DawgTalkers.net Forums DawgTalk Pure Football Forum Why Are NFL Ratings Down?

I don't think that has anything to do w/the decline in ratings here in America. In fact, I bet your typical American viewer would like to see fewer games played overseas rather than more.

I agree.

Also, rugby is big in Europe and Australia. They rather watch than than the slow pace of the NFL. It isn't even close, and one of the reasons NFL Europe died. The NFL is soft compared to the hits and pace of the game of rugby.

My apologies Vers. I was going in a different direction. As in I believe the NFL should have had a failsafe if ratings dropped in America. The MLB and NBA were smart and have backup plans.

It's okay. It's been a very good thread thus far. Many good replies.

The NFL in Europe is like soccer here.. They play basketball in China at a reasonably high level, Central and South American amateur baseball is arguably better than ours.. those are natural expansions.

Fitting the NFL into Europe is fitting a round peg into a square hole. Not saying it won't ever get done but it's not a natural fit like the other two you mentioned.

Not to mention, I'm not sure what kind of expansion you are looking for because the product on the field already has a talent dilution problem.. so adding 4 more teams, 6 more teams in Europe and Canada is going to do what exactly? Take the 4 best back-ups in the NFL right now, put them in as starters on 4 new teams and tell me those teams are going to be any good.

The average NFL owner saw the value of his franchise grow by 19% last year... Not sure about you, but I would take that for my investments.... Goodell works for the billionaire owners and they didn't get to be billionaires by being stupid about their money... if there was any consensus at all that Goodell was damaging the game (and by default, their investment) he would be gone in a heartbeat.

If ratings are dropping, maybe when it's time to renegotiate TV deals and the money drops, then the owners will look at Goodell.. but the fact remains, they can fire him anytime they want, which is one of the reasons I don't usually jump into the "Goodell is ruining everything" conversations.. Accountability starts at the top, the owners are the top, Goodell is just the face, the figurehead, the whipping boy... and I'd take that job all day long for the money Goodell makes.

I watch Sunday when Bills and or Browns or on thats it, I have no interest in Sun nite Mon nite Thur nite, I have been wrapped up in the Baseball all year with the Tribe also Cavs around the corner, Plus OSU , that 3 teams who are winners. I already know the Pats vs pick NFC for SB , No Drama

Back to the injuries ..

The packers wil be without there top 3 corners this week .. that means there dime CB will be there #1 ... and they only have 2 healthy corners on there roster ...

This week they will be starting a dude they traded for on Tuesday of this week at RB ..... and there #1 corner will be there dime corner ... as of right now .. they won't have a NICKLE corner cause they don't have 3 healthy cb's on the roster ...

And they have other BIG INJURIES ... no word on Buluga yet . And there missing 3 or 4 other starters ..

INJURIES make this game more a war of attrition than anything else ..

Injuries are huge and I am going to start a thread about them, but do you think they are adversely affecting TV ratings?

The NFL's selling point is the product. If you don't have elite athletes because they are hurt....why not just watch college football?

quote above by BpG:

"The NFL's selling point is the product. If you don't have elite athletes because they are hurt....why not just watch college football?"

Because - unfortunately for us - of product loyalty.

They need to let the them celebrate... I actually love it when they score and have a fun celebration, as a fan I will jump in and do the celebration dance with them. Come on watch the video of the Chinese football league, and tell me the touchdown celebrations are not awesome.

That's some good stuff lol

Personally I've felt for awhile that the games were over saturated with end zone celebrations and sack dances. When I was growing up, not everyone did all this stuff every play. There were only a few guys like Willie "Flipper" Anderson and Ickey Woods that were known for that kind of stuff.

But then, Barry Sanders has always been someone I've admired greatly. One of, if not the most electric players in NFL history, would simply hand the ball off to the ref when he scored. No dance, no shenanigans, no "look at, look at what I did". I've always admired that level of professionalism from someone of that talent level.

I feel you, football is entertainment, and I like to be entertained, so I like the fancy stuff, I am pretty high on the crazy scale so I absolutely will join in with them during a celebration at home, bar, or at the game. I think that craziness will get people excited.

Although I'm not a big fan of rugby, I love to watch Australian Rules Football. The action is fast-paced and virtually non-stop. I usually go outside for a smoke whenever there is a score in the NFL game I'm watching and when I get back, I find I've perhaps only missed a play or two...

if you ever watch an NFL game that goes into overtime, it's a thing of beauty to watch ... there are NO commercials (they already met their quota) and it's straight action. If the entire game was like that, I'd be so much happier

My whole thing Devil is I want the celebration to be proportional to the significance of the play..

