Are the NFL ratings down this year due to the reduction of violent hits ?

[digroute88]

Are the NFL ratings down this year due to the reduction of violent hits ?

[King Colt]

Yes, in part. The game is being melted down like our culture. Everyone is playing mommy worried sick about their baby boys. Recess in first grade schools is banned because our little ones die by the millions every year playing Red Rover according to the * lawmakers. "Great hits" used to be honored by fans and the media but now you are a gangster if you crack somebody (See clips of John Lynch when he was with Denver for one of many examples). Some players are in the Hall of Fame for being a bad butt. Other media is also part of the decline way too many options in the video world now. There is too much media hype about salaries today also. The signs in the stadium and the broadcasters hyped on Osweiller's 72 million salary the other night are prime examples. The NFL is now seen as something not only bad but evil not caring for the welfare of players and ruining lives. Guys on drugs, battering their spouses and every time they are stopped for traffic violations is now front page news. Expanding the season, teams in Europe and Mexico  is not setting well with many. Stupid throwback uniforms also sucks.

[crazycolt1]

8 minutes ago, King Colt said:

Yes, in part. The game is being melted down like our culture. Everyone is playing mommy worried sick about their baby boys. Recess in first grade schools is banned because our little ones die by the millions every year playing Red Rover according to the * lawmakers. "Great hits" used to be honored by fans and the media but now you are a gangster if you crack somebody (See clips of John Lynch when he was with Denver for one of many examples). Some players are in the Hall of Fame for being a bad butt. Other media is also part of the decline way too many options in the video world now. There is too much media hype about salaries today also. The signs in the stadium and the broadcasters hyped on Osweiller's 72 million salary the other night are prime examples. The NFL is now seen as something not only bad but evil not caring for the welfare of players and ruining lives. Guys on drugs, battering their spouses and every time they are stopped for traffic violations is now front page news. Expanding the season, teams in Europe and Mexico  is not setting well with many. Stupid throwback uniforms also sucks.

I take it you have no kids?

Also the past history of the NFL does tell us they didn't care about the health of the players.

You may think they suck but the pole taken by the NFL shows the throwback uniforms are a big hit.

I think you are ranting in the wrong places.

 

[crazycolt1]

2 minutes ago, King Colt said:

Who cares what you think? Crazy Boy?

 

You rattle off a rant with a bunch of nonsense and call me crazy?

 

[MacDee1975]

Ratings are down because the NFL is an inferior product.  People are losing interest in watching mediocre teams with half their roster injured/inactive battle it out every week.

 

Baseball playoffs and the NBA......teams play at a much higher level than any NFL team is capable of playing. College football is just more fun to watch.  All are a better option than the NFL come October.  

[DougDew]

No.  NFL ratings were never based on seeing violent hits.  It was based upon watching competent play.

 

I think the expanding NFL culture of trying to get away with cheating on every play is hurting the game.  Not only do the antics of Brady hurt the game, but the perception of HGH usage (and the increase in injuries and churning of rosters) as well as just the idea of OLs and DBs trying new ways to hold and not get caught on every play makes it less entertaining to watch than before, IMO. 

 

It would be like watching a NASCAR race where you knew that every car didn't meet specs in some way, but who won the race would depend upon which official caught which driver cheating.  The game wouldn't be about building and driving the best car, it would be about who could get away with what.  Maybe in some circles, who can get away what might be interesting, but for most people, its not something they relate to, hence the decline in ratings. 

 

Not to mention the media coverage is combining NFL players with celebrityism and then involving them with social issues and preaching to us about right and wrong personal conduct.

 

Personally, I don't turn in to ESPN to get a sociology lesson dispensed by broadcasting majors and ex-jocks.

[SkyBane]

4 minutes ago, DougDew said:

Not to mention the media coverage is combining NFL players with celebrityism and then involving them with social issues and preaching to us about right and wrong personal conduct.

 

Personally, I don't turn in to ESPN to get a sociology lesson dispensed by broadcasting majors and ex-jocks.

Yes, because the NFL protecting domestic abusers is oh so morally ambivalent.

[chad72]

The NFL needs personalities and contrasts in any season that make people talk about on the field football more for ratings.

 

Last year, it was Cam and his dabbing, Arians and Cardinal fever, Peyton and his limping with the Broncos still winning with a backup QB, more on field drama than this year, IMO, including OBJ vs Norman fight. After 7 games, we had 2 undefeated teams and the Panthers were undefeated much longer as well, that was a key part of it.

