Except for the Super Bowl the NFL never showed the National Anthem on TV. That was the time that the announcers had to talk about the game or they could squeeze in an extra commercial break. Now they are showing every anthem and are focusing in on players protesting and those that don’t. It might be less visible on the news but it is very visible on the game broadcast.
And if it did upset you, I would think it would just give you a team to root against, which adds to the fun. (not that you need a reason to root against the 49ers.)
Personally, I’m watching more football than ever. However, I do it with DVR so I miss the commercials and half time. I think I’m watching more because I’m a Seahawk fan, and we have had a good team for a few years, which makes it more fun.
The weekly NFL threads here used to be 2 pages every single week. Until yesterday, this week’s had like 11 posts. And that has been about normal. Interest is way down. Last I saw, MNF ratings are down almost 25% from last year. 25%!! That’s huge.
I’m surprised how many people say that injury and long term problems are a factor. I understand that and don’t disagree, but I guess I’m surprised how many people care about that.
Uniforms helmets and logos keep changing. How am I supposed to know who to root for?
If you think it’s bad in the NFL, try watching college ball. 
Have the demographics of NASCAR and NFL viewership changed? It wouldn’t be surprising if the young people who in the past would have joined NFL/NASCAR fanbase now prefer to play video games.
Possibly, though the NFL’s ratings declines have occurred very suddenly, which suggests it’s probably not (directly) a result of fan demographics.
Another possible cause (though I’m not sure of the exact relationship) might be fantasy sports. Remember last season, how ever other ad on an NFL game was for FanDuel or Draft Kings? Undoubtedly due to the legal issues around daily fantasy sports, they don’t advertise on the NFL much (if at all) this season.
Fantasy sports may have something to do with it. I’ve never participated, but know people who do. It really changes the way they watch games, divorcing them from any allegiance to a team. Over time, i can see how that would diminish interest in the whole thing.
IMO, the games have just gotten boring, for reasons already listed:
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Commercials: it used to be when a team called a timeout, they’d cut away for one 30-second spot. Now it feels like every timeout is a few minutes with multiple commercials. If a team scores, I can leave for 5 minutes and probably not miss anything: extra point – COMMERCIALS – kick-off out the back of the endzone – COMMERCIALS. I often find something better to do while I’m waiting and don’t come back.
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Boring marquee games: not sure how much is bad luck and how much is bad planning, but the SNF/MNF/TNF games have not had the best matchups.
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Penalties/rules/reviews: as others have noted, it’s partly the number of penalties, but how incomprehensible the rules are to most fans. What constitutes a catch is a mystery. A “football move” is a stupid term. Leaping over the line to block a field goal is fine, except it’s a penalty if your foot grazes another player. Nelson Agholor fails to put his foot on the line of scrimmage and negates at 57-yard touchdown, despite giving the Eagles no advantage and having nothing to do with the play. I get that there are reasons for these rules, but for someone who just wants to watch an exciting game, this shit kills interest.
For me, while I still enjoy football, the last few years have changed my perception of it for a couple of reasons:
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The off the field incidents of violence and corruption and the NFL’s consistently shitty handling of them and it front office behavior have soured me.
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I am much more aware of the toll of the game on the players. Big hits used to be exciting and now I just cringe when they happen.
I have said before I think Football’s days are numbered. it won’t be anytime soon but eventually the talent pool will dry up as Mom’s stop letting their kids play and it will become a fringe sport similar to boxing. Alternatively it will change enough rules to survive but transform into a different game.
I don’t disagree that the commercial breaks seem endless (especially the evil pairing of two full breaks on either side of a kickoff), but that’s by no means a new phenomenon.
Team timeouts are usually full two-minute timeouts (i.e., commercial breaks), unless there’s recently been a full timeout, in which case the referee will call for a “thirty second timeout”. It’s been that way for as long as I’ve been watching football.
Talk is cheap and bad PR can be good PR.
All the major sports have seen interest plateau recently; this is not a phenomenon unique to the NFL.
Yeah, the length of the timeouts haven’t changed. What seems new-ish to me (last 5 years?) is maximizing the time for commercials. Maybe it’s my fading memory and rose-colored glasses, but I remember there’d be one or two commercials then cut back to talk about the game and replays.
