Reading the Tea Leaves

According to news reports, TV ratings for the NFL during this past regular season slipped 9.7 percent.  The question is, Why?

Some critics cite too many games on too many different days of the week.  But what difference does it make if all the games are on Sunday or some on Monday and Thursday?  Is it in any way better to sit through a full slate of Sunday games?  I doubt it.

Another possibility is a backlash over player protests during the National Anthem.  President Trump certainly thinks so, but I beg to disagree.  Personally, I’m a lot more turned off following a touchdown when players form a Rockettes’ kick line or pretend to be bowling pins getting knocked down.  I thought football was supposed to be a man’s game.  Then why are they acting like children?

The real answer may be in the adage that goes around comes around in this world.  Baseball long ago was labelled as boring for a lack of action.  Lo and behold, the same thing is happening to football; commercials are killing the game’s continuity.  That needs to be fixed.  Then, there’s the matter of injuries.  People see an ex-baseball player, and they’re likely to go nuts.  People see an ex-football player, and they’re likely to gasp.  I nearly did seeing former defensive end Jim Marshall on the sidelines of the Vikings-Bears’ game last month; it looked like the 80-year old former “Purple People Eater” could barely walk.  At 80, Minnie Minoso probably thought he could still play.

Factor in all the worries over possible brain damage, and I think the NFL is losing fans, both young and middle-aged; this is something baseball has never had to worry about.  The violence that the NFL once sold to gain national popularity, as in the Purple People Eaters, is now coming home to roost.  The ratings may never recover.