 

This year, teams at the top include the usual Patriots and a boring Vikings team that does not talk much trash. If Brady was playing from the beginning, chances are we are talking about the Patriots going undefeated at this point. You need a story you love or hate while it is entertaining, we are not having much of that other than the national anthem kneeling distractions this year. 

[DougDew]

1 minute ago, SkyBane said:

Yes, because the NFL protecting domestic abusers is oh so morally ambivalent.

Since I don't feel that it is the job of rich visible companies to root out moral nonconformists within their ranks; personally, I don't want to spend my time I devote to watching football be consumed by two broadcasting majors and three ex-jocks talking about how a specific person abused his domestic relationships..   

[crazycolt1]

10 minutes ago, DougDew said:

Since I don't feel that it is the job of rich visible companies to root out moral nonconformists within their ranks; personally, I don't want to spend my time I devote to watching football be consumed by two broadcasting majors and three ex-jocks talking about how a specific person abused his domestic relationships..   

I agree. I tune football in to be entertained. Not to be talked to about morals with political correctness.

Entertainment is suppose to give you relief from the everyday norm.

 

[Valpo2004]

Can I get a link firmly establishing that ratings are down for the entire season this year??

[our_dbs_rock]

I think the rating have taking a hit based on a lot of different things.  Personally, I am watching less because the inconsistent officiating.

[BertJones]

actually the ratings should go up with less violent hits.

 

the culture is so pc and moronic that this is what they want.

 

 

[Nadine]

could we please not turn this into a political thread about what's pc?

ty very much

[Nadine]

3 hours ago, digroute88 said:

Are the NFL ratings down this year due to the reduction of violent hits ?

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• 
   

 

I wonder if we are seeing a trend that is the result in the increase in the price of the game. Used to be a family affair with lots of people able to bring their kids.  With increases in ticket and concession and parking.......lots of kids are not growing up watching the game

 

could be over time, we see decreased viewership as a result of fewer fans due to them being priced out. In other words, it could have no relationship to the reduction in violent hits at all.  

[SkyBane]

1 hour ago, Valpo2004 said:

Can I get a link firmly establishing that ratings are down for the entire season this year??

https://nypost.com/2016/10/25/monday-night-football-ratings-have-fallen-off-a-cliff/

[19colt]

2 hours ago, chad72 said:

The NFL needs personalities and contrasts in any season that make people talk about on the field football more for ratings.

 

Last year, it was Cam and his dabbing, Arians and Cardinal fever, Peyton and his limping with the Broncos still winning with a backup QB, more on field drama than this year, IMO, including OBJ vs Norman fight. After 7 games, we had 2 undefeated teams and the Panthers were undefeated much longer as well, that was a key part of it.

 

This year, teams at the top include the usual Patriots and a boring Vikings team that does not talk much trash. If Brady was playing from the beginning, chances are we are talking about the Patriots going undefeated at this point. You need a story you love or hate while it is entertaining, we are not having much of that other than the national anthem kneeling distractions this year. 

I agree with this. Many big personalities have retired and we left with mostly controversial guys like Brady* and Cam (who is 1-5). Rodgers isn't exactly all around likable either. Romo is injured. After Favre retired, it's possible Peyton was carrying a load of fair weather fans but now he is gone. The NFL could do with someone like Luck rising up. Has there really been any HUGE matches on prime time this year? An opportunity was missed with Atlanta vs Seattle. Dallas vs Philly may be the first big PT game all year and it is week 8.

 

Also, there is a lot of choice on TV right now and people can watch at any time. My twitter timeline was watching the Walking Dead on Sunday night and not the field goal fest on SNF. 

[SkyBane]

Another factor is TV itself is becoming irrelevant, and the TV market as a whole is shrinking. With the rise of on demand  streaming services, previous seemingly unstoppable juggernauts like ESPN are being brought to their knees. We're in a transition period as internet slowly takes over all forms of media, and part of the NFL's rating decline may be a symptom of the further death of TV.

[IinD]

Watered down product. Mediocre teams. Not enough legit stars, more names then stars.

[BOTT]

If it was due to less violence, the rating would have dipped several yrs ago.

