For me, the flow of the game just sucks. There are so many stoppages in play and commercials that it makes watching, either at home or a bar, unbearable. If I have a game on, I'm doing housework and listening in the background. If it weren't for fantasy, I wouldn't have any idea who is performing well (and I get that information from reading online, not watching games). Every single play is at risk of being penalized and even something as mundane as the two-minute warning kills momentum in any half. Plus the constant talking head commentary on a league where very little happens on field drives it all home.
But outside of Brady, all of their teams suck this season, minus the Steelers but they just lost 2 in a row and looks like Big Ben is out. This is a big part of it IMO, no one wants to watch a 1-5 Panthers or a 2-4 Colts game. This is like the Cavs or Warriors sucking it up this NBA season, ratings would take a hit.
I have to much stuff to watch on my DVR, Netflix and ON DEMAND to even care about Thursday, Sunday or Monday night football any longer. I just check my fantasy scores on my phone. Basically the same on Sundays and for all of the reasons posted in this thread. If home, I will not watch a full game, I'm watching Red Zone and that's it. No commercials, no long timeouts, just constant coverage of live plays. I wonder how much a part of Redzone has to do with ratings? I doubt a ton of people watch it, but everyone I know, it's the only thing they watch and all thanks to fantasy football.
Even though its been like this for a while, it's still unbearable to go through a commercial break after a PAT and then another one right after a kickoff. You're talking about 5+ minutes of commercials sandwiching 0-6 seconds of playing time.
Exactly, it's an awful experience at home. I can't imagine how bad it must be in the stadium where you can't easily get up, refill a drink, do something else, etc. The NFL is the only live league I couldn't be paid to attend in person. I don't say this to start a flame war, but I think this is one spot where watching soccer is getting better at drawing a contrast with football. If I'm watching soccer, I know exactly how long the game will last and I can plan other stuff into my day. There are no breaks other than halftime and, at least for me, that forces me to pay more attention to the game. With the NFL, it's basically a commitment to sitting through 3+ hours of commercials and play stoppages.
Anyone hear Gruden last night say the game was just unwatchable due to all of the flags and stoppages of play? Yeah, that tells ya something.
Referee ineptitude, commercials sucking the soul out of everything in this country, and fantasy football have all contributed equally to the demise of NFL viewership. I can't even blame the talking heads because between all the stoppages from penalties and commercials, how else are they going to fill the time? Basically it's gotten to a point where if it's not the Texans or the Aggies, I'm not watching.
I would say because I don't need to watch games to see if one player is doing well. I'm able to just refresh my phone and see points increase before reading about performance later. For instance, I haven't watched a single minute of Seattle this year, but I'm glad that I picked up Jimmy Graham on waivers a few weeks ago and have read enough on FantasyPros and Reddit to keep starting him.
Oddly enough I've gotten used to the commercials to where I know when I can go do other stuff and then come back as the game is on or check twitter etc. I know what you mean though, I went to a Texans game last season and had the hardest time paying attention with all the stoppage.
No, I was trying to say that I don't need to watch a game to be invested in the performance of my fantasy team. I'm not about to sit through 3.5 hours of Seahawks-Rams just to see a guy maybe catch five passes. Fantasy is fun in the aggregate when you can see the gamecast of all of your players, but it at least doesn't incentivize me to watch a game I otherwise wouldn't care about. I guess I've never been a football fanatic because I will rarely watch a full game that doesn't involve the Texans (and that's been really hard this year).
Think he's basically saying that FFB apps make watching the games a little less needed. I would tend to agree with that although I think fantasy football in general greatly increased and has helped sustain the popularity of the NFL for a long time now. Even right now, if it's not the Texans, I'm really only watching another game if I have someone starting in it. Last night is good example, don't have any Cards or Jets on the roster so no way in hell am I sitting through 3+ hours to watch it. Even if I did, there is a good chance I'd be watching something else and just checking the app for updates.
There's been more articles on the ratings going down this year than any other year I can remember. You can equate that to a number of different factors. At the end of the day though, there's been a lot of bad football played thus far. Some of it is almost unwatchable. This probably is the worst season I've watched through 6 weeks.
Not in terms of numbers of viewers, but in the WAY people view the games. Now, there's absolutely no interest in a game if you don't have people playing in it. Not only that, but even if you do, you're probably only tuning in when your player has a potential to score you points. The outcome of the game itself, as well as the quality of play, has absolutely no meaning anymore. With The Red Zone Channel now, watching a full game is becoming less and less necessary.
It's so boring that people who have real money on the games can't bear to watch it. That Cards-Jets game was atrocious. There was a penalty almost every other play. A commercial after an extra point, a kickoff, or a punt is the dumbest thing ever. Sick of these phantom penalties in the secondary and protecting the QB on weak late hits. Worst is them scheduling these primetime games with trash/boring teams - the NFL knows their product sucks and I'm convinced they're trolling their audience.
