It doesn’t always sync up properly … I’ll see the recreated digital play on my computer ten seconds before I see it on NFL RedZone, and then I’ll hear the play about 15 seconds after that. But I’m okay with that.

Yesterday, as I logged into NFL.com, I saw a link that allowed me to link my laptop to my cable subscription, which has NFL Network and NFL RedZone. Okay. It’s not an additional cost, let’s link in.

A few clicks … and it works.

Okay, let’s click on NFL RedZone and see if anything comes up.

Well, I’m a little early. Because I received this message on my computer screen.

Oh, okay. The NFL RedZone usually kicks in 15 minutes before the Sunday 1:00 p.m. starts.

But … wait a second.

Am I reading that correctly? “NFL RedZone in not currently airing.”

In not currently airing what? This is … what? Huh? Wha?

I mean, I really hate to be the grammar patrol, but … what in the name of Hooked on Phonics is going on here? I mean … unless I’m seeing what appears to be some sort of weird jocular vernacular … that’s pretty wonky, if you ask me.

Look, I don’t have to blog every time somebody mangles the English language.

But in this instance … I’m happy to make an exception. Ha.