Nielsen: Football ratings off 11 percent this year

originally posted by: Krazysh0t

originally posted by: Throes

originally posted by: Krazysh0t
a reply to: DrStevenBrule

Why would you think that people's opinion of one quarterback would reflect on the whole league? People didn't stop watching the NFL because Ray Rice or Adrian Peterson beat their family members. Saying that they aren't watching because Kapernick kneeled is disingenuous and a leap in logic.

Ray Rice hasn't played since that came out. I'm sure partly because of fan disapproval.

Exactly. Only HIS career suffered. Not the entire NFL. The NFL took a hit for bungling the punishments for those two people, but even then viewership didn't respond much.

Well thanks to making a political move now the whole league will suffer since I believe 30% of players protested league wide.

However, this has been in the news cycles for the past 2 years and 1/2 the fans were sick of it to begin with.

originally posted by: luthier
a reply to: Bluntone22

It probably depends if the NFL fans are parents with kids in football as far as CTE

Even then, I know football parents who are fans and won't let their kids play but still will allow them to watch.

a reply to: Bluntone22

It's kind of a generation thing:
Millennials Are Watching Less Sports Than Previous Generations
Why Young People Are More Informed Than You Think
As a Millennial myself I too am conflicted on keep watching my Ravens or not watching altogether. I have stopped watching as much football as before and it has nothing to do with the kneeling (I don't care one iota about that). My issues lie with the NFL's treatment of concussion studies, their refusal to support medical marijuana, their insistence on continuing to support binge drinking beer, their insistence on relying on opiates for their players, haphazard punishments for players, and many more things that are so so much more important than honoring a silly tradition.

a reply to: Bluntone22

thank you for answering my question...
so, it's the media that is irking people more than the players.
am I right here???
and, now that trump has added his input into the issue, I imagine there will be much more commentary on the issue, during the games...

I would like to point out that the media didn't really have to say anything during the game and left it up to the players to explain their actions on their own... and the viewers of the game may have been left a tad bit confused, or may have not even noticed...
and those who don't watch the games, like me, well, we would have been completely oblivious to the whole thing if trump hadn't added his voice to the mix.

ya know what I really don't expect to see?? the victor of the republican primary of a senate race give something that more resembles a church sermon that a victory speech!!! but, hey, heard that this morning!!!

it's very easy to ignore a group of players on a football field, there is no reason for is to become a national issue like it has erupted into..

but, we shouldn't be ignoring the fact that puerto rico has been torn apart and people are dying and by what I hear, will have to wait another week or more before the congress will pass the the funding for them. I imagine the people of charlottesville found it rather hard to ignore the large group of kkk and white separatists marching through their streets, attacking their citizens with tiki torches and running over others with a car! and our political platforms shouldn't be turned into a religious tent revival!!!

one poll I say put the number of people who just didn't care one way or the other about the "taking the knee issue" over 50%... I wouldn't consider it worth of being a national issue... deserving of trump spending time tweeting about it, especially since he seems to have not spent any times saying much of anything about the disaster that is still occuring in puerto rico, not to mention, florida and texas...

originally posted by: Throes

originally posted by: Krazysh0t

originally posted by: Throes

originally posted by: Krazysh0t
a reply to: DrStevenBrule

Why would you think that people's opinion of one quarterback would reflect on the whole league? People didn't stop watching the NFL because Ray Rice or Adrian Peterson beat their family members. Saying that they aren't watching because Kapernick kneeled is disingenuous and a leap in logic.

Ray Rice hasn't played since that came out. I'm sure partly because of fan disapproval.

Exactly. Only HIS career suffered. Not the entire NFL. The NFL took a hit for bungling the punishments for those two people, but even then viewership didn't respond much.

Well thanks to making a political move now the whole league will suffer since I believe 30% of players protested league wide.

However, this has been in the news cycles for the past 2 years and 1/2 the fans were sick of it to begin with.

I blame Trump for poking that bear. If he was a real leader he wouldn't even be commenting on the issue and would have been 100% focused on Puerto Rico relief (though I'm kind of convinced he wasn't aware that PR was part of the US). We wouldn't even be having this conversation then because only Kapernick would have been the notorious kneeler.

a reply to: Throes

There is no idication most fans are bothered.

Many may be annoyed but not hysterical enough to stop watching.

a reply to: Throes

Even then? I said parents with kids in football, I meant playing.

a reply to: Krazysh0t

Definitely a generational thing.

"Silly tradition"

Our generations have different ideas of the meaning of our traditions.

a reply to: Bluntone22

I've never been a traditionalist as I see most tradition for the sake of tradition as silly. I care more about what those symbols represent than a tradition honoring them. When you are more focused on the tradition than the rights, then you have lost your way.