But my bigger point was the piling on of all those things. Maybe commercials were just as bad 5 years ago, but I notice it now because of all the other things that make the game more boring.
This SI article has some interesting post-election viewership numbers:
It appears that if you have marquee matchups that are shown nationwide, people will watch. So the folks talking about scheduling may have a point.
The other possibly is lack of as many big name stars (including, the biggest current star in the league, Tom Brady, missing the first 4 games of the season).
Another reason may be that Fantasy Football fans realize they don’t really have to watch the games as they can get instant scores and analysis to their phones. And that FF has gradually eroded team loyalties to be replaced with interest in individual players and what they are doing for one’s fantasy team.
Global warming. It’s been warm enough to be outside with the kids or doing yardwork the first 11 weeks of football in Cleveland.
I don’t know how warm weather team fans manage to watch any football!!
Nailed it.
Not just playing video games, watching video games.
The NFL’s average viewer age is creeping up by about half a year every year (average viewer now 47. 10 years ago, average viewer was 43). Meanwhile, twitch.tv, which streams people playing video games, is going crazy with 12-30 year olds watching video gaming.
I used to be a very casual football viewer. I’d watch the Super Bowl and a game or two a season at a friend’s house. I haven’t even watched the Super Bowl the last few years, but I watch probably an hour of twitch a week.
That’s an interesting take on it. With domed stadiums, warmer fall seasons, and the Super Bowl always played indoors or in the south, are we ever going to see a good old “snow bowl” again?
I’m one of the possibly-former viewers who has almost completely lost interest. There are several reasons for me:
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The Bears are a shit team that aren’t worth watching at all. They should just lose the rest of their games on purpose so they can get a decent position for the draft. My lack of interest in the Bears has translated into a lack of interest in the league in general. I will probably still watch the Super Bowl, but only if it’s with friends. If none of my friends happens to have a Super Bowl party, I probably won’t even bother to watch the Super Bowl.
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The concussion/CTE deal
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So many players are complete assholes on and/or off the field (domestic violence, cheating, etc.)
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The Cubs drew most of my attention this year during their World Series championship season. I was so wrapped up in the 103-win season and the pennant drive, I didn’t give a shit about NFL anymore. I was staying with my parents during the first weekend of October. My dad asked if I’d like to watch the Bears game, and I said no, they’re horrible. I did request that we watch the final Cubs game of the regular season, though. This game was absolutely meaningless, because the Cubs had wrapped up the division title weeks earlier. They didn’t even use most of their regular players after the first few innings. The game STILL held way more interest for me than some shitty Bears team that only plays once a week.
Something else I forgot to add: the complete oversaturation of NFL coverage. In the springtime, I don’t want to listen to endless analysis of the draft. In the summer, I don’t want to listen to analysis of various teams’ training camps. In the fall, it was OK to watch some of the analysis of the games, but not when it’s the ONLY THING THEY TALK ABOUT ON SPORTSCENTER OR WHAT HAVE YOU. This oversaturation has really turned me away from the game.
My personal data point, from a super-fan watching 4+ full games per week, playing fantasy, and following the news and recaps…to someone who hasn’t watched a single game at all (including superbowls) in over 5 years.
- Fragmentation of entertainment streams and mass availability of alternatives. Netflix, games, and even normal hobbies make it so that there’s 99% chance of something else I’d rather be doing.
- DVRs. Now that I’m not constrained by the leash of ‘watch now or miss it’, I found I no longer chose to watch when I was suddenly untethered.
- Following football requires a significant critical mass of time invested to get familiar with the current players, coaches, strategies, rivalries, playbooks, etc. I grew to feel I was getting no emotional or entertainment return on my time invested.
- Commercials and interruptions. Holy hell, watching what should be a fun social event at a bar with friends is instead an exercise in frustration once I became used to controlling the FF/RW buttons on my DVR. Slogging through games in real time? Forget it.
- Broadcasts are too glitzed up as infotainment. Banners, sketches, flyarounds, stats all distract from enjoyment of the simple athleticism. I most enjoyed the stripped down “NFL Films” style days of crunching bodies slogging through the mud in a virtual trench warfare. Football started dying the day that Madden was given a sketch pen in the broadcast booth.