The erroneous point that Chop, JStack, and others are trying to make in this thread is this:
The "boycotters'" convictions must not really be that strong; it's easy to tune out for a shitty Titans/Broncos game, but look, they couldn't stay away from the prime draw of the week! So no one really stood by their convictions when the rubber met the road.
It just shows a fundamental inability to think critically.
Making these #s up...but...let's say last year there were 50M potential NFL viewers for any given primetime game. Maybe a "normal" ratings game draws 20% of those viewers (10M), and a "huge" ratings game draws 40% of those viewers (20M).
Now let's say 20% of NFL's fan base has boycotted. Now there are 40M potential NFL viewers for any given game. Now a typical game draws 8M and a huge game draws 16M. That does not mean you can't still get a 20M viewer game if the interest level among the remaining fans is really high. Like, say, Tom Brady making his debut for another team. Intellectually dishonest to point to this game as evidence that the denominator hasn't changed. Like Javy said, we don't have a true pre-SJW/BLM equivalent to compare it to, so really we'll never know.
But every single indication is that the denominator has shrunk.
(side note I am not boycotting football)