You don't celebrate an INT in the 2nd quarter at midfield the same way you do with :20 on the clock in the game winning drive. You don't celebrate a TD when you already have a 3 TD lead the same way you do a TD that puts you ahead with less than a minute to go.. You don't celebrate a first down much at all unless it's the big one that allows you to run out the clock to win the game..

See what I'm saying? I like celebrations but what makes them fun is when they mean something... when they are celebrating something that is fairly insignificant it gets old.... and, like most people, when it's a team celebrating together is a lot more fun to watch than one jackwad trying to make it all about himself.

If so why did it just now start being an issue? I mean injuries have always been a huge part of the NFL...heck I think this is APs 3rd year that ended on IR??

I have another theory as to why the ratings are declining, and that is the lack of new stars being created. Think of this the SB winning QB last year was pushing 40, and the most consistant QB in the NFL is 39 (Brady). Where are the young guys that will replace them? Rogers has not been very good for over a year now, and Newton was incredibly good last year, but has been inconsistent throughout his career (back to the norm this year?).


The lack of big time QBs replacing the older guys I mentioned above (as well as Ben who is getting older) is a problem imo. QB isn't just the most important position on the field, but I would argue it is the most important position off the field as well for marketing purposes.

There just isn't any young QBs who have come in and set the league on fire like we were used to seeing in the 80s, 90s, and 00s.....jmho.

There is probably some truth to that.. the NBA has had a ton of success marketing PLAYERS while the NFL still markets teams. Even MLB, I think, has started having some success marketing players over teams with guys like Harper, Trout, Kershaw, etc... There are a lot of people out there wearing Cavs jerseys and watching Cavs games, who don't give a crap about the Cavs, but they love LeBron..

Then the NFL gets a guy like OBJ who has all of the talent in the world and yea, he acts a fool sometimes, but all the NFL talk is about how to get him to calm down..

I don't mean to compare tennis to football but when McEnroe and Connors retired, tennis had some of the greatest players it had ever had but what ratings it was used to plummeted because nobody had any personality... which brings us back to the point that we all want to see great players but we want to be entertained.

I also think it's harder to market WRs because they are less consistant week in and week out than a great QB can be. OBJ is a perfect example of a guy who will have just a monster game, but then doesn't have an impact on the game at all for the next two weeks.

QBs are so important to the NFL (and again not just on the field) because they touch the ball every play of every game. If they are consistently great they become HUGE stars because of it. I just don't see the new crop of guys (Rogers, Newton, Luck) doing whatthe guys who came before them doing........being consistently elite every year.

Luck very good this year....last year not so much

Newton had a great year last year.....has struggled to be consistent throughout his career.

Rogers is the closest out of this group, and he has been bad for a calendar year now.

I understand that with FA and thus parity (which might be another cause imo) that playing at a high level consistently is a lot tougher now days, but I do think the lack of elite QB play is hurting the product, and the casual fan.

I agree to an extent, brother. However, there are two fundamental differences with rugby and American football. I saw loads of Professional and International rugby games when I lived in London and the school I taught at was a rugby powerhouse. I also had this very discussion over beers MANY times with my English/Welsh/Scottish/Australian/NZ/South African friends who would all give me a bit of stick by saying American football is for _______ (insert word here that begins with "P").

Those two major differences are:

There is no forward pass in rugby. Therefore more often than not the person receiving the ball can see the defensive field of play and avoid blind side hits like we saw with Poyer or, the violent mid-field collisions we see between WR and LB/DB's.

The punt in American football puts a sole player in serious harm's way with 10 players barrelling at full speed to hit him. There is no play in Rugby on that scale. Because of this, while violent, Rugby doesn't have the huge hits we see in American Football that can be lethal.

That said, rugby players are clearly tough as nails.

Looks like a Middle School game.

My roommates cannot stop retching after every hard hit they watch. I don't know why they watch it tbh.

I had some errands to run today, and I heard three different radio stations talking about why NFL ratings are down. One of them was a local station.

I wonder if they read our board for material.

This is interesting:

https://www.yahoo.com/sports/news/fans-w...-172059483.html

Rush Limbaugh was talking about it today ... its HUGE news ...

Diam, after you posted about knowing 15 guys who quit the NFL over the social stuff I had guy at work tell me he has quit ALL sports over the social stuff.

