Hail Kaepernick! NFL Television Ratings are Plummeting

[rangerrebew]

Hail Kaepernick! NFL Television Ratings are Plummeting

October 5, 2016| by Donn Marten

With the National Football League’s myopic decision to enable San Francisco 49er scrubeenie’s militance instead of taking a stand, it appears that the league may have a problem. It appears as though viewership is dropping, in particular during the big prime time showcase slots on Sunday and Monday.

According to Forbes “NFL’s ‘Sunday Night Football’ Ratings In Free Fall”:

http://downtrend.com/donn-marten/hail-kaepernick-nfl-ratings-plummeting

[ShadowAce]

They have the right to do what they want--I have the right to not approve and not watch.
They had better be careful--if the NFL doesn't fix this soon, they'll go from a simple boycott to widespread lack of interest.  That's a lot harder to overcome.

[jmyrlefuller]

But don't worry, everything will be back to normal when Tom Brady comes back. /sarc

[Smokin Joe]

They have the right to do what they want--I have the right to not approve and not watch.
They had better be careful--if the NFL doesn't fix this soon, they'll go from a simple boycott to widespread lack of interest.  That's a lot harder to overcome.

People are creatures of habit. If they get in the habit of not watching, it will take a lot to get them back. They are dealing with a patriotic, commonly blue collar viewer demographic and fan base. Letting someone diss the national anthem is not going to play well.

[Weird Tolkienish Figure]

I ain't watching. The affair really has ruined my enjoyment of the game.

[skeeter]

People are creatures of habit. If they get in the habit of not watching, it will take a lot to get them back. They are dealing with a patriotic, commonly blue collar viewer demographic and fan base. Letting someone diss the national anthem is not going to play well.

You're right. I was rabid about watching until I became disgusted with apparent subjectivity of the officiating & stopped watching. It was really hard - for about a half dozen games. I couldn't care less about football now.

And frankly life is a little better as a result. Four months out of the year, anyway.

[Night Hides Not]

They have the right to do what they want--I have the right to not approve and not watch.
They had better be careful--if the NFL doesn't fix this soon, they'll go from a simple boycott to widespread lack of interest.  That's a lot harder to overcome.

That's my stance, too. There are plenty of alternatives for my entertainment dollar. If it weren't for fantasy football, NFL ratings would be even lower.

[Night Hides Not]

People are creatures of habit. If they get in the habit of not watching, it will take a lot to get them back. They are dealing with a patriotic, commonly blue collar viewer demographic and fan base. Letting someone diss the national anthem is not going to play well.

Looking back on it (as I often do), my four years without television were among the best four years of my life. When I got the OK to live on the economy in Germany, I knew exactly where I wanted to live, in the town of Traben-Trarbach, 12 miles from the base. The only TV available then was a couple of German stations.

My free time was spent reading, and mixing tapes for my own use. My weekends were spent traveling the local area, mostly the Mosel valley from Trier to Koblenz. During my last two years, long weekends usually meant driving 400 miles to visit friends I had made in a TDY assignment midway through my tour. Most of the drive was autobahn, so it only took me five hours.

It was liberating, being the only American for probably 200 miles. Thanks to two immersion classes, and that 90 day assignment on a German antiaircraft range, I spoke German quite well, and without an accent.  We were authorized an interpreter, but after our first meeting, the base commander pulled me aside, and said "you can ditch your interpreter."

I learned to thrive without TV. Sure, I'll continue to watch the NFL, but not with the same fervor that I have in the past, and I don't play fantasy football.

[Smokin Joe]

Looking back on it (as I often do), my four years without television were among the best four years of my life. When I got the OK to live on the economy in Germany, I knew exactly where I wanted to live, in the town of Traben-Trarbach, 12 miles from the base. The only TV available then was a couple of German stations.

My free time was spent reading, and mixing tapes for my own use. My weekends were spent traveling the local area, mostly the Mosel valley from Trier to Koblenz. During my last two years, long weekends usually meant driving 400 miles to visit friends I had made in a TDY assignment midway through my tour. Most of the drive was autobahn, so it only took me five hours.

It was liberating, being the only American for probably 200 miles. Thanks to two immersion classes, and that 90 day assignment on a German antiaircraft range, I spoke German quite well, and without an accent.  We were authorized an interpreter, but after our first meeting, the base commander pulled me aside, and said "you can ditch your interpreter."

I learned to thrive without TV. Sure, I'll continue to watch the NFL, but not with the same fervor that I have in the past, and I don't play fantasy football.