[BertJones]

2 hours ago, Nadine said:

could we please not turn this into a political thread about what's pc?

ty very much

 

lol pc culture affects everything. Where do you think the pink cleats come from?

the nfl influences and bends with the public in every way possible. They changed the rules for the public,not because they give a damn about players

 Kaepernick....

[Nadine]

1 minute ago, BertJones said:

 

lol pc culture affects everything. Where do you think the pink cleats come from?

the nfl influences and bends with the public in every way possible. They changed the rules for the public,not because they give a damn about players

 Kaepernick....

OK, now moving on to not taking about pc or politics at all

[oldunclemark]

NFL ratings are down because more people are watching on their phones or other devices.

 

I cant watch anything on my phone but young folks don't think the way I do

[oldunclemark]

2 hours ago, SkyBane said:

Another factor is TV itself is becoming irrelevant, and the TV market as a whole is shrinking. With the rise of on demand  streaming services, previous seemingly unstoppable juggernauts like ESPN are being brought to their knees. We're in a transition period as internet slowly takes over all forms of media, and part of the NFL's rating decline may be a symptom of the further death of TV.

Listen to Sky

[Synthetic]

 

Maybe the ratings are down because the product on the field is bad. 

 

NFL ratings have been declining for a couple years now, and it's only going to get worse. Football is a dying sport, cause we are a lot more knowledgeable in today's era of how dangerous and damaging it is to health. We are already seeing players retire at younger ages due to health concerns. In the near future, the younger generation simply will elect not to play the sport as time goes on, cause it's such a risk with health. It also don't help that the NFL, as rich as they are, does nothing to help players at all after they're done. You sacrifice the prime of your physical body, and they don't offer you anything in return. If the NFL had a universal healthcare plan and actually paid for the healthcare of these players after retirement, it would look a lot better than doing nothing at all. 

 

Manufactured controversies like Bountygate and Deflategate have not helped. Roger Goodell is the most hated commissioner in all of  professional American sports. 

 

Look at the Josh Brown incident. That didn't help the NFL at all. People realize these days that the NFL will do anything to save their reputation and most people are sick of it. 

 

Add in the topic of over-saturation (thursday night games that no one gives a crap about, London games that no one cares about either) and the NFL has themselves to blame. It also don't help when most prime time games have been BLOW OUTS...Some fans might enjoy this, but the majority of average viewers, do not. Ratings are always bad on blow out games, and so far, every MNF game has been a blow out. Most of the SNF games have also been blow outs. Ever watched a game and half the stadium is empty during the blow out, even if it's the home team winning? It's boring to most people. 

 

Honestly, I'm glad the ratings are down. I hope they continue to go down and maybe Goodell will get fired in the long run. The NFL hasn't been the same since Bountygate. This is what they wanted, this is what they deserve. If it was your precious team who was ruined by a dumb controversy like that, you would feel bitter too. Patriot fans have every right to be bitter about Deflategate too, I can't blame them at all. They now know how we felt with Bountygate. 

 

One last thing; I don't understand why fans are mad? Are you seriously satisfied with what you get from these games? How many weeks have fans went without talking about bad calls and officiating? The product we get on the field has been awful for years and only getting worse each year. After every game, there is discussion on bad calls and penalties in general...The NFL does not know what a catch is anymore, since they change the rules every year. Calvin Johnson didn't retire because of health, he don't know what a catch is anymore since the no-catch bad call on him is what began all the rule changes. 

 

 

[Synthetic]

17 minutes ago, oldunclemark said:

NFL ratings are down because more people are watching on their phones or other devices.

 

I cant watch anything on my phone but young folks don't think the way I do

 

 

I highly doubt that. Having streamed live concerts before on a mobile device, it's very difficult to do and requires a lot of patience in between all the buffering and freezing. It's much easier to just check scores through a phone. 

 

Ratings are down for a number of reasons, many reasons at hand here. 

[BloodyChamp]

Ugh this question over and over...they can either go up or down. Every so often they will go down. It's not really even a thing.

[Bad Morty]

1 hour ago, Bogie said:

 

Roger Goodell

 

^ Couldn't agree more

[19colt]

1 hour ago, Bogie said:

Patriot fans have every right to be bitter about Deflategate too, I can't blame them at all. They now know how we felt with Bountygate. 

