[h=1]Yes, Colin Kaepernick is hurting NFL ratings[/h]
[FONT="]The steady decline in NFL television ratings has been the biggest story of the football season, and arguably the biggest sports-business story of 2016. What is clear is that interest in watching primetime NFL games has waned, but what remains unclear are the exact causes, and which causes have had the largest impact.[/FONT]
[FONT="]Now recent reports suggest that one of the factors dismissed by many has in fact had a definite impact: player protests during the national anthem, led by San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick.[/FONT]
[FONT="]The steady decline in NFL television ratings has been the biggest story of the football season, and arguably the biggest sports-business story of 2016. What is clear is that interest in watching primetime NFL games has waned, but what remains unclear are the exact causes, and which causes have had the largest impact.[/FONT]
[FONT="]Now recent reports suggest that one of the factors dismissed by many has in fact had a definite impact: player protests during the national anthem, led by San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick.[/FONT]
August 30, 2017
The NFL between a Rock and a Hard Place
By Jeff Goodson
For those watching the latest iteration of America's culture wars, the player protests in the National Football League are an object lesson in cultural insurgency.
The whole thing started last year when San Francisco quarterback Colin Kaepernick sat out the traditional pre-game playing of the National Anthem. Fans, outraged that he wasn't fired outright or at least benched under a "sit for the Anthem, sit for the game" policy, abandoned pro football in droves. Kaepernick was released by San Francisco later in the year, and since then, no other NFL team has picked up his contract.
Now both the NAACP on one side and pro football fans on the other are calling for a boycott of the NFL. This has put the League in a "damned if you, damned if you don't" situation and given it a headache of Solomonic proportions.
A Platform for Social Change
The National Football League is a true meritocracy. Blacks make up 13% of the U.S. population and about 70% of the NFL roster. The NFL fan base, meanwhile, is 83% white. The raison d'être for this latest battlefield in America's culture war is that some black players see the NFL as a platform for social change. Many of their fans, conversely, do not.
Twelve NFL teams have now accommodated players who disrespect America by sitting, kneeling, raising fists, or turning their backs during the National Anthem. By the end of 2016, the list included San Francisco, Denver, Kansas City, New England, and Tampa Bay. This year barely halfway through the pre-season seven additional teams have put themselves on what some fans think of as the "NFL do not watch" list: Cleveland, Seattle, Oakland, Buffalo, Philadelphia, Tennessee, and Los Angeles.
It's no surprise that Colin Kaepernick is still unemployed. Nor that other black players are unifying behind him. Nor that, in an attempt to convince America that the protest isn't racially motivated, white players have been urged to join in. The Cleveland Browns finally succeeded when white wide receiver Seth DeValve provided racial cover by kneeling for the Anthem along with twelve black teammates on August 21.
Black player support for the protests, however, is far from unanimous. Five-time Pro Bowler LeSean McCoy pushed back, saying, "In this country, you can believe what you want, but I think maybe they could choose a better platform to state their beliefs." Famous MVP and Hall-of-Famer Jim Brown also pushed back, admonishing Kaepernick by saying, "I'm an American I don't desecrate my flag and my national anthem." When Brown talked to Cleveland playersafter the protest on August 21, it had some effect: the players stood for the Anthem at the next game but still locked arms in solidarity.
Blowback from the Fans
Kaepernick's disrespect last year caused a large number of football fans to stop watching the NFL. In October 2016, a Seton Hall poll of 841 adults found that overall, NFL ratings were down about 12% year over year, including 24% for Monday night football, 19% for Sunday night football, and 18% for Thursday night football. It also found that 56% of fans blamed the ratings falloff primarilyon the National Anthem protests.
NFL management, meanwhile, stuck their heads in the sand and blamed the ratings debacle on everything from the presidential election to domestic violence, and from baseball to concussions. They blamed everything, that is, except for what they could have learned at any sports bar in America pro football fans were fried at Kaepernick's disrespect for the country.
