The NFL is becoming more disturbing than appealing, and TV viewers are tuning out
 

https://www.washingtonpost.com/sport...b06_story.html

Excerpts:

I'm not surprised.

The on field product sucks. Every team I watch fails to execute simple plays.

CPs very own Hamas Jenkins just said tonight he hardly watches - that in and of itself should say a lot. He used to be right in the middle of all of the football talk here on the Planet.

FOX's Sunday slate looks grim af this week. When a winless team is playing in your featured matchup, you know things have gotten bad.

I hope the Chiefs win a SB soon so I can cash out. Between the head trauma, the anti-emotion rulebook, and the complete mangling of the very concept of a catch, I'm getting ready to let go......

It's a bag of hammers.

An 0-15 Dallas Cowboys team could be playing St. Mary's School for the Deaf and Blind in Week 17 and it would get top billing.

I have zero interest in any non Chiefs NFL game...none. Possibly a Broncos\Raiders game can get my attention. Simply don't like the league or product enough. And all the personalities surrounding it.

No one believed the "coincidence" between year 50 of the SB and all the "magical" things that had to take place for Manning to even be there. Cam just staring at his fumble didn't help in selling the authenticity of the ruse. Having Manning thank his corporate sponsors first and foremost didn't sell the "dramatic moment" in his farewell game either...but having f@cking Coldplay at halftime did them in.

Truth is..no one cared outside of Denver. They intrinsically know when something feels synthetic and manufactured. * See Raiders vs. Saints in week one*

F@ck the NFL and the sterile, corporate office environment they've created...it can burn. They had a good run...Vegas made a shit ton...shame the internet shed light on the sham.

So, the WORLD SERIES should trump a Week 6 or whatever avg reg season NFL game.

While the NFL ratings are declining its by far and away the highest rated sport in the USA. Regular season MLB Sunday Night baseball got DEMOLISHED by kids playing video games on TV.

I think the NFL is heavily influenced by crooked officiating

I have a very hard time taking any interest in it now.

I try to watch some of the Chiefs games but don't really care if I miss some or all of it

What's disturbing is the product they offer us now.

if they offer officiating like it was in Broncos vs SD, then viewership will rise. If they stop penalizing for players having fun, viewership will rise. If they limit thursday games to week 8 and on.. or even week 12 and on.. viewership will rise. If they properly punish domistic abusers, viewership will rise. If they simplify rules, viewership will rise.

This is who wrote this article.

http://www.whoareyousports.com/wp-co...ly-Jenkins.jpg

Goodell will run this game into the ground.

Stop Thursday night football and ****ing London regular season games. Stop the subjective nonsense on flags and focus on real penalties. Bite the bullet and pay out on player safety so we aren't forced to watch fifth string rejects at key positions.

My Chiefs excitement is right where it needs to be, but yeah.. most every other team matchup leaves me bored or not bothering to tune in at all this year. I can only imagine how unplugged other people with more going on in their lives than I are. I have all the time in the world, and still don't care to fill it with game after game.

Not a surprise that people are losing interest. Better things to do.

outside of the Chiefs, i dont even watch football anymore. Its gotten stale. It has nothing to do with Colin Kaepernick either. It has to do with the ref's making horrible calls. It has to do with the defense not being able to play football. I see a pass on sunday where the Defensive back LET the WR catch the ball because he was scared to make the hit due to the fines. Im sorry, thats not football for me. I dont find that shit entertaining.

Yet, MLB players make more money then the rest, but thats not the point. The NFL isnt the same as it used to be. Godell is running it into the ****ing ground. Its only going to get worse and worse as he implements more stupid ****ing rules.

Players don't work as hard under the new cba. Only Bill demands his players study at home and when they mess up he embarrasses them. Collins was their best defender but just didn't get on board with his way so he sent him packing to the worst team in the league. Practice makes perfect and they don't practice enough in the off season so the product goes to bad.

that.

and, I'm REALLY ****ing tired of a player performing a routine play and getting up and screaming at the sky, or walking like a tough guy while looking at the fans/whoever etc. Its like dude...you just caught an 11 yard pass. Or dude, you just made a tackle on a 5 yd game. Kelce is one of the worst in this regard. Catch a 30 yd pass and take it to the house? Celebrate, that's awesome. catch a 15 yd pass on a dig route.....better get up and do some sort of signature look at me for the camera on such an amazing play.

tired of that shit.