You make some good points but I have to call out this one. The Patriots got a slap on the wrist for Spygate which is a big reason why Deflategate was such a big deal. IMO, had Spygate never happened, then Deflategate would have been a fine and no suspension. The NFL had no choice to make a stand against the Patriots for stretching the rules yet again. As a side note, notice that Aaron Rodgers hasn't been the same since Deflategate... 

[Bad Morty]

4 minutes ago, 19colt said:

You make some good points but I have to call out this one. The Patriots got a slap on the wrist for Spygate which is a big reason why Deflategate was such a big deal. IMO, had Spygate never happened, then Deflategate would have been a fine and no suspension. The NFL had no choice to make a stand against the Patriots for stretching the rules yet again. As a side note, notice that Aaron Rodgers hasn't been the same since Deflategate... 

Spygate was the most severe punishment ever handed down to a team at the time, so no - it wasn't a slap on the wrist. And it shouldn't have had a damn thing to do with deflategate, even if you believe that nonsense from the worst commissioner in the history of sports. Spygate was a team/coach punishment. Deflategate was a player punishment. That would be like saying that a Falcons receiver caught using stickum should get a heavier punishment because the team was punished for piping in crowd noise. It makes no sense. But nothing Goodell does seems to make much sense. I

[19colt]

1 minute ago, Bad Morty said:

Spygate was the most severe punishment ever handed down to a team at the time, so no - it wasn't a slap on the wrist. And it shouldn't have had a damn thing to do with deflategate, even if you believe that nonsense from the worst commissioner in the history of sports. Spygate was a team/coach punishment. Deflategate was a player punishment. That would be like saying that a Falcons receiver caught using stickum should get a heavier punishment because the team was punished for piping in crowd noise. It makes no sense. But nothing Goodell does seems to make much sense. I

No one, aside from maybe Colts, Rams, Steelers and Eagles fans, will remember anything about some relatively small fines and loss of a 1st round draft pick. 3 rings on the other hand - go down in history. The NFL followed through on the punishment with Brady to finally discourage a team with a history of cheating because what they did last time clearly wasn't enough. The party most responsible for it dragging Deflategate on for so long (and annoying fans in general) is the Patriots! Brady destroyed his phone and then we got the ridiculous excuse that deflating was to do with weight loss which insulted everyone's intelligence. Regardless, no one will be talking about Deflategate when Brady goes into the HOF.

[Bad Morty]

8 hours ago, 19colt said:

No one, aside from maybe Colts, Rams, Steelers and Eagles fans, will remember anything about some relatively small fines and loss of a 1st round draft pick. 3 rings on the other hand - go down in history. The NFL followed through on the punishment with Brady to finally discourage a team with a history of cheating because what they did last time clearly wasn't enough. The party most responsible for it dragging Deflategate on for so long (and annoying fans in general) is the Patriots! Brady destroyed his phone and then we got the ridiculous excuse that deflating was to do with weight loss which insulted everyone's intelligence. Regardless, no one will be talking about Deflategate when Brady goes into the HOF.

It's pointless to re-litigate "deflate gate" here...I'm just glad it's over with.

 

But can we at least agree that in hindsight, it is a pretty unusual way for a sports league to treat one of its marquee star players and tv attractions? I'm not suggesting that Brady should be "above the rules"...if he were caught violating the PED policy, then it's cut and dry and he should get 4 games. But this incident with the balls was kind of a strange one for Goodell to make a stand on when he really didn't have to. This could have been handled as a minor equipment fine by the league had they wanted to go that route. But they clearly wanted to use this incident to make a statement against this particular player. I realize many here applaud that and think it was a long time coming. But when you see the tv ratings falling through the floor, and then you realize that the opening Sunday night game was a crappy game that featured Jimmy Garappolo instead of Tom Brady...followed shortly after by one of the worst Thursday night games ever featuring Jacoby Brisset versus Brock Osweiller (when Brady could have been in that game instead), you can't convince me that that doesn't play a role in the tv ratings falling.

[DougDew]

15 hours ago, our_dbs_rock said:

I think the rating have taking a hit based on a lot of different things.  Personally, I am watching less because the inconsistent officiating.

That was one of my reasons stated above.  Its the culture of cheating on every play being more acceptable. 

 

I don't like watching players like Odell and Josh Norman physically dueling each other down the field...IOW...each committing PI about 4 times in a given play, because success of the play is not based upon which player "out physicalled" the other player, the success of the play is based upon whether or not the official throws a flag.

