05-24-2018, 11:21 AM
(05-24-2018, 09:39 AM)Midwest Spy Wrote: You gals (D and HotD)are normally pretty rational thinkers and I appreciate that.
The NFL is a business and very much in the public eye.
They suffered (business wise) a ton last year while this went on.
Thanks MS.
The NFL has been experiencing decreased viewership for several years, starting long before Kaepernick dared to take a knee in 2016 and Trump amplified attention to that and used it for propaganda purposes in 2017.
I read some commentary a couple of years back attributing the ratings decline to the public exposure of the league's CTE issues and handling of the crisis.
I read other commentary attributing it to the league's management regarding player scandals and the quality of play.
Maybe those commentaries were accurate, in part. And, maybe the continuing declining trend last year was due, in part, to the fans who were so highly offended about an occasional pre-game knee.
But, tv ratings for every category aside from cable news have been in decline over the last few years as well. Cable news ratings picked up starting in 2016 due to it being a presidential election year, and they have continued to increase likely due to the real-time reality show nature of the current administration's politicking (and the media's profit-driven desire to capitalize on it).
So, I'd be surprised if the silent protests contributed as significantly to NFL ratings drops as some presume, or if the NFL's new anthem policy will have any real impact in terms of reversing its declining ratings trend.
It's easy for fans to scream on-line and with each other about taking a stand against taking a knee and swear not to watch football anymore.............but I'm not sure all that many fans actually stopped watching because of a couple of minutes of peaceful pre-game silence.