A more in-depth survey by J.D. Power and Associates in July found that most fans 26% of 9,200 surveyed still cited the Anthem protests as the main reason for walking away from the League in 2016. Others cited NFL image problems and game delays (24%), too many commercials (20%), and the presidential election (16%).
It isn't clear whether fans are abandoning the NFL altogether or just watching their home team or boycotting "do not watch" teams. But on the street, blowbackfrom fans on social media has been personal, racial, and intense. Some fans posted videos of themselves burning Kaepernick jerseys, and even arch-liberal Supreme Court justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg was quoted as criticizing Kaepernick's Anthem protest as "dumb and disrespectful."
The Squeezing of the NFL
All of this puts the NFL between a rock and a hard place. Even before the 2017 pre-season is over, a Seventh-Day Adventist church in Alabama accused the NFL of racism and announced a pro football "blackout." Two sports bars in Chicago are also boycotting NFL games until Kaepernick gets a job, and the NAACP has threatened a similar boycott.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the TV set, fans are up in arms. In the wake of Cleveland's show of disrespect on August 21, social media lit up. A local VFW post in Strongsville, Ohio (Post #3345) announced that it would no longer show Cleveland Browns games, and Ohio Supreme Court justice Bill O'Neill announced a boycott of the Browns, calling the player protest an attack on the military.
At the end of the day, black players want social change, and fans want football without the anti-America politics. The NFL just wants the problem to go away. It remains to be seen how many teams will join the "disrespect America" protests in 2017, and how many fans will respond with their clickers instead of watching their favorite sport become a political football in America's new culture wars. It also remains to be seen how the NFL will stop hemorrhaging both viewers and advertising revenue.
There's a lot at stake, and it's not just money. One more season of this, and we'll have a better idea of whether professional football in America has crossed the Rubicon. And a better idea of where America's culture wars are heading.
The author, a lifelong Dallas fan, still watches the Cowboys at least for now.
The NFL between a Rock and a Hard Place
By Jeff Goodson
For those watching the latest iteration of America's culture wars, the player protests in the National Football League are an object lesson in cultural insurgency.
The whole thing started last year when San Francisco quarterback Colin Kaepernick sat out the traditional pre-game playing of the National Anthem. Fans, outraged that he wasn't fired outright or at least benched under a "sit for the Anthem, sit for the game" policy, abandoned pro football in droves. Kaepernick was released by San Francisco later in the year, and since then, no other NFL team has picked up his contract.
Now both the NAACP on one side and pro football fans on the other are calling for a boycott of the NFL. This has put the League in a "damned if you, damned if you don't" situation and given it a headache of Solomonic proportions.
A Platform for Social Change
The National Football League is a true meritocracy. Blacks make up 13% of the U.S. population and about 70% of the NFL roster. The NFL fan base, meanwhile, is 83% white. The raison d'être for this latest battlefield in America's culture war is that some black players see the NFL as a platform for social change. Many of their fans, conversely, do not.
Twelve NFL teams have now accommodated players who disrespect America by sitting, kneeling, raising fists, or turning their backs during the National Anthem. By the end of 2016, the list included San Francisco, Denver, Kansas City, New England, and Tampa Bay. This year barely halfway through the pre-season seven additional teams have put themselves on what some fans think of as the "NFL do not watch" list: Cleveland, Seattle, Oakland, Buffalo, Philadelphia, Tennessee, and Los Angeles.
It's no surprise that Colin Kaepernick is still unemployed. Nor that other black players are unifying behind him. Nor that, in an attempt to convince America that the protest isn't racially motivated, white players have been urged to join in. The Cleveland Browns finally succeeded when white wide receiver Seth DeValve provided racial cover by kneeling for the Anthem along with twelve black teammates on August 21.
Black player support for the protests, however, is far from unanimous. Five-time Pro Bowler LeSean McCoy pushed back, saying, "In this country, you can believe what you want, but I think maybe they could choose a better platform to state their beliefs." Famous MVP and Hall-of-Famer Jim Brown also pushed back, admonishing Kaepernick by saying, "I'm an American I don't desecrate my flag and my national anthem." When Brown talked to Cleveland playersafter the protest on August 21, it had some effect: the players stood for the Anthem at the next game but still locked arms in solidarity.
