So how boring is the NFL now?

Were you watching Rothlesberger prior to his injury? He was connecting on an extreme amount of long-balls this year.

Mariota is missing wide open receivers on a regular basis... not surprising that he's not connecting on more low percentage throws as well.

There's a pretty good chance that neither Mariota nor Bortles will amount to much of anything despite their high draft pick status.

 

The game was solid for about 3 quarters. The 4th quarter and OT is where it got really sloppy and as a result netted in a tie. For such a great game, it went downhill pretty fast with all the mistakes. You can credit the defense on both sides, but there were definitely some odd things going on in this game. Overall though it left a bad mark on an already struggling NFL season.

 

To me, the fact that so many people are talking about the ratings being down, how the quality of play isn't great, etc. etc. etc. is simply just continuing to provide the constant attention/coverage that the NFL continues to demand.

Next Sunday's game between the Cowboys and Eagles will completely destroy the World Series ratings, despite the Cubs being involved.

At some point, there was going to be regression in the interest level... it was steadily climbing for the last decade+ in large part thanks to fantasy football, then daily fantasy... and as the bubble has effectively burst in those aspects, so has the overall NFL interest. But it is still (by far) the most popular pro sport out there.

 

I don't think there's any question it's the most popular sport and likely always will be. But I do think the NFL did get a bit greedy. The Ringer Article that talks about why the NFL ratings are down bring up a good point about how there's so much coverage and that's brought the value of the game down a little bit. Mark Cuban had eluded to this a few years ago when he brought up that the NFL would decline drastically because of their TV deal and greed. While it's probably not going to drastically decline, I do think we're seeing some of that. Of course other things such as the election are probably largely contributing to the down ratings as well.

I do think the play overall though has not helped at all. This is to me the worst season I've watched personally. It's mostly due to bad football being played. We have injuries every year, but this year it seems to be just stupid plays on both sides of the ball by many teams. Yesterday's 4th & OT were prime examples. There were flags probably every 2-3 plays it felt like. On top of that you have two kickers that miss two gimmie kicks to win a football game. Sure it does add to the conversation, but I think it also draws the casual fan away seeing bad football because it's less enjoyable.

Ringer Article: https://theringer.com/nfl-tv-ratings-crisis-81fd9dbd53a#.tb4ezshx7

 

My viewing interest in football declined years ago. Some reasons:

-- Brain Injury Awareness / CTE. I bash "millenials" for being all SOFT, sensitive, and social justicing. But have to admit I just couldnt watch football the same way after realizing the devastation and ailments it can put on players. Ignorance was bliss. I do watch Texans games still, though not with the dedication like before.

-- Rules, Policies, Style of Play Changes
Ironically, rules to protect players allowing more "touch football" has taken away a lot of the smash-mouth gridiron identity and admitted draw of gratuitous violence. While knowing its for the best, it still lessened the draw

But then even MORE, its still the "No Fun League" GREED overreaching in ADDITION to that, making things corporatized and generic. Should just let the game and mystique speak for itself. Soccer is corporate sponsored like crazy but there's still a pureness in its presentation

-- Fantasy Football
Fantasy football DOES bring MORE attention to the game. When I played I ABSOLUTELY watched parts of OTHER games to see what my FF players were doing.

For ME though, FF giveth AND it taketh. After a while I felt it made my interest SYNTHETIC and self-serving where it was only about FF points and NOT about the game, not about TEAMS and strategy. Instead of appreciating talent, it was "how many targets/touches does ___ get".

-- QB play, player age, prestige and all that doesnt concern me much. 27-29 teams generally do not have elite qb's, but that didnt stop people from watching. The complexion of the game overall has changed

 

I don't want this thread to be a catch-all for all NFL grievances, but i couldn't help noticing the nonsense after Derek Newton's injury.

Apparently players aren't allowed to be on the field to support their fallen teammate. What kind of BS rule is that? Was there some "safety" issue that no one knew about?

 

I wonder if NBA players union realizes that and decided yeah lets GO AHEAD & get this CBA sweet deal EXTENDED out now lol.

 

The word for that is arrogance. They figured they could force-feed the public a putrid product because "HUR DUR FOOTBALL", but it doesn't work like that. Sure, the stadiums still sell out, but nowadays, attendance and concessions are a small piece of the pie compared to TV and advertising revenues.

 

It's a strange year for myself. I just don't find myself all that excited for live sports like I used to....maybe I'm growing out of it, with too many real things to worry/ deal with in life?

Football isn't as much fun to watch anymore, I had very little enthusiasm to watch the Rockets opener last night....I did watch it, and was amazed at all the dunks and alley-oops early on....then of course, they lost to the Lakers.

It just doesn't seem like it's worth the wasted 3hrs with so many damn stoppages and ads. I know I'll still watch as much as I can, but just not nearly as entertaining as it used to be for me....

Maybe it just stems to the fact that the Texans are a very boring team right now, even in their wins they look bad offensively.

 

It's up to the Titans and Jaguars to save the league tonight. Better be a shootout or the NFL is going to take some more heat.

 

So many commercials and so little action. I DVR the games I watch and play them with my finger on the fast forward button most of the time.

 

It's a combination of saturation, too many commercials, too many bad teams, and the big one: the west coast offense, which pretty much every team runs a version of it. It's the most boring offense known to man.

 

I watch the games, except the texans, on alternative sites via the computer machine. I wonder how many around the country do that.

 

Too many commercial breaks, not enough exciting storylines, the election, way too many penalties, and strict rules take the fun out of the experience.

 

The last two Sunday afternoons I've tuned out most of the late game and watched Netflix instead.

Never ever done that before.

 

The quality of play has steadily improved as the season has gone on. There were actually 4-5 decent games today, including the London one (always a shocker).

I wonder how much the restricted OTA's, training camp rules (along with paltry pre-season reps) has had an effect on how cohesive teams are at the start of the season.

 

Looks like you were wrong.

 

Indeed.

Guess there's more Cubs fans out there than Cowboys fans.