There are many reasons. 1. The kneeling and Trump commenting has not helped. 2. Millelians not interested in a 3-3.5 hour game and into others things. 3. Cord cutters like myself who do not count in Nielsen ratings. 4. Red zone channel. The four reasons above are the main reasons. I also think fans see no hope for their team and are done. PFT posted this article a few weeks ago: http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.co...4-of-the-last-16-afc-super-bowl-quarterbacks/. Brady, Ben and Peyton Manning have been to the last 14 of 16 Super Bowls for the AFC. Three teams represented in 16 years. As a Jet fan knowing this why even bother watching? We don't have a qb. We know how it will end. Another reason is how bad the officiating is. The Chiefs Titans game was awful. What is a catch non catch and all the calls the Patriots get. I think fans see through it now and are sick of it. Saturday night in particular. Decker interference call. The offsides on Pats overturned. Why watch it? We already know the outcome.
I'd love to think that an increase in flags and Pats domination were a cause of the switch-off but I don't think this is anything more than a change in viewing habits. My view is that there are a decreasing amount of people who need to see a game live and more viewers would rather watch a game on fast-forward missing out the ads, half-time noise, two-minute warnings and needless Bowles timeouts.
Decline in quality of the overall product. For a league concerned about player safety, is having Thursday Night games every week but the last really necessary? In addition to the reasons listed above.
Agree. The Thursday night is an awful product. The players aren't ready physically and is a bad product. The Thursday night games should be between teams that are coming off byes or not have them at all. Too much over exposure.
People are sick of the flags. That's the single biggest reason, IMO. They implement all these rules for player safety that water down the game, yet the same amount of injuries keep happening. The rules are wishy washy, especially the catch rule, 10 second run off rule, and TDs becoming touchbacks. They need to sit back and run the numbers and evaluate these rules. They are far behind the times in technology as well, still using archaic measuring chains instead of microchip technology that can always measure precisely where the ball is or when it crosses the goal line.
In no particular order. - Too many flags. - Young generation not that into sports. - Cord cutting. - NFL becoming political. Kneeling etc. - Watered down product(Thursday night, Sunday morning etc) - Rule changes favoring offenses. Each of these have a particular impact.
Thursday night games suck. No parity. I can only watch my local team and fuck the Eagles. Bias in officiating/league decisions. Owners who don't give a shit (Woody Johnson...)
Let's be real, the majority of the ratings decline comes down to bad public relations. Too many of the players are too concerned with their "brand" by using social networking. Look at Odell Beckham. The NFL's version of a Kardashian. People are turned off by a lot of the players. NFL is kind of like ESPN. Both trending down.
The Collective Bargaining Agreement has eliminated two-a-days in summer camp which is now also shorter than it was in the past. Time in pads has been reduced both for pre-season practice and on a weekly basis during the season. Mandated weekly day off takes additional preparation time away. If anyone thinks overall level of play can be maintained with much less preparation time available throughout the season they qualify for a job in the league office.
Ive been saying this forever. The league has a talent problem all over. Coaches, qbs, lineman, linebackers. The product is getting worse. College players are much less prepared to play in the NFL and it shows. Sent from my SM-G955U using Tapatalk
I agree with most of what folks have been saying for reasons why the ratings are going down. I would add that I think we are losing some curb appeal at the QB position. Once Big Ben, Eli, Rivers, Brady, and Rodgers retire, who are going fill the void of curb appeal at the QB position.
I can reply to everyone and agree with them. Hopefully the NFL realizes this. I don't think they wil. They're happy with the money. Things that pop out to me is the quality of the game. I think the main reasons mentioned above: a. college and the NFL are playing different games and the players are not prepared; You especially see that at the qb position. b. the doing away with two a days and teams practicing to become a team and a cohesive unit. You see that with the offensive line play. Takes them about 5 or 6 games to gel. If they had more practice time that would come sooner. c. the Thursday night game. Too much exposure to the NFL. The players not being prepared for the game etc. Injuries. It's funny how many people say this but because of money the NFL doesn't care about the product or the injuries so it will keep throwing it down our throats. With some of these issues the union and the NFL need to come to an agreement and add some more practice time, better connect to college football to prepare the players and figure out a better plan for Thursday Night Football.
The product has been steadily declining for a decade. I understand the concussion thing has to be addressed but the rule changes to protect players has really had a negative impact on the quality of the game. There's a flag every other play on ticky tack bullshit and no one even knows what the fuck is a catch in the NFL anymore. TLDR - the game has turned to shit.
1. Cord cutting. 2. Cord cutting. 3. Cord cutting. 4. Over exposure (haven't watched MNF unless the Jets were playing for years - it's not special any more.) 5. The Pats and Steelers domination in the eastern half of the viewer base. 6. Rules changes to make football safer. 7. Rules changes that make football more confusing (WTF is a catch these days?) 8. Don Shula (it's always his fault - rule #1 for a Jet's fan but this has gotten pushed down the queue by the 7 items above.) But yeah, it's cord cutting. ESPN is in a slow motion bankruptcy at this point. What more do you need to know? Ratings would look really good if the NFL put a legitimately cheap option out there for fans to watch live games over streams. $3 a week and the NFL would be America's viewing option again. Verizon has a free service that streams local games - however the cost of the service isn't really free. You need to have a Verizon account to use it. This type of service should be available with a clear and cheap cost and it should be available for all games.
In my humble opinion I think the reason why the NFL may be in trouble is obvious and in this order. 1.) Parents, especially moms, will not let their sons play football, kids grow up not appreciating the game. 2.) The game being watered down so much has eliminated the gladiator aspect of it that made it attractive to begin with. 3.) Young people today with their ADHD habits who are into video games do have the patience for the stoppage of play. 4.) Because the rules have made the QB so important, teams without a franchise QB appear doomed. 5.) The players themselves have become so unlikeable for various reasons. 6.) The league has tried to make parity a reality but the Patriots keep screwing up this vision.
A lot of why the past 2 years have been down is definitely directly linked to the protests-I know a bunch of people not watching, not buying merchandise, or going to games. I have Sunday ticket and would religiously watch every Thursday, Sunday and Monday but this year I found other things to do and maybe watched 1 game a week on average, some weeks I didn’t watch any games. I am just tired of politics in general and since it creeped into the one place I could escape that stuff it really soured me on pro football. I will say I watched a lot more college football this year though. As for the future I agree with many of the other posts-the nfl is in trouble. Young people have lots of other options and now that the nfl has pissed off its core fans I don’t see them gaining fans back.
I didn't bring up the protesting because last time I went at it with many people who thought it was ok on this board. I do think the NFL lost some fans all over the country because of this. I myself an avid follower of the game for many years was tempted to pull out. I hope we don't see this non sense again.
Game is rigged. Why watch when you know the outcome? Close game but the Patriots get the win along with a couple "lucky" calls.
Number 4 agree with 100%. Always the top 5 or 6 are in the Super Bowl. The other 27 teams don't have a chance. They have to find a way to develop qbs to make it a better product.
This is nothing new though. They have got calls this same way since basically the tuck rule. My hatred of the patriots is well documented on this board & even though I think the officiating has been blatantly bias toward them all this season, I've neglected joining this discussion to some extent b.c the calls have gone this way for them almost comically for at least a decade. While not the #1 reason I do think the patriots being shoved down people's throats does have something to do w. the ratings. They are the most unlikable team in sports & who really wants to see them win every single year?And thats before the crooked officiating & cheating.