Agreed and quit pushing your political beliefs around. Let the players play and punish them for not being "professional".

When the league forces the Chicago ****ing Bears down our throat for 10 primetime games a year what do you expect.

New rule: you have to have actually gone to the playoffs to play in a primetime game game the following year.

I watch less, but mostly because of my work schedule. Sunday, Monday and Thursday night games are on too late on the east coast, not to mention the weekday matchups are usually terrible. I still watch football on Sunday's but I haven't seen a college football game in a few years because I have been working OT on Saturdays.

I still watch the Chiefs, but that's about it. And if the Chiefs start getting their asses handed to them this week, I might rake leaves or golf.

At one time I think the Denver/Oakland match-up would have been a must-see for me (in hopes of a meteor), but I'm not sure that'll command my attention this week.

All that being said, I don't think KC, Cleveland, and Detroit fans are a good measure, we've been let down and abused in more ways than just the product taking a bit of a dive.

One has to wonder how much more the ratings will fall when the old guard of QBs hang em up.

Eli
Brady
Rivers
Romo
Brees
Rothlisberger
Rodgers

Factor that in with the fact OLs aren't allowed to practice together as much as before the most recent CBA paired with the influx of pass rushing talent and you have a very dangerous position for a sport trying to compete for the best athletes with sports that give fully guaranteed contracts to their players and you can understand why the league is losing fans.

They need to stop being so greedy and put the whole "Thursday night football" travesty to rest and move the Sunday and Monday night games up an hour minimum.

How is a family with kids supposed to even watch a game that doesn't end till 10:30 or 11:00? Sorry, but my kids go to bed at 9 so they get enough rest for the next day. I'm sure I'm not the only one that feels that way.

They have over saturated the market.

Combine that the endless stream of commercials which turns a 60 minute game into a 3 1/2-4 hour marathon, officiating that is as bad as we've ever seen, and growing perception that officiating is slanted in favor of certain teams, people are becoming disenchanted with the product.

It's a QB driven league and honestly, if there have been quality games in prime time this season featuring big name QBs... I've missed it.

Brady was off 4 weeks, some are injured and/or on teams that suck.

We have a youth explosion that could be good, but it's all uknown. Hell, I was watching a promo for OAK/DEN on SNF... the first few scenes feature Lynch. (??) The casual viewer has to think "Who is David Carr - and are these both backups?"

I think there's been a lot of fail with the primetime games.

Packers, Saints, Panthers, Steelers, Colts... none of them are doing much of anything really. A few have decent records, but there's not a big story line or much drama at the midway point. The big thing is the success of the young QBs and I don't think that's really selling, which is weird.

The game I was most excited about watching recently was TEN/JAX... I don't see either team much, so while the game sucked early... I was enjoying it because I just don't get to watch those guys.

The refs swaying games is absolutely a legit factor.

It's completely obvious in some games.

I do think there's something to messing with the routine... TNF, SNF, MNF... London games... it's a mess.

I find it almost impossible to sit and watch a 3+ hour game. Commercials and crooked refs add to my disdain. DVR us no help because scores are plastered all over the TV and internet. Have no interest whatsoever in any non Chiefs game.

Absolutely no one watches, and the media under-covers, every single one of those London games.

Just plain stupid to pitch 10% of your Sunday market into the shitter like that.

And she's right, not sure why her picture matters?

Well, it's rather sensationalist and a little over the top. The NFL is still doing pretty good. The NFL is a male-dominated and male-aimed sector of the entertainment industry, so a female writer, especially a liberal one (it is the ****ing Washington Post after all) is naturally going to be at least somewhat biased against it.

Like many others, I don't watch a lot of games outside of the Chiefs. However, I do still really look forward to watching those games. To be fair though, it's not like I watch other sports instead. Playoff baseball and hockey will sometimes draw me in for an hour or two, but it's not like I'm tuning out of football games to watch soccer games. For me it's the inconsistency in officiating that makes it seem like a rigged product. Not like the games are totally controlled, but there's enough bias in some games that it really affects the result.

Beginning to? LMAO

They've ruined the game for ad dollars and fantasy football. I've watched most of the Chiefs games and that's it.

