NFL viewership is plummeting. Although I’ve heard the league and others put forth any number of reasons from concussions to the games being blowouts (which other than the game in London was entirely disproved this weekend,) but anyone with a functioning brain knows it’s because the NFL used to be an oasis where you could relax and get away from the turmoil of the day. Now, for better or worse (and I don’t know many arguing for the better) it’s all about how some are kneeling during the National Anthem.
I looked around my Facebook this morning and it seemed like darn near 100 percent of people are boycotting the league, even people who I know are lifelong fans of a certain 5 time Super Bowl Champion team. They're tired of seeing people making millions of dollars taking a knee during our national anthem when we still have men and women fighting overseas. I’ll admit I still watch Football, but I won’t watch ESPN anymore because on the rare occasion they discuss sports they usually have hot takes that make no sense and seem to have been made for just drawing attention.
Let me start with one thing that I keep reading which is inarguably false. The protest of the National Anthem has absolutely nothing to do with the First Amendment. “Congress shall make no law….abridging the Freedom of Speech.” People kneeling has nothing to do with that, as Congress has taken no position on it. If anything it is employer/employee law. “Free Speech” seems to be a catchall nowadays, but that really isn’t what this is. The players kneeling are doing it to draw attention to an issue that they think is underappreciated. You turning the TV off is your right. And it’s a right that hundreds and thousands are engaging in.
Rassmussen did a recent survey on the issue, and the league didn’t appreciate the findings:
While the NFL attributes the decline in ratings to the presidential race, a study conducted by Rasmussen Reports shows otherwise. Approximately 1,000 American adults participated in a telephone questionnaire on Oct. 2-3 that revealed nearly one-third (32 percent) are “less likely to watch an NFL game” due to players taking a stand and protesting the national anthem. Thirteen percent want to watch a game because of the protests. Fifty-two percent do not base their viewing choice on the protests at all. But the league executives disagree.
“There is no evidence that concern over player protests during the national anthem is having any material impact on our ratings. In fact, our own data shows that perception of the NFL and its players is actually up in 2016,” the executives wrote in the memo.
Well, now that the election is over, I assume the NFL has rebounded and is as strong a brand as ever, right? Well, no.
Multibillion-dollar media and entertainment conglomerate, the National Football League, has a new problem on its hands: lowered ratings. Week 1 of the new 2017-2018 season has found the popular U.S. professional sport losing its ranking as the number one spot in households across the country. According to Pivotal Research analyst Brian Wieser, viewership for the NFL was down 14% on a year-over-year basis.
That’s the lowest level of same-week viewing since 2009.
Against this backdrop, President Trump advised people upset to start boycotting the NFL. In turn, the NFL players in numbers which dwarf any previous demonstrations took to their knees in discontent.
Safe to say it was a debacle. I actually watched as Patriots faithful, those of us who went through the lean years where winning 6 games was a Herculean feat, actually BOOED the players who took a knee. (See below for a former Patriots great who deemed taking a knee as shameful.)
To be honest, it wasn’t so much the protest yesterday that bothered me, it was the fact that it happened on Gold Star Mothers Day.
http://burnpit.us/2017/09/nfl-players-take-knee-day-designated-remember-honor-and-cherish-gold-star-moms
