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.

[DaneMcCloud]

The amount of commercials doesn't bother me. The pace of the game doesn't bother me.

What's turned me off this year (which began in 2014) is the hypocrisy of the League Office, especially when it comes to Domestic Violence. Ray Rice wasn't suspended until video footage emerged. Greg Hardy wasn't suspended, despite the fact he had a cache of weapons and beat up his girlfriend. A guy like Tyreek Hill isn't immediately put into a program and suspended to begin his career.

Then of course, there's Roger Goodell's smug ass, the stupid and baseless Deflate-gate, the over officiating of games while moving serious judgment calls to the League Office in NY, which has even more control over the outcome on the field than the refs in the stadium. The non-calls on Alex Smith and Cam Newton and other QB's. Phantom penalties on kick off and punt returns. Absolutely ridiculous PI penalties.

The league has become boring, stagnant and predicutable. When Jeff Fisher is the coach of a team in the #2 market in the US, while having only 6 winning seasons out of 21 (heading for 22), it's clear that it's a "Good Ol' Boys" network. There's no offensive innovation, despite the fact the game is heavily slanted towards the offense in terms of rules and penalties.

There's too many worthless head coaches (Gus Bradley? Fisher? Marvin Lewis? CRAP!). The players aren't allowed to celebrate. The officiating ****ing sucks. Marcus Peters receives a 15 yard Unsportsmanlike penalty for waving his finger, yet I see it time and time again, across the league, and no one's been penalized.

As much as I loved talking about the game, it's just not the same anymore. The Prime Time matchups are awful, as are Sunday Night and Thursday Night games, not to mention London, possible games in Mexico and China along with Saturday games in December.

There's too much over-exposure as well, be it ESPN, Fox and the NFL Network's daily and 'round the clock coverage. Too many players featured in TV commercials.

There's no "mystique" any more.

I'll continue to watch the Chiefs each time they're on the air but as for the rest of the league, I'm just not interested.

[KChiefs1]

Originally Posted by milkman

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.

Each division should be on bye at the same time...irritates me the Chiefs have had their bye & Denver/Oakland haven't.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[jjjayb]

And no mention of the NFL Boycott going on?

[notorious]

Originally Posted by Danguardace

Nonsense firstly I said "next to nothing" that is comparative considering CFB is generating billions of dollars through TV, advertising, Gambling a load of people are getting rich off these kids I find attitudes like this stupid. Add to that the money they are generating is used to prop up other collegiate sports that cant make any money. Again exploitation!

Get a calculator out and figure out how much money can be afforded to pay the athletes in every sport, men and women alike.

.


.


.

[alpha_omega]

Disturbing? Really?

[Garcia Bronco]

Originally Posted by BossChief

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.

don't forget college spread offenses ruining oline player preparedness for the pro league.

[Fishpicker]

Originally Posted by DaneMcCloud

The amount of commercials doesn't bother me. The pace of the game doesn't bother me.

What's turned me off this year (which began in 2014) is the hypocrisy of the League Office, especially when it comes to Domestic Violence. Ray Rice wasn't suspended until video footage emerged. Greg Hardy wasn't suspended, despite the fact he had a cache of weapons and beat up his girlfriend. A guy like Tyreek Hill isn't immediately put into a program and suspended to begin his career.

Then of course, there's Roger Goodell's smug ass, the stupid and baseless Deflate-gate, the over officiating of games while moving serious judgment calls to the League Office in NY, which has even more control over the outcome on the field than the refs in the stadium. The non-calls on Alex Smith and Cam Newton and other QB's. Phantom penalties on kick off and punt returns. Absolutely ridiculous PI penalties.

The league has become boring, stagnant and predicutable. When Jeff Fisher is the coach of a team in the #2 market in the US, while having only 6 winning seasons out of 21 (heading for 22), it's clear that it's a "Good Ol' Boys" network. There's no offensive innovation, despite the fact the game is heavily slanted towards the offense in terms of rules and penalties.

There's too many worthless head coaches (Gus Bradley? Fisher? Marvin Lewis? CRAP!). The players aren't allowed to celebrate. The officiating ****ing sucks. Marcus Peters receives a 15 yard Unsportsmanlike penalty for waving his finger, yet I see it time and time again, across the league, and no one's been penalized.

As much as I loved talking about the game, it's just not the same anymore. The Prime Time matchups are awful, as are Sunday Night and Thursday Night games, not to mention London, possible games in Mexico and China along with Saturday games in December.

There's too much over-exposure as well, be it ESPN, Fox and the NFL Network's daily and 'round the clock coverage. Too many players featured in TV commercials.

There's no "mystique" any more.

I'll continue to watch the Chiefs each time they're on the air but as for the rest of the league, I'm just not interested.

this. all of this.

plus the dink and dunk passing game is monotonous and boring. it was cool back when the Pats were the only team doing it.

[dirk digler]

Originally Posted by 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

I would submit that those that stopped watching the NFL over 1 guy protesting those people weren't real NFL fans to begin with.

And btw do they even talk about the protests anymore? I don't think I have heard it mentioned at all for a few weeks.