For me, it's gotten to the point where RedZone is the only way to watch, and I have a hard time even supporting the NFL that way. The league should be thankful for fantasy sports, I think that's the only reason people put up with their bs. First, most of the games are **** quality. Just unwatchable. Not only is it a poor product from a competitive standpoint, but the onslaught of commercials is terrible. I saw a stat that the ball is in play in MLB on average for 3 minutes a game, with games around 2:45. NFL has the ball in play around 7 minutes with similar gametime. Their commercial schedule needs to reflect this reality. Plus, they've managed to take emotion out of beautiful moments, both for the players and the fans. Second, the league is mind-numbing on so many levels. Fining players for the slightest individualistic takes is nauseating. Deangelo Williams loses his mother to breast cancer and wears a pink sleeve in her honor? Fine. Frank Gore wears socks too low? Fine. Polumalu takes a hard hit, and then uses the team's doctor's phone on sidelines to tell his wife and kids that he's okay? Fine. The only thing more absurd than the fines is that people will support this league no matter what they do. NFL has gotten way too greedy, and I hope it finally catches up with them. Consider this the next time you want to tune into an NFL game: For every $100 in pink merchandise sold, $11.25 goes to the American Cancer Society (ACS) and the NFL keeps the rest. (Source, good read: http://www.businessinsider.com/smal...andise-goes-to-breast-cancer-research-2013-10) I also think their failure to fully guarantee contracts (unlike MLB, NBA) is comical given 1) the amount of risks these players avail themselves to for the benefit of the NFL, and 2) that the NFL makes more more than than EVERY NBA and MLB franchise COMBINED. (source: http://www.businessinsider.com/nfl-teams-value-2014-8). People who really don't think the NFL can afford to guarantee contracts and provide adequate health care programs are sadly oblivious. Side-note/ vent session: The whole "NFL players make millions, so they aren't underpaid" argument is weak. Some people can't wrap their minds around the notion that a millionare athlete is "underpaid", but that bias ignores the market realities of professional sports in the United States. First, the vast majority of NFL players don't make *that* much. With the rookie-payscale, the salary cap, and the fact that the average career lasts 53 games (3.3 seasons), most players don't take home nearly what fans think they do. Second, even the NFL's largest stars are vastly underpaid. JJ Watt--the face of the NFL (read: the most profitable league in the world) makes 100MM. Only half is guaranteed. Half! JJ Watt's contract is closer to what Ben Zobrist, Scott Kazmir, and Alex Gordon made (read: WHO?) Meanwhile, Kyle Seager makes 100MM, Justin Upton 132MM, Cueto 130MM, Greinke 206MM, Price 217MM, Hayward 184MM. And that was just in 1 offseason. All fully guaranteed. And the NBA is relatively synonymous despite a salary cap. The fact that the NFL underpays, then doesn't guarantee, then provides shoddy post-career care--given the fatal and life-altering risks a game as violent as the football requires--is borderline criminal. It is at least inhumane, given the fact that the owners reap all the benefit despite literally zero risk. Football players are pawns to these owners. They are purchased, used, and figuratively disposed of for dirt. Yet no one blinks an eye.
There were a couple of times in the Titans-Browns game they didn't even show the replay to determine who recovered the fumble, they just cut straight to commercial and said we'll find out the answer when we come back. Seriously! Are you serious. Show me what happened you morons. It's stuff like that which has become obvious to the viewer. Too many damn commercial breaks and not enough football. It was never like that before.
NFL teams have many more players than MLB or NBA teams so money is more distributed, but their revenue share is pretty good. NFL players get 48.5% of revenue; NBA players get 49-50%. As of a few years ago, MLB players actually get much less - closer to 40% (http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/the-mlbpa-has-a-problem/). Guarantees are also irrelevant since there is a hard salary cap. If a player gets cut, the team just spends that money on someone else. If you had guarantees, it would change the distribution of the money between players, but it wouldn't make any more money in total for the players. If the union really cared, that would be an issue they'd fight back on, but they are primarily interested in maximizing the total share of the pie they get. Lack of guarantees just means you have relatively less dead money in overpaid players in the NFL (and on the flipside, more holdouts from underpaid players). Also worth noting that while the intensity is super-high, NFL players actually *do* much less than their NBA counterparts. Whereas an NBA game involves 48 minutes of actual on-court activity, the vast majority of a 60-minute NFL game is spent huddling between plays. The total amount of time the ball is in play is approximately 12 minutes, and players only play one half of the game (offense or defense). And while NBA players don't play the whole 48 minutes, most NFL players don't play every snap either (outside of QBs). In addition, they play 16 games instead of 82. So an NFL QB (playing every snap) would play approximately 16 games x 6 minutes of action = 96 minutes of actual athletic activity during a season. An NBA player that plays just 30 minutes a game would play 2460 active minutes, or 27 times as much time over the course of a season. (Obviously this does not include practice time, etc).
