ChiefsPlanet - Football The NFL is becoming more disturbing than appealing, and TV viewers are tuning out

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The NFL is becoming more disturbing than appealing, and TV viewers are tuning out (https://www.chiefsplanet.com/BB/showthread.php?t=303316)

The NFL is becoming more disturbing than appealing, and TV viewers are tuning out

https://www.washingtonpost.com/sport...b06_story.html

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The NFL is becoming more disturbing than appealing, and TV viewers are tuning out

By Sally Jenkins Columnist October 31

The NFL’s firm grip on the psyche is based in the fact that it’s the most real, live event on live television. Every game is a character-driven story and a high-speed chase in which the action and the stakes of a collision are genuine. But lately the NFL has seemed formulaic and lacking in a certain kind of authenticity. It’s no great mystery as to why the NFL’s ratings have been dropping: Viewers don’t especially like the stories they’re watching.

The numbers are striking. Through seven weeks, ratings were off for every prime-time incarnation of the NFL: “Sunday Night Football” by 19 percent, “Monday Night Football” by 24 percent and the dreaded Thursday night game by 18 percent. A variety of factors may be contributing to this dive, from the election to so-called “fragmentation” of mass media. But none of the explanations make as much sense as the simplest one: The NFL has put less appealing and more disturbing action on the screen, and viewers are turning it off.

Historian Michael Oriard has observed that the great attraction of the league is that it’s “the true reality TV,” in its most vital form. But the NFL is beginning to seem over-managed and over-staged. Constant commercials and interruptions by refs waving their arms do not produce “appointment viewing;” rather, they produce punts, ties and stasis. Look at the standings: A cluster of 18 teams, indistinguishable save for the colors of their shirts, are at .500 or worse and five more at 4-3. In other words, 23 teams are not must-see-TV to anyone but their most fervent fans. The constant advertisements and hail of yellow flags from overly officious officials make a PBS series seem fast-moving, with a clearer story line.

When rookie quarterback Dak Prescott led the Dallas Cowboys over the Philadelphia Eagles with his touchdown pass to Jason Witten in overtime late Sunday night, it was clear how much animation the league has been missing. But even that terrific game, which had high divisional stakes and featured a bright new star, was crushed in the ratings by Game 5 of the World Series between the Chicago Cubs and Cleveland Indians. It’s the first time since 2011 that a World Series game beat “Sunday Night Football.”

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Obviously, viewers are not finding the NFL as meaningful and important as they have in other seasons. Games on Sunday, Monday and Thursday, plus a handful of overseas trips for novelty games in London, have numbed the viewer. Only a handful of contests this past weekend felt like difference-makers, and those were disrupted by flags. One was between the New England Patriots and the Buffalo Bills, which was marred by five penalties in the first 10 minutes. When the Pats led 38-17 in the third quarter, where was the viewer to go? To Jets-Browns? Lions-Texans? Raiders-Buccaneers was close, but that meant suffering through a league-record 23 penalties against the Raiders for 200 yards.

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The NFL ratings malaise is being puzzled over by everyone from media executives to stock analysts, who offer a variety of speculative causes. Everything from fantasy football to Twitter live-streaming to the shorter attention spans and habits of millennials has been cited. But none of these entirely add up. Other sports aren’t suffering precipitous drops; NBA and Major League Baseball ratings have strengthened over the past year.

In looking for a difference, it’s hard to dismiss the coexisting facts that the NFL has ruined the flow of its on-field stories while experiencing a spate of deeply negative stories off the field — most of them self-inflicted and perpetuated, from the Deflategate four-game suspension of Tom Brady, to the spousal abuse case of place kicker Josh Brown. Donald Trump has blamed Colin Kaepernick for dissing the national anthem for the fall in ratings. If that’s a factor, then undoubtedly so are narratives involving concussions and domestic violence.

The on field product sucks. Every team I watch fails to execute simple plays.

CPs very own Hamas Jenkins just said tonight he hardly watches - that in and of itself should say a lot. He used to be right in the middle of all of the football talk here on the Planet.

FOX's Sunday slate looks grim af this week. When a winless team is playing in your featured matchup, you know things have gotten bad.

I hope the Chiefs win a SB soon so I can cash out. Between the head trauma, the anti-emotion rulebook, and the complete mangling of the very concept of a catch, I'm getting ready to let go......

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Originally Posted by carcosa (Post 12522978)

FOX's Sunday slate looks grim af this week. When a winless team is playing in your featured matchup, you know things have gotten bad.

I hope the Chiefs win a SB soon so I can cash out. Between the head trauma, the anti-emotion rulebook, and the complete mangling of the very concept of a catch, I'm getting ready to let go......

It's a bag of hammers.

Quote:

Originally Posted by carcosa (Post 12522978)

FOX's Sunday slate looks grim af this week. When a winless team is playing in your featured matchup, you know things have gotten bad.

I hope the Chiefs win a SB soon so I can cash out. Between the head trauma, the anti-emotion rulebook, and the complete mangling of the very concept of a catch, I'm getting ready to let go......

An 0-15 Dallas Cowboys team could be playing St. Mary's School for the Deaf and Blind in Week 17 and it would get top billing.

I have zero interest in any non Chiefs NFL game...none. Possibly a Broncos\Raiders game can get my attention. Simply don't like the league or product enough. And all the personalities surrounding it.

No one believed the "coincidence" between year 50 of the SB and all the "magical" things that had to take place for Manning to even be there. Cam just staring at his fumble didn't help in selling the authenticity of the ruse. Having Manning thank his corporate sponsors first and foremost didn't sell the "dramatic moment" in his farewell game either...but having f@cking Coldplay at halftime did them in.

Truth is..no one cared outside of Denver. They intrinsically know when something feels synthetic and manufactured. * See Raiders vs. Saints in week one*

F@ck the NFL and the sterile, corporate office environment they've created...it can burn. They had a good run...Vegas made a shit ton...shame the internet shed light on the sham.

So, the WORLD SERIES should trump a Week 6 or whatever avg reg season NFL game.

While the NFL ratings are declining its by far and away the highest rated sport in the USA. Regular season MLB Sunday Night baseball got DEMOLISHED by kids playing video games on TV.

I think the NFL is heavily influenced by crooked officiating

I have a very hard time taking any interest in it now.

I try to watch some of the Chiefs games but don't really care if I miss some or all of it

What's disturbing is the product they offer us now.

if they offer officiating like it was in Broncos vs SD, then viewership will rise. If they stop penalizing for players having fun, viewership will rise. If they limit thursday games to week 8 and on.. or even week 12 and on.. viewership will rise. If they properly punish domistic abusers, viewership will rise. If they simplify rules, viewership will rise.

Goodell will run this game into the ground.

Stop Thursday night football and ****ing London regular season games. Stop the subjective nonsense on flags and focus on real penalties. Bite the bullet and pay out on player safety so we aren't forced to watch fifth string rejects at key positions.