 

The suspense for me is watching the official...to see if he's reaching for his pocket or not.  I don't tune in to watch the official.

 

And its not the officials fault.  Its the fault of cheating Divas like Odell and Norman.

[Coffeedrinker]

The reasons are many:

1. Cable subscriptions, dish sign ups, etc. are down across the country... more people are cutting the cable.  So that will have an effect on ratings.

 

2. Someone mentioned inconsistent officiating.  I think it goes beyond that, the officiating is so bad that it seems to be a rigged system. I don't know if it is, I'm just saying it seems that way.  When you have an official that gives the ball to Team A after a fumble, when a player from Team B is standing 5 yards away with the ball, it's either complete incompetence or the official was told to do that.  Either is unacceptable.  And then the announcers, rather than saying things like that was a bad call (they do once it a while) they are getting very creative in justifying the poor calls.  Like in the Colts game when TY's TD got called back for illegal shift and Solomon is trying to explain that it was because Gore's shoulders were not completely square the LOS.

 

3.  A combination of, players showing disrespect for their country and for those that have died for our freedoms,  even with that, I think fans would be accepting of that even if most disagree, but add to that the networks focusing so much attention to it and putting those players on a pedestal and acting like they are some great humanitarians.

 

4.  Players want to celebrate everything... a guy gets a first down and he's flexing and jumping up and down, making the first down signal.  It's a freakin' first down... congratulations you did your job on that one play.

 

5.  IMO there is just too much football.  Thursday night games, all day Sunday, Sunday night, Monday night.  Early Sunday games when a team goes to London.  It's not longer an event.

 

It is a problem the NFL is going to have to address.  If the ratings continue to drop it will affect the contracts they receive from the TV stations which will affect the salary cap.  What will teams do when the salary cap stays the same or goes down from the year before?  They will be scrambling and then the problem will become worse.. because teams will dump the higher salaries on their teams which means more younger players which means worse play and more antics.

[JimJaime]

Wow a lot of theories out there. IMO the ratings are down because you have a No real elite teams (the Vikings and Pats are the closest.) and IMO a terrible year for QB play. For an example Brady ranks 14th on TD passes this year 14th!!! The man has only played 3 games and has as many or more TD passes than more than half the NFL QBs! That's just sad!

 

lets face it the games are sloppy with way to many flags thrown and boring tonwatch. So more people are just watching 1 game instead of 3 or 4.

[Buck Showalter]

Over-saturation...One can argue that NFL football, more than other American sports, has some very ceremonial aspects to it, (i.e. its season is relatively short, it used to be just be played on Sunday/Monday/Thanksgiving, winners are lauded, losers are dissected, etc.). The bigger the sport has grown in the past decade or so, the more the ceremonial functioning of the games has resided in some aspects...

 

The sport may have just peaked, met a saturation point, and with a combination of health concerns and ever growing controversies, may be on a decline in popularity...

 

Which, in my opinion, may be a good thing in the long run for the sport...   

[mahagga73]

Ratings are down because the NFL has got what they say they wanted, parity. In this case, nearly every team in the league is about as bad as the next one. Makes for badly played, boring games. Contrary to what some say, dynasties and dominant franchises are actually good for sports leagues. Gives people something to hate and other teams something to strive for. Fans love to hate great teams. 

[CanuckColtsFan]

Patriots Win too much

Too many flags

Way Way Way too many commercials.

The games are slow and, go to commercial break every change of possession.

Politics

Price

Poor coverage by the media, rushed analysis, too many commercials on NFL network, and .com

[crazycolt1]

1 hour ago, CanuckColtsFan said:

Patriots Win too much

Too many flags

Way Way Way too many commercials.

The games are slow and, go to commercial break every change of possession.

Politics

Price

Poor coverage by the media, rushed analysis, too many commercials on NFL network, and .com

The commercials are what pays the bills. The TV contracts is why every person affiliated with the NFL gets paid. Without them they are not on TV and none of us watches. Without that there would be no NFL.

Just the way it is.

[Coffeedrinker]

It's election time so here's a poll on why the NFL ratings are declining.

http://boston.cbslocal.com/2016/10/27/nfl-ratings-national-anthem-protests-poll/

 

Interesting that player safety and poor play were the two lowest reasons.  The number 1 reason... player protest.