A decent article on the suck that is the NFL

[coastal]

http://thefederalist.com/2016/10/21/5-reasons-football-fans-losing-interest-nfl-games/

[Novacane]

Re: A decent article on the suck that is the NFL

The younger generation in my household couldn't care less about the NFL. I think this is just the beginning of their ratings problems.

[Turf]

Re: A decent article on the suck that is the NFL

Like I said before, the only thing propping up the ratings right now is fantasy football. The product sucks. If you take that away, this league loses another 20% at least. It may not be the best time to build a new stadium.
Thursday night games need to be Friday or Saturday. Pass interference needs to be blatant. The over seas early morning games need to end, no one watches them. The commercials need to be diluted and time needs to be added to the clock. For God sakes, let the players celebrate instead of these stupid little 5 second solo dances we have to incur. Put the time back in the game. Hire full time refs, hell you've got enough money, don't you?

[OpIv37]

Re: A decent article on the suck that is the NFL

Here's the issue: penalties are up because of some rule changes to "protect" players, but everything else he mentioned has been a problem for years: incessant commercials, inconsistent officiating, defining a "catch"....

So, why are they suddenly affecting viewership now?

[feldspar]

Re: A decent article on the suck that is the NFL

Here's the issue: penalties are up because of some rule changes to "protect" players, but everything else he mentioned has been a problem for years: incessant commercials, inconsistent officiating, defining a "catch"....

So, why are they suddenly affecting viewership now?

Probably because these things have been going on for years. The tolerance level is wearing down on a lot of people.

[YardRat]

Re: A decent article on the suck that is the NFL

I won't argue against a single word of that article, except for the very last sentence.

[Mr. Pink]

Re: A decent article on the suck that is the NFL

The real reason viewership is down is because the same teams are good year in and year out - and those markets the numbers aren't down...and the same teams are bad year in and year out - those markets the numbers are down.

Throughout the country, people are sick of these same teams being good. 15 years of watching Patriot dominance gets old. 15 years of Bills crap gets old. Putting crap matchups on MNF, SNF, TNF gets old. Putting crap teams in England gets old.

The NFL in its attempt at parity have made the product stale, for the majority of the country, because it didn't work.

[feldspar]

Re: A decent article on the suck that is the NFL

Gotta go for2

[feldspar]

Re: A decent article on the suck that is the NFL

Carpenter's missed point no longer haunts me.

But YardRat still does...

[feldspar]

Re: A decent article on the suck that is the NFL

Although, I'd be the first to admit that my last 2 posts belonged in the garbage that is the game-day thread.

Oops

[Ingtar33]

Re: A decent article on the suck that is the NFL

The real reason viewership is down is because the same teams are good year in and year out - and those markets the numbers aren't down...and the same teams are bad year in and year out - those markets the numbers are down.

Throughout the country, people are sick of these same teams being good. 15 years of watching Patriot dominance gets old. 15 years of Bills crap gets old. Putting crap matchups on MNF, SNF, TNF gets old. Putting crap teams in England gets old.

The NFL in its attempt at parity have made the product stale, for the majority of the country, because it didn't work.

The root of the problem is traced back to the defensive penalty rules. The league has always had only a handful of "elite" quarterbacks. But by making playing defense against WRs basically illegal, you simply maximized the effect of the elite QBs to permanently entrench their teams in the post season. Prior to those rules, teams with mediocre/mid level quarterbacks made the playoffs often.

Check out the name of the QBs in the Superbowl since no.1; there were a lot of who(?) type QBs who not only made the superbowl but who won it prior to 2006. Since 2006 (when they passed their first series of absurd rules to make it illegal to play defense), look at the name of the QBs from the AFC, its the same 4 names. Payton Manning (3), Ben Rothlesburger (3), Tom Brady (3), Joe Flaco (1). look at the names of the QBs out of the NFC; Kurt Warner (1), Eli Manning (2), Russel Wilson (2), Rex Grossman (1), Matt Hasselbeck (1), Drew Brees (1), Aaron Rogers (1), Colin Kaepernick (1)

The lone outliers on this list are Rex Grossman and Colin Kaepernick, Grossman and Kaepernick both had their best season of their career and both lost (Matt Hasselbeck probably should be on that list of outliers, but he had an above average to pro bowl quality career in Seattle, so while he's not an ELITE, he was very good for a very long time)

now look at the prior 10 years, it was a rare situation you had two elite QBs playing each other, usually there was atleast one "who's that?" QB in every superbowl, and typically the who's that? qb won a lot more then they lost. The league with the salary cap DID have parody, since they made it impossible to play good defense the elite HOF QBs have generally been dominating, and those QBs are RARE, meaning if you didn't have one you didn't get to the superbowl, or even the playoffs.

THIS is why the league has lost the interest of the fans outside those few superteams.

[Turf]

Re: A decent article on the suck that is the NFL

I also think the cable cutting generation has a general disinterest in sports. And when you add all of the other issues, like showing he game from the blimp view, it becomes unwatchable. I watched Houston get hosed last Monday night on two bad ball placements that cost them the game. It mad me hate the game even more because the refs always give the better teams the good spot.

[Historian]

Re: A decent article on the suck that is the NFL

This:

Every NFL game follows a similar pattern: kickoff (15 seconds), commercials (2 minutes), a couple of plays (1-2 minutes), commercials (2 minutes), punt (15 seconds), commercials (2 minutes), and so on and so forth. CBS even inadvertently cut out some gameplay for more commercials last Thursday night. NFL games last from three to three and a half hours, but only around 11 minutes is actual playing time. I’m not making that up.

I agree with the entire article.

I actually forgot that there was a game on last night.