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

[tk13]

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

Excerpts:

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.

[Whosurdaddy]

I got older and realized I'm rooting for millionaires to run around and not play defense anymore. I feel like the NFL is experiencing the same issues as ESPN. It's been so sanitized and over-workshopped into being an uninteresting experience. The games are expensive as shit and no fun to go to and the games are sloppy and uncompetitive to watch at home.

College ball is right now more entertaining to me, but we can all tell it's going the same way as the NFL.

[Mr. Plow]

Only time I'll watch a Thursday night or Monday night game is if I'm at a bar with a friend.

[Beef Supreme]

Originally Posted by DaFace

For me, the biggest issue is that you just can't get excited about anything anymore. Big play? That's great, but is there a flag for some ticky tack reason? OK, good, no flag. Now let's watch 15 different replays to see if the ball jiggled a bit. Oh, crap. Was that enough of a jiggle to overturn it? Shit, there's the red flag.

(5 minutes of commercials)

"I know that literally everyone thought that it was a catch in real time, but when viewed at 20,000 fps, I saw a jiggle. Ruling on the field is reversed."

OK, what the **** were we doing 10 minutes ago...?

^

[BlackOp]

Originally Posted by mr. tegu

For me it's the constant commercials more than anything that is the most annoying and what makes other team's games hard to watch. You want to be sucked into the action, have your adrenaline and excitement rise as the stakes grow higher, but the constant stoppages totally remove you from that multiple times throughout the games.

Yep...it's really hard to watch now. After an extra point there are 3 minutes of commercials, then a kick off and another 3 minutes of commercials. By the time it gets going again you've been completely taken out of the flow.

You couple that with the outrageous prices of parking, tickets and concessions....and all the VIP boxes sold to corporations + seat licenses fees. It's not worth $500-$1000 for two people to go.

Then you have horrible officiating and the specter of Vegas influencing games. The head of officiating partying on Jerry Jones's "fun bus". People are tuning out....and they should.

No one bought the "Manning riding off into the sunset" script while being the worst QB in the NFL. They over-played their hand...thinking fans were too stupid to notice. They are trying again with the Raiders hype and their stadium tax fleecing.

They have turned into a "maximize profits by extortion/manipulation" mega-corporation....masked as a sport. Its the snake eating it's own tail....

[O.city]

First, they've gotta make the refs full-time employees. Increase practice time so the product isn't shit.

Honestly, I'd do away with instant replay. Just play it with the eye test.

[Danguardace]

Interesting to hear peoples view on London Games and that they have been targeted in that article.

From my perspective living in Europe I think they have a fantastic advert for the game in the UK and Europe. A large amount of NFL revenue is generated outside of America and over here Football crushes any other US sport. The Superbowl gets covered on 2 channels, and will be mentioned on the national news. Nobody cares about NBA Finals, Stanley Cup or World Series.

I find it laughable that a Regular season game between 2 poor teams (based on last years record) is being held up against Baseball's showpiece event.

[milkman]

Originally Posted by dirk digler

I don't watch as much football anymore and I agree with everyone on some of the reasons like TNF, London games, commercials, flags etc..

They just need to get back to playing only on Sunday and Monday but I do admit I like the early games so maybe to spice it up have 1 game a week start at 9AM.

Also this may or may not be a popular idea but they need to get rid of the rotating bye week. At the 8 or 9 week mark all teams have a bye. I was looking at the TV schedule last week and there were only 2 3PM's games which IMO is ridiculous.

I like the bye week idea, but I think a better idea would be to split the bye into two weeks, with 4 divisions taking one, and the other 4 taking the next.

[KChiefs1]

The catch rule.
The TD celebration penalties.
The mediocrity of the league.
Inconsistent penalties for any assortment of things from finger wagging to hits on the QB's. Flags on every single play!
Over saturation of games with piss poor matchups.
Games now take 3 1/2 hours to play now.
Lack of any big time hits(loved those as a kid).

I haven't watched one 49er game this year & it's not due to Kaepernick.



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Chiefnj2]

Oversaturation, non-competitive games, no fun league, stupid ass ideas like color rush, too many commercials, boring ass announcers, poor product on Thursday night, fantasy football influence on the game, entertaining election and World Series and half a dozen old grumpy white men who are mad at Kaepernick.

[DJJasonp]

Originally Posted by Whosurdaddy

I got older and realized I'm rooting for millionaires to run around and not play defense anymore. I feel like the NFL is experiencing the same issues as ESPN. It's been so sanitized and over-workshopped into being an uninteresting experience. The games are expensive as shit and no fun to go to and the games are sloppy and uncompetitive to watch at home.

College ball is right now more entertaining to me, but we can all tell it's going the same way as the NFL.

Pretty much this (and everything else people are bringing up).

Bottom line is, whenever massive amounts of money gets involved in a product, it's going to suffer in multiple ways......and the consumers are the ones who ultimately suffer the most.

[O.city]

Originally Posted by milkman

I like the bye week idea, but I think a better idea would be to split the bye into two weeks, with 4 divisions taking one, and the other 4 taking the next.

I like that idea.

If they insist on Thursday games, they should only be played the week after a teams bye.

[Pasta Little Brioni]

Originally Posted by BossChief

The refs swaying games is absolutely a legit factor.

It's completely obvious in some games.

Blew EIGHTEEN calls in favor of the Packers over Jacksonville. Absolutely pathetic. Games are influenced a certain way..no ****ing doubt.

They were talking about this on ESPN radio the other day. Even said fans didn't buy Manning going out on top as legit. Broke down games including our week 2 matchup and the calls they got in the tying drive.

[loochy]

Originally Posted by dmahurin

The pacing of the game sucks. Its unbearable to watch anymore. The games are boring. People think baseball is bad with pacing, the NFL is way worse. 7 to 8 seconds of game action followed by 30 seconds of standing around. Repeat a few times. Pause for penalties/injuries/reviews. Commercial. 7 to 8 seconds of action. Commercial. Announcers talk, kick the ball. Commercial. 7 to 8 seconds of game action. Stand around for 30 seconds. Commercial. Repeat. Its awful to watch and not worth anyones time.

It's a perfect sport for multi tasking. While games are on I can:

Clean the house
Do laundry
Cook
Detail the car
Play LOTRO
Play with my son
Lift Weights

And I don't miss any of the game action

[O.city]

Is the pace of play that much different than its always been?

[Danguardace]

Originally Posted by Whosurdaddy

I got older and realized I'm rooting for millionaires to run around and not play defense anymore. I feel like the NFL is experiencing the same issues as ESPN. It's been so sanitized and over-workshopped into being an uninteresting experience. The games are expensive as shit and no fun to go to and the games are sloppy and uncompetitive to watch at home.

College ball is right now more entertaining to me, but we can all tell it's going the same way as the NFL.

TBH this is the reason I dont watch College Football as much any more, I see a load of invisible Millionaires and Millionaire coaches whilst these poor kids get next to nothing and are simply exploited. I at least feel happy some guys are getting paid and can support their families in the NFL.