[Garcia Bronco]

Originally Posted by Fishpicker

this. all of this.

plus the dink and dunk passing game is monotonous and boring. it was cool back when the Pats were the only team doing it.

Dink and Dunk or the West Coast Offense, supplanting the running game with short passes, was mainstream 25 years ago.

[kcxiv]

Originally Posted by Dayze

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.

that don't bother me. I actually like it. I love emotion it shows they care.

[GloryDayz]

Originally Posted by jjjayb

And no mention of the NFL Boycott going on?

The down rating suggest some pockets of it. If people used to watch four games a week and now they only watch two, that's a bit of a boycott. No?

Sent from my phone using Tapatalk (so spelling be damned!!!)

[GloryDayz]

Originally Posted by DaneMcCloud

The amount of commercials doesn't bother me. The pace of the game doesn't bother me.

What's turned me off this year (which began in 2014) is the hypocrisy of the League Office, especially when it comes to Domestic Violence. Ray Rice wasn't suspended until video footage emerged. Greg Hardy wasn't suspended, despite the fact he had a cache of weapons and beat up his girlfriend. A guy like Tyreek Hill isn't immediately put into a program and suspended to begin his career.

Then of course, there's Roger Goodell's smug ass, the stupid and baseless Deflate-gate, the over officiating of games while moving serious judgment calls to the League Office in NY, which has even more control over the outcome on the field than the refs in the stadium. The non-calls on Alex Smith and Cam Newton and other QB's. Phantom penalties on kick off and punt returns. Absolutely ridiculous PI penalties.

The league has become boring, stagnant and predicutable. When Jeff Fisher is the coach of a team in the #2 market in the US, while having only 6 winning seasons out of 21 (heading for 22), it's clear that it's a "Good Ol' Boys" network. There's no offensive innovation, despite the fact the game is heavily slanted towards the offense in terms of rules and penalties.

There's too many worthless head coaches (Gus Bradley? Fisher? Marvin Lewis? CRAP!). The players aren't allowed to celebrate. The officiating ****ing sucks. Marcus Peters receives a 15 yard Unsportsmanlike penalty for waving his finger, yet I see it time and time again, across the league, and no one's been penalized.

As much as I loved talking about the game, it's just not the same anymore. The Prime Time matchups are awful, as are Sunday Night and Thursday Night games, not to mention London, possible games in Mexico and China along with Saturday games in December.

There's too much over-exposure as well, be it ESPN, Fox and the NFL Network's daily and 'round the clock coverage. Too many players featured in TV commercials.

There's no "mystique" any more.

I'll continue to watch the Chiefs each time they're on the air but as for the rest of the league, I'm just not interested.

Quality post. Will rep when I can.

Sent from my phone using Tapatalk (so spelling be damned!!!)

[GoChargers]

They let Bob Kraft and the Rooneys hand-pick the commissioner that every team has to operate under. They slapped the Patriots on the wrist for cheating twice, even going out of their way to destroy evidence. They've rewritten the rules of the game to favor a handful of marketable glory-boy quarterbacks, and they allow those quarterbacks' teams to get away with anything. They've allowed franchises to rot for decades under horrible owners like Mike Brown, Dan Snyder, Bob McNair, the Spanoses, and the Fords. They sell us on the idea of "parity," then give us a product where it's the Patriots, Broncos, Steelers, Colts, Packers, Cowboys, [insert NFC upstart here] and everyone else, year after year after year. And now they wonder why people are tuning out?

If you're not a fan of a select handful of good-ole'-boy teams, it's almost pointless to even care about this league anymore. The games are no longer won on the field. They're won in the league office, on the committees that lobby Goodell for changes every offseason, and in the owner's box. If you don't have an owner with clout around the league, your team might as well just forfeit the season.

The NBA had a major PR crisis back in the early 2000s because of their boring product, their players' atrocious behavior on and off the court, questionable officiating and the lack of parity in the league. To their credit, they listened to the critics and made changes. It's a whole new league now, with exciting games almost every night and former perennial losers like the Cavs, Clippers and Warriors getting their acts together and competing. Now it's the NFL's turn to face the music.

[jjchieffan]

Serves them right. You fix the Superbowl to give Manning a ring on the way out. You make it obvious to everyone that it's fixed, and act as if everyone is dumb enough to believe it asn't. Then you wonder why the ratings are down. We want to see real competition, and a real champion. That;s what made the NFL great!

[Chief Pagan]

So all of you guys whining about what's a catch...

Do you want to get rid of instant replay? It used to be the ref would make a split second call on the field and that was it. If the calls were inconsistent, there was no way of telling whether it was because refs had a different idea of what exactly a catch was, or if they just didn't see it correctly in real time.

Now if you have 100 potential catches reviewed, you have to draw some (arbitrary line) and say, for instance, these 50 are catches, but these 50 are not. When a borderline call goes against a homer, homer going to scream (nothing new there).

I like the replay. I think a lot of times they could do it more quickly. I would like to see them experiment with doing it centrally, offsite. I think it could be done more quickly and more uniformly.