I wonder how many people up-in-arms about kneeling during the anthem can explain what the different parts of the flag represent. From the bars, to the stars, to the color choices. I'm relatively sure that most don't know that the National Anthem is a rather recent tradition (only a little over a century old).

originally posted by: Throes

originally posted by: AngryCymraeg
How much of the dip is down to people reading about CTE and not wanting to watch a 'sport' where people get progressively worse brain damage and are effectively ignored by the owners as they shovel loads of cash into their own pockets?

Probably minimal considering most of the retired NFL athletes say they would do it all over again even knowing the risks. They know what they could potentially be in for.

Given the fact that most of them have CTE I'd take that with a large pinch of salt. What makes matters worse is that the owners knew about the brain damage but didn't say a thing about it.

a reply to: seasonal

What's the variance in viewership over the last five years?

Is there a trend, or is this current status just an outlier?

originally posted by: DrStevenBrule

originally posted by: Krazysh0t
a reply to: DrStevenBrule

Why would you think that people's opinion of one quarterback would reflect on the whole league? People didn't stop watching the NFL because Ray Rice or Adrian Peterson beat their family members. Saying that they aren't watching because Kapernick kneeled is disingenuous and a leap in logic.

I'm not sure how big of a football fan you are but that is the exact reason the decline accelerated last year.

How about proving that statement if you are so sure of yourself? Give me some statistics along with statistical correlation that shows the decline is correlated and causational. Last I checked, correlation doesn't necessarily equal causation though.

I am a massive sports fan and I follow this stuff very closely.

Good for you. Then it will be easy to prove this proclamation then. ###snipped##

a reply to: dawnstar

You say the media.
It's the sports media not the news media.
Viewers just want to watch a game and zone out.
I expect the regular media to blow everything up.

originally posted by: AngryCymraeg

originally posted by: Throes

originally posted by: AngryCymraeg
How much of the dip is down to people reading about CTE and not wanting to watch a 'sport' where people get progressively worse brain damage and are effectively ignored by the owners as they shovel loads of cash into their own pockets?

Probably minimal considering most of the retired NFL athletes say they would do it all over again even knowing the risks. They know what they could potentially be in for.

Given the fact that most of them have CTE I'd take that with a large pinch of salt. What makes matters worse is that the owners knew about the brain damage but didn't say a thing about it.

You are saying this as an outsider. Sure, the players may not have known in the 80s and 90s but they do now. When past players are saying they would do it all over again anyway knowing the risks, I'd say CTE is a moot point.

Polarization of the NFL as a political avenue by the media is much higher issue. Anhueser Busch wasn't bring up meetings about their sponsorship about CTE..DirecTV wasn't allowing people to opt out the NFL Sunday Ticket over CTE..

originally posted by: Bluntone22
a reply to: dawnstar

You say the media.
It's the sports media not the news media.
Viewers just want to watch a game and zone out.
I expect the regular media to blow everything up.

ESPN is now as much an arm of the news media as it is the sports media.

a reply to: DrStevenBrule

Yea, because life long football fans are going to stop watching because of a protest..


Rae caruth killing his pregnant wife didn't do it...

Ray Lewis trying to help his buddy beat a murder charge didn't..

The fact they are all being brain damaged didn't..

But kaepernick and kneeling in protest of police brutality did....


I doubt that is really the case, but assuming it is, talk about garbage people...

I personally would guess it is due to the concussion stuff..

There had been a MASSIVE drop in kids playing football . Their parents are not willing to risk their child's safety of long term brain damage is possible.

I bet that accounts for most of it..

Kids don't play, kids don't watch..

Kids don't watch and you lose the father/son dynamic that has always powered the NFL..

Then add in all the off the books access to the NFL like bootleg websites and such...

Vwa la , you get a drop in ratings.




If it is the protests, why has baseball constantly dropped as well???

a reply to: Krazysh0t

I think the average American has their head up their butt on most every issue. They receive the cliffs notes on every subject from facebook and wiki.

originally posted by: JoshuaCox
a reply to: DrStevenBrule

Yea, because life long football fans are going to stop watching because of a protest..


Rae caruth killing his pregnant wife didn't do it...

Ray Lewis trying to help his buddy beat a murder charge didn't..

The fact they are all being brain damaged didn't..

But kaepernick and kneeling in protest of police brutality did....


I doubt that is really the case, but assuming it is, talk about garbage people...

I personally would guess it is due to the concussion stuff..

There had been a MASSIVE drop in kids playing football . Their parents are not willing to risk their child's safety of long term brain damage is possible.

I bet that accounts for most of it..

Kids don't play, kids don't watch..

Kids don't watch and you lose the father/son dynamic that has always powered the NFL..

Then add in all the off the books access to the NFL like bootleg websites and such...

Vwa la , you get a drop in ratings.




If it is the protests, why has baseball constantly dropped as well???

Individual actions vs. 1/3 of players protesting are two very different things.

You didn't see people burning season tickets on YouTube for any of those incidents......

a reply to: JoshuaCox

Watching baseball on tv is like watching paint dry.
Beige paint.
But game attendance has been going up.