NFL ratings have face planted with no relief in sight.
Shockingly, a Thursday night tilt between the awful Bears and a rapidly-declining Aaron Rodgers didn’t reverse the trend. According to Pro Football Talk, “For Week Seven, the 9.4 overnight rating for the Bears-Packers game reflected an 18.2-percent drop from the Week Seven TNF game in 2015, a 20-3 win by the Seahawks over the 49ers. The Sunday night game between the Seahawks and Cardinals dropped by 15 percent from last year’s Eagles-Panthers game, with an 11.6 rating.
“The Sunday late-afternoon window, which has for the most part been performing better than prime-time games, also was down sharply, with a 13.2-percent drop in the Patriots-Steelers game on CBS in 2016 and the Week Seven 2015 game between the Cowboys and Giants.”
The Kaepernick-inspired protests rank at the top of the list when it comes to reasons why fans have bailed on the league. Though, the NFL refuses to admit that. After all, why would they? Then they would actually have to do what scares them to death, standing up to radical leftist social-justice warriors.
Let’s focus on the one factor in which we should have universal agreement, officiating. The officiating has taken over the game. Referees called 24 penalties in the Raiders vs. Jaguars game this past Sunday. Last week, the Jets and Cardinals game had 19. The Seahawks alone committed 10 penalties on Monday Night Football this week.
Only paid employees and blood relatives will sit through such monstrosities.
Again, people remain massively turned off by Colin Kaepernick, which accounts for a huge part of the reason why fans continue to bail. Yet, if the league won’t face up to that reality, how about facing up to the one thing they could actually change this week if they wanted to, and call the zebras off?
Who knows? It might even make your product, you know, watchable.
Follow Dylan Gwinn on Twitter: @themightygwinn
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