Between the ads, the timeouts, the 40 second clock and the talking heads trying to shout over each other I've lost a lot of my enthusiasm for the game, and I've been watching it since the 1958 NFL sudden death game. Sometimes for amusement I keep track of clock time vs. real time. I've seen a punt timeout, a long td pass followed by a TO, the ensuing kickoff followed by a TO and the quarter change followed by another TO. In 16 chronological minutes the game clock moved 0:31 seconds. I've had more fun than that at the dentist's office.
1) I don't buy "systematic discrimination". What system? The one that brought us a black president? The system that gives preferential treament to minorities entering college? The one that provides a slew of other programs to the disadvantaged? 2) more importantly ... like I said in previous post. To me the national anthem is honoring its citizens who have served and sacraficed, or are currently serving and sacrificing in our military. The song plays for what, 3mins tops..? We stand united and recognize their sacrifice. This is who you want to protest against? These are the people who have created your "systematic discrimination"?
So people who refuse to "watch people stand (or kneel)" hate America.... But people who disrespect the flag do NOT hate America. Now I understand why you support terrorists
You realize arguing with a liberal is like bashing your head against the wall, they don't want to hear facts. No matter what this country does to those with an agenda it's still racist and discriminatory. Completely spits in the face of many minorities who have been successful here as well as those who served in the military that cowards now stand on the flag while brave people died defending that right. And yes these whiners "protesting" is a HUGE reason ratings are down
Inferior product on the field, average players acting like their HOF players after every first down. Lack of quality QBs, lack of professionalism, terrible retread HC...etc Only a handful of quality teams and everyone else is average or below.
Over saturation of product. Basically everyone I talk sports with hates Thursday night games and only watch our team or a particularly great matchup of which there are few. Sunday night, Monday Night, Red Zone Sunday... I just think people are tired of it. I also think that now that fantasy players and wagerers have apps on their pones, they go about their daily business knowing they can look at updated stats anytime they want. I remember when you had to watch the scroll at the bottom of the TV to try to keep up...
Oversaturation could definitely be a key contributor to it. No Manning and Brady also could be contributors. Personally I think the level of competition sucks. We all know the Patriots are going to win it all again and the majority of fans are done with them.
Good points. Couple more: The new CBA limiting the amount of practice has really negatively affected the product on the field. Too many of the rules are random or arbitrary and the officiating is abysmal, and both substantively affect the outcomes of games to the point that sometimes you might as well be watching coin flips. Parents aren't letting their kids play football in the same numbers as previously due to the concussion/health issues, so less younger viewers are as invested in the sport.
I've had this discussion a number of times. The NFL shows absolute favoritism to a handful of teams that they air and/or discuss ad nauseum. Rather than exposing potential fans to all of the NFL we get teams like Denver,Indy, et al as the national,TNF,SNF,MNF game. Any time you can watch 2/3 of one teams season as a marquee game for that day, you've got a problem.
Probably for the best . It's going to be one of those teams as the game for that day anyway. Take SNF for instance. There are 18 total games, for 36 total teams that could play in a 32 team league. Every team could be seen once with the favorite 4 teams getting two games. I'm sure you could play with the math and the schedule figure out a more accurate representation; but I'll run with what I described. SNF only has 19 different teams playing with the favorites playing 3 times each. Broncos Patriots Seahawks Each of those team has a game on TNF and a Monday night for a total of 5 prime time appearances. Now you factor in how many times they are "game of the week" for normal tele-casts or what's shown when the team has no local franchise and you get people seeing each of these stupid teams 8-ish times a season. There is no way for somebody to "discover" other teams or players outside of a select few. I feel that it only further dilutes a product that has already been diluted by terrible rule changes, uneven officiating and rampant cheating/oneupsmanship. I have a friend, Steelers fan, the guy used to be rabid and we'd talk football all the time. The final straw with him as far as rule change that effectively killed the kick off. Now the only thing he says about the NFL, when he says anything, is that it's well on it's way to becoming a flag football league. My thinking is it'll end up more along the lines of Cricket.
Too much football. Regular Thursday night football needs to go away and Sunday morning football needs to go away. When it's on all the time it's not special anymore. I used to love the build up over the course of the week for those 1PM Sunday games, and wouldn't miss MNF for much of anything. Now I just make sure to catch the Jets game and if I miss others it's not a big deal because there will be more in a couple days.
