Originally Posted at Free Market Shooter
The 2017-2018 NFL Divisonal Playoffs featured an extremely exciting set of matchups (with one notable exception). The Eagles-Falcons game came down to a 4th down play on the goal line with 1:05 remaining. The Jaguars-Steelers game saw the heavy underdog Jaguars take an early lead on the Steelers in a high scoring shootout. And in the most exciting game, the Saints-Vikings matchup came down to the very last play, with the Vikings scoring a touchdown to win it all, and the two teams trading the lead four times in the last three minutes of the game.
Importantly, something else did not occur this weekend – National Anthem protests. Having reached a “deal” with the NFL Player’s Association, the number of NFL protests has dropped sharply, and to my knowledge, no player conducted any form of Anthem protest whatsoever for the Divisional Playoffs – a far cry from near-constant kneeling and sitting which occurred earlier this season.
In short, the NFL had everything go right this past weekend, which the league surely welcomed as a much-needed change from a lackluster on-field product coupled with players injecting politics into entertainment.
Unfortunately, the viewers did not agree. As Awful Announcing reported, this year’s Divisional Playoffs made new lows in viewership, even for the top matchups:
- Saturday afternoon’s Falcons-Eagles game on NBC drew a 17.4 overnight rating, down 5 percent from last year and 12 percent from 2016. It was the lowest for the early Saturday time slot since 2009.
- The Patriots-Titans matchup Saturday night on CBS was the lowest-rated game of the weekend, with a 16.6 overnight. That was down 9 percent from last year and 18 percent from 2016 and was also the worst performance in that window since 2009.
- The Jaguars-Steelers contest in the early window Sunday on CBS pulled a 20.4 overnight, down 12 percent from 2016. (Last year’s game in that slot was moved to primetime due to weather.) That was the lowest mark in its window since 2002.
- Finally, the Vikings-Saints duel Sunday afternoon on Fox drew the best overnight rating of the weekend (21.8) but was still down 23 percent from last year and 17 percent from 2016.
Overall, this will reportedly be the lowest rated divisional weekend since 2009.
If exciting games and a lack of protests can’t turn around NFL ratings, what is next for the league?
More importantly, what is the cause of the NFL ratings decline? Is it the on-field product, or is it the Anthem protests? And, if the cause can be identified, can the league be saved?
As I previously noted, the NFL is facing a number of headwinds at the moment, before you even consider the protests. They are included, but not limited to; cord cutting, excessive commercial breaks and TV timeouts, lack of accessibility, quality of play and the on-field product, and the aforementioned National Anthem protests. Notably, cord cutting and accessibility are intertwined, as I have previously pointed out:
So a lot of those viewers who might put the game on TV on a slow Thursday night have decided that they would rather not pay for the option in the first place. While a majority of these are likely the most fickle fans of all, who care little about sports, the NFL has made it increasingly difficult to view its product either with or without cable access (for instance, offering out-of-market games via DirecTV’s Sunday Ticket only). The NFL’s own actions regarding viewership has certainly led cord-cutting to play a major role ratings decline.
If exciting games and a lack of protests can’t pull viewers back, either A) the protests have already made a noticeable dent in viewership, and many viewers haven’t “forgotten” what the players did earlier this season, or B) the ratings decline is merely continuing an existing trend down in viewership which would be ongoing with or without the protests.
Given the league’s existing headwinds, it is difficult at best to assign all of the blame for this year’s steep ratings drop to the protests alone. However, it is without question that the protests have had at least some effect on the NFL’s viewership. If an exciting Conference Championship weekend and Super Bowl can’t draw viewers back, the NFL will be in serious trouble.
Even though the league may have “conceded” to President Trump‘s demands for players to stop kneeling…
…it may have been too little, too late, to save the NFL from a major decline in viewership and revenues. The National Anthem protests might be the nail in the coffin for an NFL which may very well have killed the goose that laid the golden egg.
Those absurd kneeling protests did it for me. Product has gone downhill, and the officiating is for shit. I would rather watch curling at this point.
In retrospect, would this have killed it for you if you heard it 5 short years ago?
https://www.usatoday.com/story/gameon/2012/12/03/nfl-costas-speech-reaction/1742313/
Yep. I wont ever watch another game. Thank you. Gun control nonsense. He would have killed her with a knife and cut his throat. Fuck bob costas. Fuck the nfl.
On a car-related forum that I frequent the owners/moderators have put in place filters to replace words they don’t want on their message boards. If you type the word ‘pussy’ the software automatically replaces it with the words ‘Bob Costas’. I find that to be a perfect substitution.
Fuck the Negro Football League. Like I need these million dollar niggers telling me how tough life is.
Stop killing one another and get back to me you fucking savages.
Totally agree!!!!!!!!!!
How about the military hero worship?! Fly overs and such make me want to puke.
Yep, funny enough those are as big of a turnoff as the protests are.