Blowback from the Fans
Kaepernick's disrespect last year caused a large number of football fans to stop watching the NFL. In October 2016, a Seton Hall poll of 841 adults found that overall, NFL ratings were down about 12% year over year, including 24% for Monday night football, 19% for Sunday night football, and 18% for Thursday night football. It also found that 56% of fans blamed the ratings falloff primarilyon the National Anthem protests.
NFL management, meanwhile, stuck their heads in the sand and blamed the ratings debacle on everything from the presidential election to domestic violence, and from baseball to concussions. They blamed everything, that is, except for what they could have learned at any sports bar in America pro football fans were fried at Kaepernick's disrespect for the country.
A more in-depth survey by J.D. Power and Associates in July found that most fans 26% of 9,200 surveyed still cited the Anthem protests as the main reason for walking away from the League in 2016. Others cited NFL image problems and game delays (24%), too many commercials (20%), and the presidential election (16%).
It isn't clear whether fans are abandoning the NFL altogether or just watching their home team or boycotting "do not watch" teams. But on the street, blowbackfrom fans on social media has been personal, racial, and intense. Some fans posted videos of themselves burning Kaepernick jerseys, and even arch-liberal Supreme Court justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg was quoted as criticizing Kaepernick's Anthem protest as "dumb and disrespectful."
The Squeezing of the NFL
All of this puts the NFL between a rock and a hard place. Even before the 2017 pre-season is over, a Seventh-Day Adventist church in Alabama accused the NFL of racism and announced a pro football "blackout." Two sports bars in Chicago are also boycotting NFL games until Kaepernick gets a job, and the NAACP has threatened a similar boycott.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the TV set, fans are up in arms. In the wake of Cleveland's show of disrespect on August 21, social media lit up. A local VFW post in Strongsville, Ohio (Post #3345) announced that it would no longer show Cleveland Browns games, and Ohio Supreme Court justice Bill O'Neill announced a boycott of the Browns, calling the player protest an attack on the military.
At the end of the day, black players want social change, and fans want football without the anti-America politics. The NFL just wants the problem to go away. It remains to be seen how many teams will join the "disrespect America" protests in 2017, and how many fans will respond with their clickers instead of watching their favorite sport become a political football in America's new culture wars. It also remains to be seen how the NFL will stop hemorrhaging both viewers and advertising revenue.
There's a lot at stake, and it's not just money. One more season of this, and we'll have a better idea of whether professional football in America has crossed the Rubicon. And a better idea of where America's culture wars are heading.
The author, a lifelong Dallas fan, still watches the Cowboys at least for now.
The money quote:
"The National Football League is a true meritocracy. Blacks make up 13% of the U.S. population and about 70% of the NFL roster. The NFL fan base, meanwhile, is 83% white. The raison d'être for this latest battlefield in America's culture war is that some black players see the NFL as a platform for social change. Many of their fans, conversely, do not."
NOT FOR LONG
"The National Football League is a true meritocracy. Blacks make up 13% of the U.S. population and about 70% of the NFL roster. The NFL fan base, meanwhile, is 83% white. The raison d'être for this latest battlefield in America's culture war is that some black players see the NFL as a platform for social change. Many of their fans, conversely, do not."
NOT FOR LONG
Congrats on Your Pardon, Bro. :toast:
I wondered: A Pardon...is that for everything a guy has "out there", whatever that may be or is a Pardon just for a specific thing? Case, Conviction whatever or can it cover everything.
Also, is a guy able to accumulate Additional Charges from when a Pardon is announced until that actually gets signed and have those covered as well? Like, in that "Between Time"?
I wondered: A Pardon...is that for everything a guy has "out there", whatever that may be or is a Pardon just for a specific thing? Case, Conviction whatever or can it cover everything.