1) So because a black guy became president, racism is over? No, it's not. Do you even understand why minorities get a helping hand getting into college? It's because so many were denied for so many years BECAUSE they were minorities. Something had to be done to prevent people from getting denied an education just because of the color of their skin. So now minorities are the only disadvantaged? What does this have to do with the topic at hand? 2) That's to you. To most people, the national anthem is to honor the country. You think they play national anthems at the Olympics and international events to honor every country's militaries? No, they are to honor the whole country.
1) "So now minorities are the only disadvantaged." Those are your words, not mine. I stated we have systems in place to help the disadvantaged. You still have not provided any examples of your, "systematic discrimination". 2) We aren't talking about the olympics, are we...? These are national football games held domestically. I imagine most Americans are standing to honor our military past and present. And even if we stand to "honor the whole country".... is this not the right united thing to do?
1) Police target minorities over whites in America. White people are less likely to be prosecuted for crimes. Whites get lower bails and are freed faster while black people are stuck waiting longer to see a judge. Black people are less likely to have people of the same race on their juries. White people get lesser sentences than black people. White kids are more likely to get juvenile detention whereas black kids are more likely to get tried as an adult and get prison time. The system is racist as hell. This is a long established fact not up for debate. You might as well try to argue gravity doesn't exist either. 2) So why is football the exception to every other instance the national anthem is played? Because no one else plays it? The national anthem is to honor the country as a whole, not just a select group of people.
I don't agree with the fantasy football reason. Fantasy football has been around for a long time, and it has been easily available on smartphones and other devices for the past 4-5 years now. It didn't affect last year's record breaking season for revenue. I'm not buying that it's suddenly a factor. I would expect more of a slow decrease over time. I also do not think the protests have a large effect either. Maybe a few diehard patriots were disgruntled I do agree that part of it is Roger Goodell and his constant mishandling of situations. In general, the perception of the him and the NFL is bad. It sure didn't help that Tom Brady dragged out deflate gate an extra year. It also doesn't help that there are more stoppages in play than ever before. It's hard to keep people interested when you have so many commercials. The NFL won't modernize the game, and it is lagging behind as a result. Give the refs and the teams secure digital headsets so they can talk to the coaches and announcers and discuss plays fast. NFL is one of the only sports left that has to completely stop the game to announce a penalty to the fans. The NFL keeps implementing new rules that water down the game and claim they are for player safety, but then just as many injuries still happen and the rules stay. If they are trying to eliminate the kickoff completely, just get it over with instead of leaving fans with a sequence like: TD - Review/commercial - extra point - commercial - Kickoff - commercial. Just end it and save us the nightmare!
1) These are examples of racism, which is wrong. None are examples of an actual system. Study, work hard, move ahead. Quite possibly the easiest system to advance through. 2) You have your right to dishonor the flag. While you are sitting there try to reflect on the citizens who have sacrificed to protect your right.
Not buying it... I think it has more to do with the pussification of the NFL and the over commercialization of it. Every friggin break there are 5 fuking commercials..then the flags on any questionable hit. Add to that how they keep changing the kickoffs every year to take away excitement yet, they move the PAT back.. Then, let's talk about how the UK games are at 9am here when they can just make them play later over there...add a Thur Night Sun Night and Mon Night to the schedule and that's going to fall off so many people's schedules.
Yes they are examples of racism...by the institution. Spare me your "citizens who have sacrificed to protect your right" BS. I spent my time overseas trying to help take down terrorists. I've devoted my life to it. No one is standing to honor me or my coworkers. They are doing it to honor America. Why is it the majority of people bitching about this AREN'T soldiers and most soldiers seem to be defending these players from idiots who want to deprive the athletes from their first amendment rights?
Another vote for the oversaturation, particularly non-game programming. I still enjoy game time but NFL Network/ESPN is going to have to face up to the facts that the game has a short season and is only played on Thursday (ugh), Sunday and Monday. There isn't enough action to accommodate 24/7 talking heads - this is just driving up the amount of disposable bullshit - top 100 lists, power rankings, fantasy strategies. Should I really give a fuck what Bucky Brooks thinks about anything? Cancel the non-game stuff and show re-runs of Bewitched, I Love Lucy and extreme hardcore pornography. Let Sunday remain special.