I don’t see any reason the Military should give any support to the NFL. I understand all the tributes to the Armed Forces and Veterans in pre-game and half-time shows are paid for with tax-payer financing in edition to the normal military pay active duty or reservists in the presentations are receiving. Futhermore, the expensive recruiting commercials during regular games and superbowl extraviganzas put money in the pockets of those who loathe the ordi ary American. I will not buy from Papa John’s pizza and if needed will eat a cheap cold-cut sandwich or go hungry. Wish someone would publish a list of NFL advertisers and sponsors so I could boycott them all. I am not going to watch games so that I can take advertisers names.
I admit to tuning in to a couple of games, but only watched intermittently.
Simple basic cable TV, not a streaming pay to view channel, and would never buy a ticket.
I absolutely hated the protests, and hope Kapperdick never steps foot on a pro field again.
He started this shit, and the simple fact of it is, his misguided ’cause’ made race relations worse, and damaged the ratings of the viewing audience. Some fans burned season tickets.
I blame the networks for directing a camera on the protesters pre-game during the anthem.
By doing that, they fanned the flames higher.
I watched this weekend because I played sports. A good game can still be fun to watch top level athletes, and playoffs usually are some of the best games.
But, the turd once again was dropped into the punchbowl, when at the end of the Minny game, the receiver who scored the winning touchdown on the last play of the game acted like an arrogant asshole. He scored because his defender shit the bed, blew coverage and didn’t even hit the guy, let alone tackle him. It was not a spectacular play by the receiver;
he was the lucky recipient of his defender’s terrible mistake, and ran untouched to score.
But the strutting, badass attitude, projecting: “I’m one awesome MFer, so look at me and send your adulation and respect” demonstration turned my stomach. He wasn’t smiling, or happy.
He wasn’t celebrating. It was grandstanding, and just points to the ego some of these guys have that alienates so many fans that despise it. Stood there with folded arms across his chest, and a mad scowl, in utter defiance of acting like a professional. It was all about him.
Screw them and their millionaire salaries. And yeah, some of the white players do it, too.
But by and large, it’s many jerks from one particular tribe that routinely act so repulsive.
I saw him nig out on the news. Douchebag.
Turn off the sportsball and pick up a book. Haven’t watched a single minute of a single game this year and don’t miss it. Probably won’t even watch the Stuporbowl due to high level of social justice bullshit in commercials now a days. Unless you or your kid is on the field, it’s not your team anyway.
Theres an underground craptacular film fest in wilmington delaware that weekend, each superbowl weekend that is, worth travelling. Great local brew beer, good food, funny people. Starts saturday noon til midnite sunday. Sleep on the showing room floor. This will be my 6th one. If you are in that neck of the woods………
I believe that the anthem protests were simply the straw that broke the camel’s back.
They certainly were for me and I don’t think I’m much different than most other people.
Jimmy the Greek,Tom Brookshire,Paul Tagliabue decrying backlashes against Muslims after 9/11–how much more could we list here.
I haven’t watched a pro or college game for two seasons now.Occasionally I miss it and get weak but so far I’ve stayed strong and usually do not miss it much.
Jimmy the Greek died in 1996, so how could he be decrying backlashes against Muslims after 9/11??????
I was randomly watching a game back in 2012
It quickly became the day the NFL died for me:
https://www.usatoday.com/story/gameon/2012/12/03/nfl-costas-speech-reaction/1742313/
I love the game itself. I called it quits a couple years ago because I could see where it was going. I watch for the game, with all its intricacies and amazing moments. It became about almost everything else except the game.
I can’t even remember the straw that broke my interest. But I could see it coming for awhile.
Started going down hill when women commentators and sideline hoes showed up.
I know what you mean. I quite the NBA about 10 years ago when it went street thug. Same progression in the NFL. Thug behavior=negrological. Not for me. A foreign culture I find disgusting.
The NFL, NBA, MLB, and NHL are far from dead, because people will increasingly need their ‘circuses’ for escape. The narrative of this slight down-turn in professional sports revenue is the equivalent of when Apple stock went from $7 to $600 and then merely dropped back to $550. Not a big deal when they are already so fucking rich.
When I entered my 50’s, I started to lose interest in professional sports. The insane levels of income for the athletes and team owners meant that I had to subsidize a new stadium with my taxes, only to get gouged with expensive ticket prices, parking fees, and ridiculous prices for a beer and a sandwich. Multiply that if you bring your family. So part of their down-turn is the economic stress on the average fan after 16 years of W shrub and Zero overseeing the economy.
Professional sports peaked in the mid-70’s, when the athletes could make a living without an off-season job, but Joe six-pack could still afford a ticket to enjoy it all.
Now, the whole aim of professional sport franchises is to wring every dollar out of you that they can. And once an entity has ‘made it big’, they have the resources to hire the people that know how to keep it going.
I still love the great pro sports memories from my youth, but everything loses its sweet innocence over time.
My first front row gold seats for the sabres were 10 bucks. 70’s playoff game. First rock concert 10 bucks. The parking pass for zac brown this year is 50 bucks. To park. On a gravel lot.