Even the games I've missed haven't bothered me at all.

They can start by getting rid of that London nonsense.

The list is very long after that...

I have to say though I do still enjoy most of the Sunday games. Carr, Wentz, Prescott, Rodgers, Manning, Ryan, Brady, Stafford, Mariota...any game with any of those QBs I'll stop and watch. Broncos games are still entertaining due to their elite defense.

It's the primetime games where the league is really suffering.

It seems too scripted to me. Golden boy QB's are over protected, officiating seems biased, and star players can't celebrate or be themselves. It's a shell of what it once was for sure.

The pacing of the game sucks. Its unbearable to watch anymore. The games are boring. People think baseball is bad with pacing, the NFL is way worse. 7 to 8 seconds of game action followed by 30 seconds of standing around. Repeat a few times. Pause for penalties/injuries/reviews. Commercial. 7 to 8 seconds of action. Commercial. Announcers talk, kick the ball. Commercial. 7 to 8 seconds of game action. Stand around for 30 seconds. Commercial. Repeat. Its awful to watch and not worth anyones time.

I don't watch as much football anymore and I agree with everyone on some of the reasons like TNF, London games, commercials, flags etc..

They just need to get back to playing only on Sunday and Monday but I do admit I like the early games so maybe to spice it up have 1 game a week start at 9AM.

Also this may or may not be a popular idea but they need to get rid of the rotating bye week. At the 8 or 9 week mark all teams have a bye. I was looking at the TV schedule last week and there were only 2 3PM's games which IMO is ridiculous.

The in-game coverage is awful as well. I was watching the Bears MNF game the other night and a Bears defender pressured the QB into a backwards pass that hit the ground. Instead of pursuing the ball the Bears defender celebrated the pressure like an idiot. It was a comical moment and they replayed a one second blip of the backwards pass and not the idiot who was celebrating while a loose ball was bouncing around. There is nothing fun about the NFL anymore, it's all serious business. Plus, it seems any meaningful rivalries have long been killed off due to player movement and salaries.

Mostly in games involving the Donkeys, which is why I never watch their games.

My feelings exactly.

It would appear that there are different rules, or at least different rules enforcement, depending on the team / QB.

Denver was CONSTANTLY allowed to run illegal picks all of last season.

If Tom Brady take the 2 shots to the head that Alex did on Sunday, someone's getting ejected / suspended and fined.

I've often maintained that the substandard, inconsistent officiating (and Goodell's seemingly inability or desire to do thing about it) would kill interest in the league.

Now, factoring in the Domestic Abuse cases that have come to light, the shedding of light on CTE and former players and the whole National Anthem debacle are accelerating the decline.

Mark Cuban's prediction of the NFL "being gone" in 10 years would seem to be gaining traction.

Goodell seems OBSESSED in getting a franchise over there.

I would argue he has larger concerns that should be focused on.

Excellent point.

Less training / practice definitely contributes to the decline of the product, along with more players getting hurt.

Poll after poll screams out loud that Kapernick is the main reason, and that the NFLs white middle aged demo doesn't like him one bit, or the League standing by his stunt.


It didn't suddenly "become a bad product" in one year. It's Kapernick

No particular order:

1. over-saturation. Sunday, Sunday Night, Monday Night, Thursday night. Constantly an NFL game on now.

2. Flags. Flagapalooza. Flagarama. Flagfest.

3. Inconsistency in officiating, which gets microanalyzed to the nth degree every damn time. Super-slow-mo, and 20,000 angles. Humans are humans, but we expect refs to be perfect.

4. Poor play, primarily as a result of reduced practices and reduce contact allowed due to the latest CBA.

5. Elimination of excitement from teh game. Yeah, the game is safer, and it's hard to argue it isn't necessary, but people love to watch teh big hitters and the big hits. Also, did you dance in the end zone? Penalty. Did you LOOK at the guy you just tackeld? Unsportsmanlike conduct. THOU SHALT DO YOUR JOB AND THEN ROBOTICALLY RETURN TO THE HUDDLE.

6. Endless alternatives for entertainment. On Demand TV, 2,000 channels. Netflix. Stream whatever you watch. Watch cat videos. Alot of competition for eyeballs.