Also, is a guy able to accumulate Additional Charges from when a Pardon is announced until that actually gets signed and have those covered as well? Like, in that "Between Time"?
I think there's more to it than that. I'm like the only one left out of all my friends and family that still has cable. And my kids watch zero of it even though we have it and I get every channel. They watch shit on the internet like 100%, and all their friends are the same. Things are only going to get worse for TV ratings.
<header style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: medium;">Kaeper-Kicked: Cleveland Cops, EMTs Blow Off Kneelin’ Browns Opening Ceremony
By Matt Philbin | September 1, 2017 9:20 AM EDT
</header>Apparently when you insult Cleveland cops and paramedics, and the symbols they revere, they’re not the types to say “Thank you, sir, may I have another?” So after a dozen Cleveland Browns players refused to stand for the National Anthem in a preseason game, Cleveland’s finest won’t be holding a huge Old Glory on the field at the Browns’ home opener, as they’d previously agreed to.
Those Browns players, in an apparent effort to take the “lovable” out of “lovable losers,” (1 – 15 last season!) were emulating the currently unemployed Colin Kaepernick – he of the pig policeman socks and Fidel Castro fan-boy gear. We all know Kaepernick’s story. The cynical take is that he started sitting for the Anthem to make it politically problematic for the Niners to cut him and his fading talents. The more charitable view is that he’s just a jerk.
After the Browns caught the Kaepernick flu, the Cleveland Patrolmen’s and EMS unions pulled out of the home opener ceremony. EMS union head Daniel Nemeth told Fox 8 Cleveland, “This hit home with me. I am a veteran, an 8-year veteran with the U.S. Marine Corps. So, to disrespect the flag by taking a knee is not something I was going to be a part of.”
Fox 8 reached out to police union president Steve Loomis. “I’m here at a national police convention,” said Loomis, “and soon as they hear that I’m from Cleveland, the first question is ‘What about those stinking Browns?’” (In fairness, that’s a question anybody from Cleveland is apt to hear at any time. Did I mention they were 1 – 15 last season?) “So if the ownership of the Browns and the league are going to allow that type of stuff to happen, and then come to us and say, ‘We want you to help us with the flag,’ that's hypocritical. We’re not gonna participate.”
Well said, Mr. Loomis. And you’re not alone. At this writing, it doesn’t look like Colin Kaeperhick’s going to be participating in games either.
https://www.newsbusters.org/print/206896
By Matt Philbin | September 1, 2017 9:20 AM EDT
</header>Apparently when you insult Cleveland cops and paramedics, and the symbols they revere, they’re not the types to say “Thank you, sir, may I have another?” So after a dozen Cleveland Browns players refused to stand for the National Anthem in a preseason game, Cleveland’s finest won’t be holding a huge Old Glory on the field at the Browns’ home opener, as they’d previously agreed to.
Those Browns players, in an apparent effort to take the “lovable” out of “lovable losers,” (1 – 15 last season!) were emulating the currently unemployed Colin Kaepernick – he of the pig policeman socks and Fidel Castro fan-boy gear. We all know Kaepernick’s story. The cynical take is that he started sitting for the Anthem to make it politically problematic for the Niners to cut him and his fading talents. The more charitable view is that he’s just a jerk.
After the Browns caught the Kaepernick flu, the Cleveland Patrolmen’s and EMS unions pulled out of the home opener ceremony. EMS union head Daniel Nemeth told Fox 8 Cleveland, “This hit home with me. I am a veteran, an 8-year veteran with the U.S. Marine Corps. So, to disrespect the flag by taking a knee is not something I was going to be a part of.”
Fox 8 reached out to police union president Steve Loomis. “I’m here at a national police convention,” said Loomis, “and soon as they hear that I’m from Cleveland, the first question is ‘What about those stinking Browns?’” (In fairness, that’s a question anybody from Cleveland is apt to hear at any time. Did I mention they were 1 – 15 last season?) “So if the ownership of the Browns and the league are going to allow that type of stuff to happen, and then come to us and say, ‘We want you to help us with the flag,’ that's hypocritical. We’re not gonna participate.”