My fervor for the game (as a 'fan' anyway) diminished significantly in college when I realized the expenditures for the athletic program were serious multiples of what we'd hope to acquire for lab equipment up in the Geology Department, yet we couldn't seem to get that funding. What were we there for, to learn or watch football?
Later, when I realized the 'racket' of having bond issues (taxpayer funded) pay for arenas and stadiums where private entities charged crazy prices for tickets so people could go and support "their team" and shell out gobs of money for official licensed products advertising the franchise, my enthusiasm waned even more.
If I want to watch football, I go watch High School kids, who will play their hearts out.
If the teams are evenly matched, the games are great.

[andy58-in-nh]

I don't believe that the NFL's ratings decline is due solely to the demonstrations of black players during the playing of the National Anthem. Although such displays are a likely factor, there are others, including the increasing length of games owing to over-officiating; there are simply too many penalties and challenges as compared with the way the game was played twenty years ago, or even five years ago. By extension, there are also far too many commercial advertisements and network promos, which are now inserted seemingly at every opportunity.

Additionally, the NFL under Roger Goodell's direction has been cannibalizing its own product, insisting on scheduling games every Thursday night, many of which have been non-competitive and uninteresting, as well as putting two games on Monday night instead of one. The overall effect has been to dilute the game's influence. Sundays in the fall are just not as special as they once were for football fans since games are regularly scheduled on other days of the week. Monday Night Football was a great innovation, but this, in my opinion, is overkill.   

[TomSea]

The overwhelming reason though, people are getting tired of it, remains these players' antics on the National Anthem.

[SZonian]

The NFL is infected with political correctness...the idiotic SB half time shows, especially last years black pampers special.  Pink for Komen foundation (supporters of abortion), fining players for wearing 9-11 shoes (don't know if they did, but they threatened them) after colon kapernick started his stupidity and now there are many others.  The worst though is the black pampers salutes during the anthem that I've seen.  Goodell is a worthless, spineless politically cowrecked POS and will not do anything to reign those guys in, but if you take a knee and acknowledge God, you're toast.   

Supposedly, a Green Beret met with kapernick right after he started this, when he was sitting and got him to change to kneeling.  This is to show that he honors the sacrifice of the fallen, something warriors do in the field when they lose any of their mates.  Don't know that it assuages the angst any have over what he's doing, but that's what I read.

As for me, a diehard Eagles fan living on the left coast where Philadelphia sports programming is impossible to see most times; I didn't watch one play, one minute or one second of their MNF thrashing of da Bears...I'm learning to live without the NFL.

[dfwgator]

The overwhelming reason though, people are getting tired of it, remains these players' antics on the National Anthem.

Which is merely a symptom of the Thug factor that is now pervading the NFL.

[SZonian]

Saw this on the interwebs, don't know if it's legit, but I think it sums up the sentiment many have about today's NFL...

Commissioner,

I’ve been a season pass holder at Yankee Stadium, Yale Bowl and Giants Stadium.
 I missed the ‘90-’91 season because I was with a battalion of Marines
 in Desert Storm. 14 of my wonderful Marines returned home with the
 American Flag draped across their lifeless bodies. My last
 conversation with one of them, Sgt Garrett Mongrella, was about how
 our Giants were going to the Super Bowl. He never got to see it.

Many friends, Marines, and Special Forces Soldiers who worked with or
 for me through the years returned home with the American Flag draped
 over their coffins.

Now I watch multi-millionaire athletes who never did anything in their
 lives but play a game, disrespect what brave Americans fought and died
 for. They are essentially spitting in the faces and on the graves of
 real men, men who have actually done something for this country beside
 playing with a ball and believing they’re something special! They’re
 not! My Marines and Soldiers were!

You are complicit in this!

You’ll fine players for large and small infractions but you lack the
 moral courage and respect for our nation and the fallen to put an
 immediate stop to this.

Yes, I know, it’s their 1st Amendment right to behave in such a
 despicable manner. What would happen if they came out and disrespected
 you or the refs publicly?

I observed a player getting a personal foul for twerking in the end
 zone after scoring. I guess that’s much worse than disrespecting the
 flag and our National Anthem. Hmmmmm, isn’t it his 1st Amendment right
 to express himself like an idiot in the end zone?

Why is taunting not allowed yet taunting America is OK? You fine
 players for wearing 9-11 commemorative shoes yet you allow scum on the
 sidelines to sit, kneel or pump their pathetic fist in the air. They
 are so deprived with their multi-million dollar contracts for playing
 a freaking game! You condone it all by your refusal to act. You’re
 just as bad and disgusting as they are. I hope Americans boycott any
 sponsor who supports that rabble you call the NFL. I hope they turn
 off the TV when any team that allowed this disrespect to occur,
 without consequence, on the sidelines. I applaud those who have not.

