The NFL is scratching its head trying to discover why it has suffered a sudden drop off in viewership. It was obvious that it was coming. The product it is offering stinks. More and more people are beginning to realize that is the case.
The NFL owners thought they had a lock on Americans and they felt empowered to do anything that they wanted. It was getting to the point that they figured a way to save money was to stop paying for guys to play football and just have three plus hours of commercials. Yes, it was true that the amount and time of commercials made the product tedious, to be kind. I read that the owners have decided that they may cut back on them. Unfortunately for them it is too little too late.
They can expect the interest in their product will continue to decline. At some point it will have the attraction of professional wrestling. It perhaps is not coincidence that the same type people who owned the professional wrestling teams (greedy) also got involved in professional football. Maybe the wrestling analogy isn’t correct for those games were fixed and we think the NFL may not be fixed even though the owners are now into gambling on the games.
Yes, that’s right, many of them have bought into the fantasy games unable to think that people were making money off of their product and they were not getting a cut of it. As I see it you can’t be involved in making money gambling and at the same time keeping the game on the level. Do you trust the Mafia to run an honest game? If not, ask yourself why. Then move that type of thinking over to the NFL. I’m not saying that the games are not somewhat on the level right now but I do suggest when the finances tighten the temptation will be great to fudge things a little.
Maybe a better analogy is professional boxing. That still attracts a crowd to an event every once in a while but nothing like it used to fifty years ago. Now the public is recognizing that the players on the field like those in the ring are suffering serious head injuries and don’t like to think they are part of it. Unfortunately for the owners the hits are what the people like so they cannot turn the game into a flag football game and expect people to come.
Some suggest the anti-American attitude of some players on the field have chased people away. More than that I’d suggest is the absurd disrespect for the American flag the owners now have shown with their field size flag. The folks who hold it try to wave it when the Anthem mentions wave. That is supposed to make us forget the un-American attitude of the players and how the Patriots and others charged the military to appear at their games.
But when the anthem stops and the flag is dragged across the ground and carried off to be stuffed in a container that is insulting to anyone who was in the service who knows the flag is never to touch the ground or be treated that way. But you couldn’t expect any NFL owner to know that. I always wondered how Bob Kraft ducked the draft. Did any NFL owner serve in our military?
One thing he doesn’t duck is being seen on television during every Patriot’s game. As part of the TV contract it seems the NFL owners must be shown throughout the games. What type of ego maniacs installed that type of rule? Do you see the owners of the other professional sports during an event? And the people put up with it!
A big cause of the decline in interest is the over saturation of games with most of them being meaningless. Who cares if Detroit beat San Diego? The only game early in the season that had better ratings than last year was a Patriot’s game on Thursday night. Even with the Patriots which is the only team I now watch most of their opponents are dismal and the game is over in the first few minutes. Thank God for Turner Classic Movies which I go to during commercials and some time if the movie is good don’t return.
I thought the American people were finally coming to their senses. Then they went ahead and gave Trump the vote for president. It shows we still have a long way to go but at least we are back on the road to sanity.
Khalid,
….shades of our past conversation concerning the signs of the fall of an empire.
That was before the election, though.
Not as many sheep out there as we thought.
The outlook has brightened considerably, IMO.
All power to the auto-didact !!!!!!!!!!
Marcuse wrote in “One Dimensional Man” that media broadcast professional sports are used to distract people from the reality of their alienation from society. They foster a strange conformity. That’s one of the reasons owners have tried to conflate sports with militarism. Down with the owners. They are part of the governing class. All power to the dialectic!
If you want a fun sports spectator experience attend a local High School event. There will be enthusiasm in the game and in the stands. You’ll probably be familiar with some of the players. When I grew up the sports event of the year was always the local football rivalry on Thanksgiving Day. Still beats anything you will see on television. Gobble, gobble.
Matt: Agreed on the NFL. I rarely watch; only some playoffs. Same with all pro-sports. Lost interest. I do watch college football and some college basketball, hockey.
As for Americans coming to their senses? At least the Clinton Machine was rejected. With Trump we get “change” and “x-the unknown”. His picks so far I like, from Pence on down.
Counselor :
Review your coda , you cannot bemoan that you thought Americans were finally wising up … cite a vote for President Elect Trump as a departure from common sense, and then spike the ball in the end zone … so to speak
.. concluding : ” it shows we have a long way to go but at
least we are finally back on the road to sanity.” We do not require the insight of Dr. Freud, for whom a cigar could be construed as a phallic symbol unless she happened to be the gentleman smoking it , to suspect that in your heart of hearts you are quietly relieved he got the nod.
Sure, you play as fast and loose with grammar as a white rapper whenever it suits your muse, but there is never any laziness in your thought processes. So here I simply conclude that your words reveal … A World Revealed … perhaps surprisingly to you as well as those who read … sub rosa. No Worries, It is just something worth a ponder.
When Kaepernick started his grandstanding at the Leagues expense he should have been quietly put on injured reserve and kept off the sidelines.
Not saying much else I disagree with about an enterprise bloated and arrogant with its own commercial success, but we still have Tom Brady to deflate the colossal balls of the Roger Goodells of the Game.
Speaking of the Game, enjoy tonight’s San Francisco 49’s conflict. They have lost their last eight games.Tonight is their Superbowl. The Patriots are indeed back in town! 🙂