I used to be addicted to Call of Duty. I played every single day and absolutely loved it. Then I went through a phase where I began to realize I was still playing all the time, but I wasn't enjoying it anymore. I was more annoyed / frustrated the whole the time than I was having fun. Eventually I just didn't turn it on one day, and it hasn't been on again since then. I'm 6 years clean now.
I'm at that stage with football right now, and even the Chiefs. I used to be addicted to football. Die hard Chiefs fan and football fan in general. Glued to my couch every Sunday from noon - midnight. The highs were extremely high and the lows were extremely low.
Over the last 5 years or so, I've found myself becoming more and more annoyed and frustrated while watching than I am enjoying it. I'm still watching, but I'm getting close to just turning it off and never turning it back on again.
Defenders can't play defense anymore. It's just ridiculous watching offenses march up and down the field without any worry of a defender actually trying to keep them from catching the ball. If they do try it's just a flag and a fine, so you can literally see them "letting up" to let the guy catch the ball.
It used to be that a play would happen, you would have a reaction (good or bad) and then you might go, oh, there's a flag.
Now, every single play is "is there a flag? No? Ok now I can react." That alone takes the immediate emotion out of whatever happened.
Even when calls go the Chiefs way I find myself annoyed because it was a ridiculous call on many occasions, and I find myself griping even when we gained a bunch of yards because of it. In the back of my mind I know a similar play is going to go against us, and it's all a matter of timing with such plays that make it a really big deal or not.
Nobody knows what a catch is anymore. "Rules specialists" get it wrong every time they try. Or is it the guys on the field getting it wrong? Nobody knows.
I feel like it's not about the players anymore. It's about rules and refs and how any particular ref/umpire/crew is going to see a subjective thing. A game, heck, a season can come down to things that have nothing to do with the players, and it seems to be happening more and more.
My highs and lows have settled into a "Meh" for pretty much everything. Chiefs have been taking the ball away a lot lately. In the past I'd be screaming and jumping and high fiving and ecstatic any time that would happen. Now I just kinda smile and think, oh, good job. I never jump off the couch anymore, though, for any reason good or bad.
Same when things go against us. I just kinda roll my eyes and think oh well. My emotion is gone because the game I fell in love with is completely different now. It's simply not the same game.
The experience at the stadium is a big part of that, too. I used to think nothing was better on earth than being at Arrowhead with thousands of fans. They've completely destroyed the stadium experience, though, which is why I killed my tickets at a time when we've won, what, 9 home games in a row..?? It's just not worth it anymore even when they're winning.
As others have mentioned, the commercials are just insane, too. For example, "Welcome back from the break. Let's watch this kickoff sail out of the back of the endzone, and now we'll take another commercial break."
Because of that I never watch any games live anymore. I record them so I can fast forward, and that's honestly a part of why I don't watch other games I think. I'm watching the Chiefs game recorded while the other games are on, and I don't care enough about the others to record them and watch later, so my viewership went from noon - midnight to just whenever I want to watch that one game.
So yeah, I'm still watching the Chiefs games, but I don't watch hardly any other games anymore, and I feel like I'm getting closer and closer to just quitting altogether. Same stages that my video game addiction went through. In a way it's kind of sad, like I've lost a long-time friend.