Legends and heroes do NOT wear shoulder pads. They wear body armor and
 carry rifles.

They make minimum wage and spend months and years away from their
 families. They don’t do it for a few hours on Sunday. They do it 24/7
 often with lead, not footballs, coming in their direction. They watch
 their brothers carted off in pieces not on a gurney to get their knee
 iced. They don’t even have ice! Many don’t have legs or arms.

Some wear blue and risk their lives daily on the streets of America.
 They wear fire helmets and go upstairs into the fire rather than down
 to safety. On 9-11, hundreds vanished. They are the heroes.

I hope that your high paid protesting pretty boys and you look in
 that mirror when you shave tomorrow and see what you really are,
 legends in your own minds. You need to hit the road and take those
 worms with you!

Time to change the channel..

Col Jeffrey A Powers USMC-(ret)

[andy58-in-nh]

Legends and heroes do NOT wear shoulder pads. They wear body armor and carry rifles.
 

[Applewood]

I don't believe that the NFL's ratings decline is due solely to the demonstrations of black players during the playing of the National Anthem. Although such displays are a likely factor, there are others, including the increasing length of games owing to over-officiating; there are simply too many penalties and challenges as compared with the way the game was played twenty years ago, or even five years ago. By extension, there are also far too many commercial advertisements and network promos, which are now inserted seemingly at every opportunity.

Additionally, the NFL under Roger Goodell's direction has been cannibalizing its own product, insisting on scheduling games every Thursday night, many of which have been non-competitive and uninteresting, as well as putting two games on Monday night instead of one. The overall effect has been to dilute the game's influence. Sundays in the fall are just not as special as they once were for football fans since games are regularly scheduled on other days of the week. Monday Night Football was a great innovation, but this, in my opinion, is overkill.

I would add a season that starts in July and ends in March.

Ok, I'm exaggerating, but the season is too long, especially the post-season.  Do we have to have all the wildcards?  This is like schools nowadays giving out participation trophies to anyone who just shows up.   We don't need a playoff game for every losing team.   

[jmyrlefuller]

I don't believe that the NFL's ratings decline is due solely to the demonstrations of black players during the playing of the National Anthem. Although such displays are a likely factor, there are others, including the increasing length of games owing to over-officiating; there are simply too many penalties and challenges as compared with the way the game was played twenty years ago, or even five years ago. By extension, there are also far too many commercial advertisements and network promos, which are now inserted seemingly at every opportunity.

Additionally, the NFL under Roger Goodell's direction has been cannibalizing its own product, insisting on scheduling games every Thursday night, many of which have been non-competitive and uninteresting, as well as putting two games on Monday night instead of one. The overall effect has been to dilute the game's influence. Sundays in the fall are just not as special as they once were for football fans since games are regularly scheduled on other days of the week. Monday Night Football was a great innovation, but this, in my opinion, is overkill.

Also consider:

The stars of the game that everyone recognizes are quickly disappearing. Peyton Manning is retired. Tom Brady, not only is he suspended, but he's in his upper 30s and probably only has a few more years left. They ran Tim Tebow out of the league. The NFL is facing the same problem pro golf did when Tiger Woods fell off his game: a lack of bankable stars, and yes, those are usually quarterbacks.

What's to blame for that? Well, part of it is cyclical, but you also have the almost-impossible task of maintaining parity among 32 teams with 53 players apiece while still maintaining cohesiveness.

All I know is that the league itself has nothing to worry about: its contracts are locked in for the next seven years no matter who's watching. The networks, on the other hand, had better hope and pray this isn't a trend. History has shown TV shows, no matter what genre, don't stay atop the ratings forever.

[dfwgator]

I have a theory that it also has to do with the fact that now a lot of the games,   especially the Sunday Night and Monday Night games, are available to stream.  I watch most sports these days on my laptop.    I'll usually have the sound going and I'll surf elsewhere, then watch when I hear something interesting happening. 

It could be viewers like me aren't being taken into account.    And I don't watch the commercials,    so advertisers won't like me.

[GrouchoTex]

The anthem stunt sure didn't help matters, that for sure.
Football has always been an escape, a distraction, to a large degree, from the everyday nonsense.
If no longer serves that purpose, there's no point.

It just doesn't seem to be the same game anymore.
I am all for concussion protocols, but they've remove hitting a receiver in the middle of the field for fear of penalty, and "taunting"?
Call it unsportsmanlike conduct, but a "hate speech" penalty?
If they needed a "safe space", they wouldn't have played football in the first place.

Which brings me to a new generation of "safe space" kids coming up, more that played soccer over football, and the audience is dwindling.