Espn3 does carry a lot of games (of course you need a cable provider - can you 'borrow' a friend's info?)
We have roku downstairs and chromecast upstairs if I had to pick one def chromecast - haven't looked at Amazon fire stick yet and I lf I rented/bought a lot of movies if probably go that way
NOW
speaking purely hypothetically - let's say OP is a big Walking Dead fan - if he didn't have cable, how could he get to watch his show?
Also realize OP might not be native to backdoor internet solutions
Walk him through the steps and make sure he doesn't get viruses and malware
Hypothetically
For science