Well said, Mr. Loomis. And you’re not alone. At this writing, it doesn’t look like Colin Kaeperhick’s going to be participating in games either.
https://www.newsbusters.org/print/206896
Black people have been dissing the anthem by remaining seated at events for decades.
Kap just had a larger stage to say fuck you to America and specifically white males and the media further fueled the fire. The idiots paying thousands of dollars for season tickets to watch these games, which funds these asshole players deserve to eat shit.
Kap just had a larger stage to say fuck you to America and specifically white males and the media further fueled the fire. The idiots paying thousands of dollars for season tickets to watch these games, which funds these asshole players deserve to eat shit.
<article class="post-1202163914 post type-post status-publish format-standard has-post-thumbnail hentry category-breaking-news category-ratings category-sports tag-big-brother tag-new-england-patriots tag-nfl tag-sunday-night-football vertical-tv" style="margin: 0px 0px 26px; padding: 0px 10px 0px 0px; border-top: none; border-right: 0px; border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; border-image: initial; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background: transparent; line-height: 1.3em;">NFL Kickoff Scores 21.8M Viewers, Down Double-Digits From 2016 – Update
by Dominic Patten
September 8, 2017 12:55pm
UPDATE, 12:55 PM: The score between the 42-27 winning Kansas City Chiefs and the New England Patriots was long settled on the field at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, MA last night and now the final viewership numbers are in too.
And NBC and the NFL might be feeling a lot like the defending Super Bowl champs AKA not so great.
With 21.8 million NFL fans tuning in, the kickoff of the 2017-2018 season was down 13% for the NFL and NBC from last year’s opener. Not only does that represent a very real smack down for the league and the net coming off a previous season that saw double-digit declines in its early months, but it is the worst an opening game has done in over five-years.
In fact, this is the first time in five years that the kickoff game has fallen below 25 million viewers. And, while the most watched network show in three months, even with streaming and other NBC platforms bumping things up to 22.2 million, the game still fell short of the 25 million mark.
All of which means a lot more is now riding on Sunday Night Football’s NY Giants and Dallas Cowboys match-up on September 10.
Because if those two mega-market teams can’t score ratingswise, the NFL has a real re-think on its agenda.
http://deadline.com/2017/09/patriots-chiefs-nfl-kickoff-game-ratings-down-nbc-1202163914/
Shush()*
</article>
by Dominic Patten
September 8, 2017 12:55pm
UPDATE, 12:55 PM: The score between the 42-27 winning Kansas City Chiefs and the New England Patriots was long settled on the field at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, MA last night and now the final viewership numbers are in too.
And NBC and the NFL might be feeling a lot like the defending Super Bowl champs AKA not so great.
With 21.8 million NFL fans tuning in, the kickoff of the 2017-2018 season was down 13% for the NFL and NBC from last year’s opener. Not only does that represent a very real smack down for the league and the net coming off a previous season that saw double-digit declines in its early months, but it is the worst an opening game has done in over five-years.
In fact, this is the first time in five years that the kickoff game has fallen below 25 million viewers. And, while the most watched network show in three months, even with streaming and other NBC platforms bumping things up to 22.2 million, the game still fell short of the 25 million mark.
All of which means a lot more is now riding on Sunday Night Football’s NY Giants and Dallas Cowboys match-up on September 10.
Because if those two mega-market teams can’t score ratingswise, the NFL has a real re-think on its agenda.
http://deadline.com/2017/09/patriots-chiefs-nfl-kickoff-game-ratings-down-nbc-1202163914/
Shush()*
</article>
over kill too was one of the reason i turn it off.come on guys 1pm eastern kickoff on sunday until what 12 or 1 am, come on guys.and all the night game thur, sunday, it total taken away from the speical monday night games yrs ago.when abc lost the monday night game, it kill it.it use to be we talk in real life and forums all monday about the game.now it just another game......damn what a great fun sport yrs ago it now just a shell of it this is one sport that big money totally kill it