7. Commercials. Endless long, commercials at every possible moment.

For me it's the constant commercials more than anything that is the most annoying and what makes other team's games hard to watch. You want to be sucked into the action, have your adrenaline and excitement rise as the stakes grow higher, but the constant stoppages totally remove you from that multiple times throughout the games. It isn't a sport that lends itself well to so many stops and commercial breaks.

People may complain baseball is slow but when it comes to commercial breaks, you are not surprised by them, you know they are coming so you don't get dissapointed or frustrated, and when they do have commercial breaks they are more natural and feel more necessary. In football, outside of breaks after the scoring, the multitude of other commercial breaks they have are just too jarring and sudden and they completely remove from the action and excitement.

There's a 2000 pound elephant sitting in your post.

ROFL

Kaepernick plays for one team, and has barely played this year at all.

It's not Kaepernick.

I don't know about other fans in general, but I'm tired of the same handful of teams being propped up by the league every single year for the last 15-20 years. At least baseball and basketball have a changing of the guard every few years. I used to ignore MLB and NBA for the last decade or so, but I've honestly been more interested in the postseason of those sports than I have the NFL recently. If it's another NE/Seattle type SB who gives a shit?

I like to tell people who say this to go to scoresandodds.com one week and write down all the spreads and over/unders and then once the games have finished go back and compare.Some games will have you saying WTF??

Yep.

As I mentioned in Sunday's game thread after Kelce's catch was ruled a non-catch by replay (the refs actually got the call RIGHT the first time), the NFL is killing itself.

I cut the cord this year, which means no more Sunday Ticket after about 15 years. I stream Chiefs games on Kodi, but my days of flipping back and forth between other games or using the Red Zone channel are over. Now, after the Chiefs are done (when they play the early game), I put on one of the late-afternoon games on a broadcast channel in the background with the sound off while I listen to the Chiefs postgame radio shows streaming over the Internet, relax with a drink and begin preparing dinner.

I almost never watch Thursday night or Monday night games anymore. I rarely watch the Sunday night game beyond halftime -- I go to bed.

The rules suck, the games are boring, there are too many commercial breaks, there are too many games during the week, most of which are boring or bad matchups. I don't agree with the flag-sitters, but they don't offend me; what bugs me is the damn issue being COVERED TO DEATH. Gotta watch the anthem at every ****ing game to see who's standing and who's not! I. Don't. Care.

I hate what Goodell has done to the draft. HATE IT.

I could go on, but you get the gist ...

For me, the biggest issue is that you just can't get excited about anything anymore. Big play? That's great, but is there a flag for some ticky tack reason? OK, good, no flag. Now let's watch 15 different replays to see if the ball jiggled a bit. Oh, crap. Was that enough of a jiggle to overturn it? Shit, there's the red flag.

(5 minutes of commercials)

"I know that literally everyone thought that it was a catch in real time, but when viewed at 20,000 fps, I saw a jiggle. Ruling on the field is reversed."

OK, what the **** were we doing 10 minutes ago...?

"Disturbing" is not the word I would use to describe it

I feel that "uncaptivating" is a much better fit

And that's just the Chiefs 2 minute offense.

Yeah, that too.

Everytime there's an incomplete pass on third and long, I ask, Is there a flag? Is there a flag? (Beat. Beat. Beat.) "And there's a late flag on the play!"

It's Kaepernick.


1). He's the main reason according to actual polls where they, you know, ask people:
http://boston.cbslocal.com/2016/10/2...protests-poll/

2). He's become suddenly very unpopular by whites, who are the main NFL demo:

"It is important to note, as ESPN does, that two years ago 7 percent of Caucasians polled said they disliked Kap "a lot," but now, that figure has skyrocketed to 37 percent."
http://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/1...eting-research

I got older and realized I'm rooting for millionaires to run around and not play defense anymore. I feel like the NFL is experiencing the same issues as ESPN. It's been so sanitized and over-workshopped into being an uninteresting experience. The games are expensive as shit and no fun to go to and the games are sloppy and uncompetitive to watch at home.

College ball is right now more entertaining to me, but we can all tell it's going the same way as the NFL.

Only time I'll watch a Thursday night or Monday night game is if I'm at a bar with a friend.

^

Yep...it's really hard to watch now. After an extra point there are 3 minutes of commercials, then a kick off and another 3 minutes of commercials. By the time it gets going again you've been completely taken out of the flow.