Eventually the bread and circuses do stop working to entertain and contain the masses, John
The non free enterprise league. The players and Coachs would be paid fairly by the market. If it was not subsidized by the taxapayer.
It coudn’t possibly have something to do with the decimation/financial decline of the [not-so-great anymore] “Murkaan middle class” unable to afford such NONSENSE? What’s really the difference between this “game” and theend-times decadent Roman’s “grain and games” subsidy/DISTRACTION?
The kneeling IS the major item that caused NFL viewership to decline.
” The National Anthem protests might be the nail in the coffin for an NFL which may very well have killed the goose that laid the golden egg. ”
Yep, add to it the concussion problem: even redneck mothers are telling their kids not to play football, based on love and money. IF you get to the pros you MIGHT have a ten or twenty-year career, if you’re REALLY talented and lucky. But whether your career in football lasts ten years or five (or one, or one game, or not past college) you WILL have the injuries and damages accumulated during your career – for the rest of your life. WHO in their right mind plays a game with such long odds against you?
Negroes ruined the NFL-like everything they touch. Juvenile end zone antics by “grown men” prancing around like little bitches, the “grievances” of black millionaires, the off field thuggery, Shannon Sharp’s rationalization of theft, IQ challenged black former players giving analysis, etc. Just play football and shut the fuk up
I’m 68, never watched sports. It a waste of time.
Not to mention the ex, new old coach for the Raiders, Gruden. $100,000,000.00 for ten years and he’s been away from coaching for almost 2 decades. $60,000,000.00 for the new coach at Texas A&M for 5 fucking years. Blow up your TV and go for a walk with the dog.
If you are going for a walk with the dog, I hope its a Golden Retriever. If you do have a Golden Retriever, please read the book “A Big Little Life” by Dean Kootnz.
It would be swell if NFL would just go away. Really swell. The protests of course are hypocrisy, condescension, an insult, and so out of place (workplace political protests? you’re fired!) it is nearly surreal to behold. I lost my appetite for any football several years ago when I read several papers on chronic traumatic brain injury. I believe most thinking people (of which there are few it seems) would lose their interest in the sport if they knew the real price many of the athletes are paying for the sake of what? Money and “my entertainment”? Am I so jaded, so barbaric as to watch the gladiators die before me to satisfy my lust for violence and “victory”? That football is still happening is in itself quite disturbing. That its popularity is waning is gratifying. I doubt there is one spouse, one child or one parent of one of the athletes that has or is suffering the consequences of repeated brain injury for “my entertainment” that would say “Yep, and I’d be glad to see him do it all over again.”
That bothers me not at all. Living life has caused me better than a dozen concussions and symptoms of cte. I would gladly have 50 million in the bank to go with it.
Fights, falls, explosion, bike crashes, motorcycle crashes, work x2, car crashes. Fuck, shit happens.
Read an article this evening. Its not the concussion that causes cte, but every single hit contributes. Notably hits on the left side of the head. Fwiw.
The purpose of the NFL is to promote anti American leftism, football is the medium they used to do it.
And their fans enthusiastically go along with it.
I don’t have a problem with someone choosing to kneel or otherwise protest the national anthem or the flag. I have a problem with employees doing it while on the clock and representing the owners and the owners not having a say about the whole deal. They knew if they spoke out they would be branded as racists, so they went along with it or tried to ignore it. However, the bigger issue I have with the whole ‘take a knee’ thing is that it is based on bullshit. These guys say they were protesting the racism of the police against blacks. Fuck them and their little brains. They just showed themselves to be stupid spoiled millionaire crybabies who are incapable of thinking and analyzing facts. For that reason, I decided they no longer needed my support.
college football is no better then pro–
here’s an email about a college game a buddy sent me a few days ago–
The other day I saw an amazing football game:
1) The players’ hair fit under their helmets.
2) No tattoos could be seen.
3) There were no outlandish end zone celebrations.
4) There was no taunting.
5) Opposition players helped each other up after a play.
6) Footballs were not spiked or left for the referee to retrieve; they were handed to the referee.
7) No one took a knee on the sidelines.
8)Players stood at attention during the playing of the national anthem.
It’s always great to watch the Army – Navy game.
Blacks scream about affirmative action…except when it comes to sports.
Most of the black athletes have an IQ under 85.
If U’re a true Libertarian, U have no problem with someone exercising their rights to free speech. Kneeling football players are not worse than what we have in the fake news, “reporters” giving their opinions as “news”.
The problem is the black players should be going into the inner cities and trying to help their communities by setting good examples, encouraging family values, speaking correct english, staying out of trouble, being industrious, and using their money to invest in jobs, businesses, etc. I see the same hypocrisy in country music and NASCAR with many stars thinking wearing a cowboy hat makes them a good ol’ boy, when they live in gated wealthy communities like the black sports stars.
Most people forget where they came from when they hit it big.