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

[tk13]

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

Excerpts:

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

By Sally Jenkins Columnist October 31

The NFL’s firm grip on the psyche is based in the fact that it’s the most real, live event on live television. Every game is a character-driven story and a high-speed chase in which the action and the stakes of a collision are genuine. But lately the NFL has seemed formulaic and lacking in a certain kind of authenticity. It’s no great mystery as to why the NFL’s ratings have been dropping: Viewers don’t especially like the stories they’re watching.

The numbers are striking. Through seven weeks, ratings were off for every prime-time incarnation of the NFL: “Sunday Night Football” by 19 percent, “Monday Night Football” by 24 percent and the dreaded Thursday night game by 18 percent. A variety of factors may be contributing to this dive, from the election to so-called “fragmentation” of mass media. But none of the explanations make as much sense as the simplest one: The NFL has put less appealing and more disturbing action on the screen, and viewers are turning it off.

Historian Michael Oriard has observed that the great attraction of the league is that it’s “the true reality TV,” in its most vital form. But the NFL is beginning to seem over-managed and over-staged. Constant commercials and interruptions by refs waving their arms do not produce “appointment viewing;” rather, they produce punts, ties and stasis. Look at the standings: A cluster of 18 teams, indistinguishable save for the colors of their shirts, are at .500 or worse and five more at 4-3. In other words, 23 teams are not must-see-TV to anyone but their most fervent fans. The constant advertisements and hail of yellow flags from overly officious officials make a PBS series seem fast-moving, with a clearer story line.

When rookie quarterback Dak Prescott led the Dallas Cowboys over the Philadelphia Eagles with his touchdown pass to Jason Witten in overtime late Sunday night, it was clear how much animation the league has been missing. But even that terrific game, which had high divisional stakes and featured a bright new star, was crushed in the ratings by Game 5 of the World Series between the Chicago Cubs and Cleveland Indians. It’s the first time since 2011 that a World Series game beat “Sunday Night Football.”

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Obviously, viewers are not finding the NFL as meaningful and important as they have in other seasons. Games on Sunday, Monday and Thursday, plus a handful of overseas trips for novelty games in London, have numbed the viewer. Only a handful of contests this past weekend felt like difference-makers, and those were disrupted by flags. One was between the New England Patriots and the Buffalo Bills, which was marred by five penalties in the first 10 minutes. When the Pats led 38-17 in the third quarter, where was the viewer to go? To Jets-Browns? Lions-Texans? Raiders-Buccaneers was close, but that meant suffering through a league-record 23 penalties against the Raiders for 200 yards.

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The NFL ratings malaise is being puzzled over by everyone from media executives to stock analysts, who offer a variety of speculative causes. Everything from fantasy football to Twitter live-streaming to the shorter attention spans and habits of millennials has been cited. But none of these entirely add up. Other sports aren’t suffering precipitous drops; NBA and Major League Baseball ratings have strengthened over the past year.

In looking for a difference, it’s hard to dismiss the coexisting facts that the NFL has ruined the flow of its on-field stories while experiencing a spate of deeply negative stories off the field — most of them self-inflicted and perpetuated, from the Deflategate four-game suspension of Tom Brady, to the spousal abuse case of place kicker Josh Brown. Donald Trump has blamed Colin Kaepernick for dissing the national anthem for the fall in ratings. If that’s a factor, then undoubtedly so are narratives involving concussions and domestic violence.

[tomahawk kid]

Originally Posted by Tuckdaddy

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.

Excellent point.

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

[Prison Bitch]

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

[Amnorix]

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.

[mr. tegu]

Originally Posted by dmahurin

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.

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.

[Prison Bitch]

Originally Posted by Amnorix

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.

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

[Hammock Parties]

Originally Posted by Prison Bitch

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

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

It's not Kaepernick.

[CapsLockKey]

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?

[Nzoner]

Originally Posted by tooge

It seems too scripted to me.

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??

[TEX]

Originally Posted by Nzoner

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.

[siberian khatru]

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 ...

[DaFace]

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...?

[loochy]

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

I feel that "uncaptivating" is a much better fit

[Dartgod]

Originally Posted by dmahurin

7 to 8 seconds of game action followed by 30 seconds of standing around. Repeat a few times.

And that's just the Chiefs 2 minute offense.

[siberian khatru]

Originally Posted by DaFace

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...?

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!"

[Prison Bitch]

Originally Posted by ASS11

It's not Kaepernick.

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