You couple that with the outrageous prices of parking, tickets and concessions....and all the VIP boxes sold to corporations + seat licenses fees. It's not worth $500-$1000 for two people to go.

Then you have horrible officiating and the specter of Vegas influencing games. The head of officiating partying on Jerry Jones's "fun bus". People are tuning out....and they should.

No one bought the "Manning riding off into the sunset" script while being the worst QB in the NFL. They over-played their hand...thinking fans were too stupid to notice. They are trying again with the Raiders hype and their stadium tax fleecing.

They have turned into a "maximize profits by extortion/manipulation" mega-corporation....masked as a sport. Its the snake eating it's own tail....

First, they've gotta make the refs full-time employees. Increase practice time so the product isn't shit.

Honestly, I'd do away with instant replay. Just play it with the eye test.

Interesting to hear peoples view on London Games and that they have been targeted in that article.

From my perspective living in Europe I think they have a fantastic advert for the game in the UK and Europe. A large amount of NFL revenue is generated outside of America and over here Football crushes any other US sport. The Superbowl gets covered on 2 channels, and will be mentioned on the national news. Nobody cares about NBA Finals, Stanley Cup or World Series.

I find it laughable that a Regular season game between 2 poor teams (based on last years record) is being held up against Baseball's showpiece event.

I like the bye week idea, but I think a better idea would be to split the bye into two weeks, with 4 divisions taking one, and the other 4 taking the next.

The catch rule.
The TD celebration penalties.
The mediocrity of the league.
Inconsistent penalties for any assortment of things from finger wagging to hits on the QB's. Flags on every single play!
Over saturation of games with piss poor matchups.
Games now take 3 1/2 hours to play now.
Lack of any big time hits(loved those as a kid).

I haven't watched one 49er game this year & it's not due to Kaepernick.



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Oversaturation, non-competitive games, no fun league, stupid ass ideas like color rush, too many commercials, boring ass announcers, poor product on Thursday night, fantasy football influence on the game, entertaining election and World Series and half a dozen old grumpy white men who are mad at Kaepernick.

Pretty much this (and everything else people are bringing up).

Bottom line is, whenever massive amounts of money gets involved in a product, it's going to suffer in multiple ways......and the consumers are the ones who ultimately suffer the most.

I like that idea.

If they insist on Thursday games, they should only be played the week after a teams bye.

Blew EIGHTEEN calls in favor of the Packers over Jacksonville. Absolutely pathetic. Games are influenced a certain way..no ****ing doubt.

They were talking about this on ESPN radio the other day. Even said fans didn't buy Manning going out on top as legit. Broke down games including our week 2 matchup and the calls they got in the tying drive.

It's a perfect sport for multi tasking. While games are on I can:

Clean the house
Do laundry
Cook
Detail the car
Play LOTRO
Play with my son
Lift Weights

And I don't miss any of the game action

Is the pace of play that much different than its always been?

TBH this is the reason I dont watch College Football as much any more, I see a load of invisible Millionaires and Millionaire coaches whilst these poor kids get next to nothing and are simply exploited. I at least feel happy some guys are getting paid and can support their families in the NFL.

No, other than how the replays have slowed it down. Games are still around 3 hours long.

All sports have their pacing drawbacks.

Baseball creeps along

Hockey and soccer have long bouts of play with no scoring.

Basketball has TOO MUCH scoring over too long of a period with an insane amount of time outs. Games are only captivating at the end.

Nascar just goes on and on and on and on.

Golf is perfect to nap to.

So, the Raiders getting 23 (accepted) penalties is somehow beneficial to the Raiders?

No, and none of the listed reasons (most of which are valid) are any diff from last year. Nobody is explaining the -24% ratings crash of MNF

The matchups are mostly total shit.

Steelers-Redskins - garbage
Rams-49ers - garbage
Eagles-Bears - garbage
Falcons-Saints - decent
Giants-Vikings - decent
Bucs-Panthers - garbage
Jets-Cardinals - garbage
Texans-Broncos - garbage
Vikings-Bears - garbage

I count maybe one or two games on there that would have broad appeal.

Didn't we used to get awesome divisional matchups on Monday nights?

Chiefs-Broncos or Chiefs-Raiders? Cowboys-Eagles? etc

It seems like they've moved those away from MNF.