So we’re thinking of cutting the cord here at Chez Athena. 90% of the stuff we watch, we watch online anyway, so it makes sense. But that last 10% - mostly sports - I can’t get a good answer on. What do we get so that Mr. Athena can watch NFL, NBA, college football, college basketball, the occasional baseball game. etc? I see Hulu has some of those channels, is that the answer? If I cut off cable and he can’t watch the game, I’m gonna be in big trouble so HELP! 
Over the Air TV–free; get a good Antenna.
Some streaming options. For example SlingTV includes ESPN…:
We recently upgraded our Roku and now can enjoy a whole mess of free tv channels through Pluto.tv.
Been stuck in classic TV for a few weeks with a reasonable amount of commercials, and noted they have a bunch of movie, sports, news, entertainment and other channels to explore.
We don’t get many antenna tv channels, so the streaming tv has been great.
It sounds like that’ll get the OP a good part of the way there. Between ESPN and the NFL Network, it’ll cover most of the NFL games that aren’t on the broadcast networks (CBS, NBC, and Fox) – the challenge then becomes whether she’s close enough to her local stations to pick those channels up with an over-the-air antenna. I know that she’s in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, which is pretty rural.
We live in the middle of nowhere; there is no over-the-air TV. Really. I didn’t even realize there was such a thing until I was an adult and moved away and people got TV without cable. Amazing!
Alas, no over-the-air options. So the channels on Hulu don’t have the games that are on CBS/NBC/Fox?
It might, I’m not sure (I’m still on cable, and I’m in a big city). It looks like you can check that out here: Hulu + Live TV: Stream TV Channels, Shows, News & Sports
Hulu Live gets me most everything. The networks, Espn, and Fox Sports. I’m very happy with it.
Playstation Vue has ESPN, NFL network, NFL Redzone, etc. You also have NBC sports app, Fox sports app, Amazon Prime. I don’t generally miss much sports that I’m interested in.
A couple comparisons of streaming services for sports:
Xbox one has ESPN /fpoxsports/NBC sports etc apps available to download for free.
I’m not sure how far outside Marquette you are, but you should be able to pick up Channel 7 NBC. The other stations are a stretch
https://antennaweb.org/Stations?Address=Marquette%2C%20Michigan%2049855%2C%20United%20States&AntennaHeight=False&Latitude=46.56&Longitude=-87.41
Granted NBC only gets you Sunday Night Football (maybe some other stuff)
Brian
(I’m well aware it is hilly, and maybe channel 7 is behind a hill from you)
Did you see this thread?
I have been looking at various ‘live’ streaming options that include local channels. This seems to be hard to do in smaller, more remote markets. For example, for the UP zip code 49895, PlayStation Vue (no PlayStation required) does not have any at all - just On Demand for ABC/NBC/CBS/Fox.
Can you live with a basic lifeline cable package to get locals and then sign up for Vue, SlingTV, DirectTV Now or HuluLive to get ‘cable channels’?
ESPN seems to be a big stumbling block for sports. Right now they value their cable deals more than streaming customers. This explains it
There are two kinds of Hulu:
Normal Hulu: Has on-demand streaming from the various networks. This is not live content. It is pretty much just the regular TV shows from the network. No sports. About $8/mo.
Hulu Live: This is like cable TV, but delivered as streaming. You will have a set of channels that deliver live content like you have with cable. There will also be on-demand shows from the same channels. About $40/month.
In fact, there are many companies providing a cable-like streaming package, such as YouTubeTV, SlingTV, PSvue, and others. If you want to be able to continue to watch sports like you did with cable, you’ll likely have to sign up for one of those services.
Have you ruled out retraining him to a point where televised sports are not important to him?