Mitch Albom had his Tuesdays with Morrie. The Missus and I have our Sundays with Andrew Siciliano.

Let's start at the beginning, shall we? Back in 2001 we switched from cable to DirecTV. Why? The cost savings was the number one reason. But a close second was a little something called the NFL Sunday Ticket. This package allowed me to watch every single NFL game that's on every single weekend. No longer did I have to scan the TV listings each week only to be disappointed that I would have to suffer through a game between two crappy teams while the game of the day was being shown in someone else's house. No, now I had the power.

For six NFL seasons I reveled each Sunday with the NFL package. Feet up, clicker in hand, I was able to flip from game to game, catching all of the NFL action known to man. Then we got HD. And I didn't think life could get any better.

Until we met Andrew.

I was a little leery at first of this creation that DirecTV calls the Red Zone Channel. The stated purposed was to show any game-live-once one team entered the red zone (inside their opponents' 20-yard line). I thought, "There's no way this will be better than flipping around." And, "How on earth could they pull this off?"

Shocking but true, they do pull it off. And I haven't watched a full non-Patriots Sunday afternoon game since.

Who is Andrew, you ask? That would be Andrew Siciliano, the host of the Red Zone Channel. Andrew sits at a desk staring at a bank of 15 television screens and previews the upcoming games of the day. As soon as the first game kicks off, he "grabs the remote" and takes us live to that game. From that point forward-whenever another game seems more appealing-he "bounces out" into that game. If one game is about to head to a commercial, he takes us to another game. Immediately. As a matter of fact, this past Sunday, I saw my first advertisement of any kind a full hour-and-a-half into the day's action. At that point, with most games heading into halftime, we go live to Andrew's studio and a voiceover reads, "The Red Zone Channel. Brought to you by Sony." Then Andrew shows highlights from the first half. That's it. That brief ad for Sony (and the Best Buy logo that is displayed when a final box score from a game is flashed on the screen) is all the advertising I see all day. (There's no way that can continue-DirecTV has to think of a way to make more money from the advertisers, but I'll enjoy it while it lasts.)

And Andrew somehow pulls off this near-impossible job of watching as many as 10 games at once almost seamlessly. A team is about to punt? Andrew breaks in and says, "We don't show you punts here at the Red Zone Channel. Unless Devin Hester is involved." The announcers for a particular game throw it back to New York for a highlight from another game? Andrew breaks in and says, "You just saw that. Let's grab the remote and bounce out to another game." He's quick, he's funny, and he's got what seems like a dream job, as hard as it probably is to do.

The only complaint I have for Andrew? Sometimes he quits early. Some Sundays around 5:30, when the second round of Sunday games are going on, he lets us know that he's shutting down for the day. He tells us what channel to find all the games on, but he's out of there. I understood it the Sunday that the Patriots were playing the Colts-I mean who wanted to watch Houston-Oakland or Cleveland-Seattle when the Game of the Millennium was being played? But on a typical Sunday afternoon, I want Andrew running the switchboard and taking me around the league. When I'm spending 10 straight hours on the couch, expending energy by using the remote is pretty taxing.

Other than that, I have no complaints. The Missus and I love our Sundays with Andrew. He does all the heavy lifting, and we don't have to search around for the game of the day. And with the Patriots playing a night game seemingly every week, we've had some time to really bond with Andrew and appreciate the man's dedication to the NFL.

Dwelling on our latest find got me thinking about the revolutionary technological advancements that have come our way in the last 10 years. And I wondered where I would place Andrew's channel. Let's check out one man's list:

The Sports in a Can
Top 10 Technological Advancements
of the Last 10 Years

1. The Internet
2. Email
3. Cellphones
4. TiVo
5. Wireless Internet access
6. High Definition television
7. NFL Sunday Ticket
8. iTunes
9. Tollbooth transponders
10. The Red Zone Channel

This list assumes the technological advancement had an impact on me, personally, so hybrid cars don't make the list. Not yet, anyway. Maybe my next car. And if you want to quibble with the timing of some of them, so be it. I don't remember when Al Gore invented the Internet, I just don't recall it impacting my life pre-1997. Same goes for email. And cellphones have come a looong way since you had to carry around a phone booth to make a call. Those are easily my top three because each can end the phrase: "Do you remember what we did before _____?" TiVo has worked its way up to #4 and is nearing life-changing potential.

Andrew's channel lands in 10th position and could threaten tollbooth transponders in the near future. That's how life-altering it is.

Last week we watched a whiparound that included Jacksonville pulling away from Buffalo, Oakland upsetting Kansas City, Seattle holding on against St. Louis, and Tampa Bay holding on against Washington. All live. On a Sunday when the top five teams in the NFL weren't playing, the excitement level was still high in the Sports in a Can living room.

We've got five more Sundays with Andrew before the Red Zone Channel goes dark for the winter. We'll be enjoying every last second.