Speaking of NFL Mobile, I have had that application on my phones for a while now, dating back to the OG Moto Droid but I have rarely used it because it doesn't seem to show any games that I would want to see.
1. Has it gotten better over the years? (Does it still suck)
2. Can I use Chromecast and cast the games to my TV?
3. Does it check for Root?
1. I don't think it has ever really sucked as far as available streaming content, but you need to understand what they do and don't show ahead of time in order to have realistic expectations. And what they do show has gotten much better. Here's what you get access to on your phone/tablet:
- NFL RedZone on Sunday afternoons* (I think it's worth it for this alone).
- Local Sunday afternoon games (any games that are publicly broadcast in your area will be available for streaming - this is new for the 2014 season)
- Sunday Night Football
- Monday Night Football
- Thursday Night Football
- NFL Network
NFL Mobile is free this year if you have a Share Everything plan. If you have any other type of plan, it's $5 a month (which is totally worth it in my opinion). It's not Sunday Ticket, but for free/$5 it provides a ton of content that's easily accessible at home or while you're out and about. I often stream RedZone while watching a game at someone's house or at a bar/restaurant.
2. As part of the agreement between the NFL and Verizon, they don't want you to be able to watch it on anything other than your Verizon device. This is because the agreement only covers mobile devices. Other providers (broadcast, cable, satellite) would be ticked off if Verizon's deal cut in on theirs. Because of that, there is no cast button in the app, nor can you connect to a TV via any sort of cables. But if you have a device that allows Chromecast screen mirroring, you can mirror NFL Mobile from your device through a Chromecast.**
There might be other methods of getting the content to a TV, but I have yet to find any.
3. I don't bother rooting anymore, so I can't give a definitive answer on the current version of NFL Mobile. But in the past it did check for root.
*NFL RedZone is not included in the free NFL Mobile that the Share Everything plans have. If you have a Share Everything plan, RedZone is $1.99 per month. If you don't have Share Everything, RedZone is included in the $5 NFL Mobile fee. All of the other content is available for free with a Share Everything plan.
**I should note that while I was able to do this with my S5, I now have a Note 4 (which doesn't support screen mirroring through Chromecast at this time). I wouldn't be surprised if Verizon has found a way to block Chromecast mirroring by now.
