sorry but im a visual person... to be honest alot of the times i cut the game on and turn the sound down and listen to some music for the earlier sunday games..
then your best bet is to go with DirecTV. Waiting on a cable company and the NFL to agree on these contracts (regardless of who is right) may never happen. My local TimeWarner and the ABC affilate can't even agree to allow HD ABC to be ported through on TW. It gets ridiculous.
Your only hope is that a rich person / politician is in your area and can't get the NFL network on cable.