Do you get ESPN OTA? Or your local sports regional network (likely owned by Bally Sports) OTA?
Because that's usually what people really mean when they say that they need cable for sports. They want to watch some big game that ESPN paid big money for the broadcast rights like the college football national championship. Or they want to watch their local professional NBA or MLB team and the regional network paid big money for exclusive broadcast rights in the area so it's blacked out on League Pass (NBA) or MLB.tv
So many people complain about having to pay for cable. I watch all of my Sunday football for free OTA.
ESPN of course has monday night football and Amazon now has Thursday and you are right that there are thousands of other sports events on pay channels. But I am surprised at how many people in the reddit game threads don't realize that you can watch CBS, NBC, and Fox over the air for free.
Because that's usually what people really mean when they say that they need cable for sports. They want to watch some big game that ESPN paid big money for the broadcast rights like the college football national championship. Or they want to watch their local professional NBA or MLB team and the regional network paid big money for exclusive broadcast rights in the area so it's blacked out on League Pass (NBA) or MLB.tv