Another problem with Thursday games is that it's on CBS, NFL NETWORK and now TWITTER . Then the following week it's not on CBS, it's not on TWITTER but now it's exclusively on NFL NETWORK. So if you're lucky and have NFL NETWORK you tune in and see Jim Nantz holding a cot damn CBS microphone and on the button corner of the ticker you SEE THE DAMN CBS Logo. Thursday night games are overall a complete mess. They had to come up with shitty uniforms to get people to tune in, that's how bad and desperate they are at this point. I think the league will finally get rid of Thursday games once they add more weeks to the regular season, while at the same time lecturing us on how much they care for player safety. Sent from my BLU LIFE ONE X using Tapatalk
If the ratings are truly down, then I think it is a combination of things. I think the demonstrations during the national anthem is a big part of it. I've seen a number of posts on FB regarding this, and even some false posts that said the NFL was going to stop playing the national anthem before games after the 2017 season (or something like that). I've done my best to combat those and inform the poster that it's false and they should take it down, but they keep popping up. I think Mark Cuban is spot on with regards to the NFL's greed and being in our faces 24/7/365. It's oversaturation. I'm not sure what he means in his comment that they're "getting lazy." I think the Presidential debate has had an effect. I also think that the economy has had an effect. Lots of people are having to work 2-3 jobs to make ends meet, and then they have family responsibilities, work to do around the house, etc. Bellows1, I think your post is spot on. I think the scheduling format for deciding who teams play each year has made a mockery out of "parity." When a team that had a losing record the previous year has to play a tough schedule the following year, it almost guarantees that they will have a losing record again, and increases the chances that their record will be worse. People are tired of seeing the same old teams be the best every year. The old way of determining schedules where the best teams had the toughest schedules and the weak teams had the easiest was best. I think the points about the same teams being on TV all the time and not every team getting exposure are spot on. Although I prefer a lot of passing over 3 yards and a cloud of dust, I agree also that the rules favor the passing game too much. With the scarcity of good QBs, weaker teams can be more competitive with a great RB and solid OL. I personally don't like all the celebrations and hot dogging after a player scores a TD, gets a 1st down or makes a big play, and I know a lot of other old farts like me and/or purists also dislike that, but I've also seen a lot of fans dislike that the NFL has gone to draconian lengths to stop them. I've even noticed how ridiculous the rules are this year. I've seen too many players penalized and on the verge of being booted from the game for celebrating/taunting. I know a lot of those fans refer to the NFL as the "No Fun League" and say that the game is more boring. That could be playing a part. Speaking of referees, the fact that the NFL still does not have full time referees, and even with tape reviews too many games are still decided by poor calls by the officials. That frustrates me and other fans and could play a part. I know that in both collegiate and NFL games I've been watching, when the officiating is brutally bad, I'll turn the game off. It just ruins the game for me. I think the rules changes have hurt the game and caused fans to lose interest. They're screwing up the game. Included in this are the CBA rules limiting the number of practices and hitting in practices. The product on the field has deteriorated badly, and I think these changes have contributed to injuries, rather than helping to prevent them. I think the comments about all the timeouts/commercials and nycarl's point about the 40 second clock are spot on as well. I also think the concussions and the NFL's having known about them for years and lying about it has turned a lot of people off to the NFL. Even with the stiffer penalties, too many offensive players are still getting hit in the head intentionally and the defensive player not getting penalized and some teams aren't following the concussion protocols.
The BLM kneel downs and the blatant calls by refs for teams like the Steelers and Pats. Vegas owns the NFL.
Lol. Silly protests during the anthem aren't the reason for the ratings drop. How about not scheduling the worst possible games for Monday night and for Thursdays? How about having more than 3-4 good teams? The level of play overall is terrible. So many average/bad teams that are not going anywhere.
