Might be due in part to the fact that the Broncos suck Kevin Spacey ass this season, but I'm missing more games and just checking scores after the games are over. Turns out that I've seen enough football to know what it looks like without watching a game as it's happening.

I'm not pissed. I'm not protesting. I'm not boycotting. I'm just a little bored by the NFL's current interpretation of football.

1. Get rid of Thursday night games. They're generally horrible and not worth watching. And unless it's my team playing in it....I'm not rushing home right after work to turn on the TV and watch football on a Thursday night.

2. Bring back NFL Europe. The NFL is in dire need of a developmental league that allows these players to transition from the college level to the pros.

3. Offer team packages to fans. Want to watch all of your teams games? Pay $125-$150 a season and we'll allow you to stream them on NFL.com every week.

4. Most importantly....fix the way penalties are called. It's pretty bad when even the most casual fan can watch a game and call out the refs for bullshit penalties or blatant penalties that aren't called.

And yet the Chiefs ratings are up this year more than 5%, bucking the national trend.

The reason for the decline in ratings is as follows:

1. 2014 was the NFL's ratings peak and most insiders knew that the decline was going to happen at some point in the near future.

2. Mobile watching is a real factor. Twitter paid $50 million to stream Thursday night games last year, Amazon paid $50 million this year. Verizon offers every NFL game via their service so people are watching on phones and tablets.

3. Streaming, illegal and legal, has taken a chunk of viewers from traditional watching to new age.

4. Red Zone TV is a huge factor. Why watch a single game when you can watch scoring plays as they happen?

5. NFL Game Mix: Similar to above. When the Chiefs aren't playing, I'll generally have Game Mix on with the sound muted so I can keep an eye on all of the day's action.

6. Bad big market/popular teams. It's no secret that when the Giants, Jets, Cowboys, Redskins and Packers suck, the ratings are down. The Chargers ratings are abysmal and aren't even being counted. The Bay Area's ratings are off as well, which shouldn't be surprising when they host 0-8 and 3-4 teams.

Mobile and streaming numbers aren't included in the Nielsen ratings, which definitely accounts for more than a few percent. Until Nielson or some other company can track streams, the ratings will likely be off.

But again, the sky isn't falling. There isn't a single program that can haul 20+ million viewers per episode these days, let alone, 26 million, as some NFL games have this season.

Yeah, the amount of non-Chiefs games I am watching has been declining steadily the last few years for basically this reason.

Seems like it'd be easier to accurately gauge viewer numbers with internet streaming than with the stupid Nielsen tv ratings system. I know myself along with my family members have always had cable or satellite since the 80s. Until a couple years ago. Now we all cut it off and just watch stuff online or an HD antenna for local broadcasts.

I don't have an issue with the idea of a Thursday night game but the execution is poor because the players aren't rested.

After the initial Thursday Night game to kick off the season, the NFL should introduce Thursday night games Week 5 and feature teams that are coming off their Bye Week. That way, players will be well rested coming into the Thursday night game and have additional days off until their next Sunday game.

Also, **** having shitty teams on Thursday Night. If the NFL wants to improve their ratings, only 1st and 2nd place teams from the prior season should be featured on Thursday night.

Nobody wants to sit through Tennessee vs. Jacksonville or in last night's case, Buffalo vs. the Jets.

Boring.

I haven't watched a single game all year that didn't have the Chiefs playing in it, and I haven't even watched all of them in their entirety. It has nothing to do with my TV viewing habits and everything to do with it being an uninteresting shit product.

I heard they were planning on cutting 10 Thursday games next season.

I'm fine with that. I still probably wouldn't watch them though.

Putting premier matchups on Thursday nights screws FOX and CBS out of their best Sunday games, and it also screws the fans.

Get rid of it entirely.

And the asinine London games as well.

Give the ****ing league back to the fans for crissakes.

Only an opinion, but I began watching the NFL when they first began broadcasting games. Folks back then LOVED the idea of football on TV. Then, along came Monday Night Football and it was GREAT!!

Then came Sunday NIGHT Football and then Thursday night football. Honest to god - I think that one of the prime reasons for the drop in viewership is "overkill".

The game has changed over the years as well. Now? there are 100 flags during a game. This isn't allowed, that isn't allowed. This hit is "bad" while this hit is OK.

There are FAR too many commercials during the average game. I get the idea that sponsors want the commercial time but holy shit!

Cable and Satellite services are being dropped at a phenomenal rate. People just can't afford $200 a month for television. Hell, we dropped DirecTv a couple of months ago and STILL haven't missed a Chiefs game (which, coincidentally, is the only game I watch these days).

People have attributed the loss of viewership to the protests and I think, that to a certain extent, they may be right. Football to many was the last bastion of "'Murica!" and now, it seems to many like even that is going by the way. So, I'm sure that there is that segment of society that said "to hell with the NFL" and moved on to something else.

None of this is actually "provable" - but there it is...

Well, not really. CBS has the rights to Thursday night games and last year (or 2 years ago, I can't remember) CBS and NBC broadcast eight games each while the NFL Network simulcast the games.

Also, CBS and Fox have bigger issues with Flexed games to Sunday night than Thursday night matchups, although there is monetary compensation when games are Flexed.

I watched a game last week that was officiated by Hoculi's crew. The announcers said they average 27 penalty calls per game. That's insane.

Sadly the officials think they NEED to be part of the production as well. They like their influence know and they like their air time.

Sadly no one on the planet cares to ever see them on tv.

I am a cord cutter, my ratings are recorded just fine...