As a Brit I never really understood the whole flag debate. Kaep is American, The flag is America (essentially), so by kneeling down he was 'dissing' the concept that is America. Which is fine if you're a radical, seccisionist or voluntary expatriate but makes little sense if you've done pretty well out of a system that you've got a problem with. Perhaps overseas he could in an alternative reality of become worldclass footballer but then he'd have to put in more effort, probably wouldn't earn as much (higher taxes and whatnot) and wouldn't of got a free university education out of it. That's not to say that he hasn't got a point in his criticism but it just seems a tad hypocritical.
To be honest, one of the reasons that I stopped watching the prime time games is because the announcers are just so painful to listen to. It's bad enough that they are biased against one of the teams and seem to take pleasure in tearing them down at every opportunity but, their lack of knowledge about the sport is stunning considering that they once played the game. Also, add in the fact that most of these announcers try to make it all about THEM and THEIR careers and not the game at hand and what we have is an unwatchable mess. I'd also like to mention the inconsistent or blatantly biased officiating, three minutes of commercials every five minutes and inane updates about things that nobody cares about and nothing about the things that the real fans of the game care about and the games (for me) are unwatchable.
But most of that was true last year, and the year before. Same mostly awful MNF and shaky TNF matchups (they were worse in 2014 imo), same usual suspects at the top with a couple of "surprise" teams putting it all together (Panthers last year, Vikings/Raiders this year). Last year also didn't have exciting rookie play from Philly and Dallas (I hated typing those words). Yet ratings were steady, til this year. Maybe there was always a limit to how high ratings could go before they declined a bit, maybe next season they'll tick back up and this will all have been a premature freakout over a brief dip. One year != a trend, after all. Either way, I do agree that the whole protest thing seems like too cheap and easy an answer. Have the top two teams in each division play the top two teams in the other 3 divisions from the previous year. It's only 2 different games a year but it would go a long way. They coud also make each division winner play the 4 division winners from the other conference -- I know the NFL loves their nice clean everyone-plays-everyone rotations, but does anyone give a fuck if they don't see the Lions for 10+ years, or if they don't get to travel to Jacksonville once every 6? -- but that's probably taking it too far. Maybe.
If 'Dancing With The Stars' gets a higher rating than 'Monday Night Football' tonight then I guess the NFL should really be worried.
No idea. I never watch TNF or MNF anyway unless I got money on the games.They are almost always bad games with no rooting interest for me. I still enjoy Sundays though. I just pick the games that interest me and watch redzone on the side. If TNF and MNF are ruining the NFL for you then stop watching those horrible games. No one is forcing you to.
The games start too late on week nights. Start them at 7:00pm EST and the ratings go up. Working people can't stay up that late especially if you have no rooting interest.
Again, in a vacuum that might be true, but SNF and TNF ratings were fine...until this season. What changed?
NFL suck sight now. Tired of spoiled brats celebrating after every single play, tired of the thugs, tired of the ridiculous amount of PEDs being taken and nothing being done about it, and tired of cheaters winning. I personally won't watch any games except Jets because of the losers not honoring the flag and this nation. Go to any other country in the world and try to enjoy the success and freedom the US provides. The biggest reason I think the ratings and games suck is because of the NFL itself. I don't know what a catch is, I don't know what a fumble is, all the rules have been made so every call is a judgement call. Every incomplete pass the players ask for a holding call, big plays are consistently Calle drank because of offensive holding, som players are looked to hold, others not, the entire game is controlled and decided by refs. It has become WWE. The announcers are so biased and terrible it would be wonderful if it would be synced with local broadcast.
That's such a load of shit. The NFL has sucked way before people started using their star status to protest for human rights.
Just can't see how a few mediocre players kneeling could have such an influence when murderers and rapists don't get a second thought in the NFL any more. I'll take Kaepernick over Ray Rice or Greg Hardy any day of the week.
Every time these mediocre players kneel for nothing it offends everyone who has served or who have lost loved ones defending our country.
No it doesn't. Tons of veterans have come out in support of him. Very rarely do we actually hear veterans complaining. Sent from my SM-G930P using Tapatalk