I think for a lot of conservatives it is a bigger deal than I initially thought. This has been a great thread, and has brought out a lot of good topics. I've really enjoyed this.......much better than the usual stuff where no one is learning anything or trying to.

For several reasons NFL ratings are down.

I ain't going to see Josh Gordon catch for any number of yards.

PInk. Sorry, it's stupid. they should limit all pink wearing to ONE WEEK and THAT'S IT! (and if you disagree, you are pushing a social agenda too far)

Throw back uniforms. Each team should have two uniforms and Nike can go pound sand, get their noses out of the tent!

The 33 yard extra point. It's STUPID, and Bill Belichic ain't the emporer, nobody should have listened to him.
Seen any bungled snap extra points that ended up a 2 point conversion this year, probably not, because now the kicker would have to throw a 20yard pass.

And they can't even fake a kick for 2 points because they have to declare now. it's stupid.

The overtime rules. The old version was fine, sudden death, Must watch , and you know what, if you didn't like it, then win the game in regulation (60 minutes of gameplay, you had plenty of chances)

I think there is a LACK OF URGENCY TO WIN IN REGULATION THAT I'VE SEEN MULTIPLE TIMES BECAUSE OVERTIME IS TOO " FAIR TO BOTH SIDES" ANYMORE, it was better the old way.

Somewhere, years ago, they let players "catch" a ball by getting their hands under it, when it's a ground level.
Sorry, but they should amend this, it should be called a "trap" you should have to have your hands " off the ground" when you get them under the ball, there should have to be space between those players hands and the ground, otherwise it's not a catch.
And I think this would eliminate a lot of the non catches where they fall on top of the ball headed to the ground and roll over on top of it and put it on their chest and pretend they actually caught it.

changing rules in the last 2 minutes of a game. time clock rules as to whether a clock stops when a player gets out of bounds and whether it's in the last 2 minutes? That's stupid and difficult to understand.

The Cleveland Browns, can't beat anybody, and can't keep the nucleus of their team together in any way, from top to bottom, owner to waterboy.
If the Cleveland Browns were contenders,... DUH!!! ratings for the whole NFL would be up. Just look at the history.

There is no matchup I want to see. period.
Cant' think of any two teams that I say, wow, can you imagine if those two teams played vs each other?

I watched, (just as something different) a game at 9am from London. It was awful. the only first downs came from pass interference penalties. and the Euopean crowd does not understand enough to appredciate defense.

Throw back uniforms, ? I see a highlight, ? is that the packers, steelers, rams or chargers? ? why the throwback uniforms, there is just no need.
They look like from the 1940's anyways.

ONe problem, really should be addressed, is announcers with an agenda. Oh you can certainly tell, with the way they excite their voice, when the perceived favorite team does something little and no consequence, and they try to trump up the importance of it.

ESPN. Espn had a good 15-20 years but now I think they are, well , if they aren't doing more harm than good, it's a close tie.

I don't like the Tennessee Titans or Houston Texans, and I can't tell them apart, and don't try to force me to watch them.
The NFL was better, with only 28 teams.

10 win teams that don't make the playoffs, when 8 or 9 win teams DO make the playoffs, and

When a 10 win team has a road playoff game at a team with 8-9 or fewer wins because of their division. That's not something I want to watch either.
AND YOU KNOW WHAT! It probably makes the next round of the playoffs less competitive.

deflate gate, suspensions, strikes/work stopages, drug tests, social issues, CTE,

Anytime the biggest story of your sport for a particular period of time, (week, month, year,) is something that happens OFF THE FIELD, then you DESERVE for your ratings to be down.

Commissioner, (Former NFL commissioners, perhaps knew how to market the teams to the city, the teams to the identity, the identity to the matchup, the matchup to the rivalry,

Current commissioner tries to "DICTATE" what we're supposed to see, or want to see?
Move the pro bowl out of Hawaii. Move the draft to Chicago ( <<< the only one that may be a good idea) Force a team into Los Angelas
Are you happy they finaly got into Los Angelas? I couldn't give a hoot, but see
Commissioner is a show of what the owners want, not what the viewing public wants.

How about the oversaturation of broadcasting Pre season games on local TV.
I can see the Browns almost more on the pre season broadcast than on the regular season broadcast.

Free agency, is ruining football, well, The Browns haven't been very successful since free agency, and even other teams, If I can't match a star player to the team they play for, then it takes away from the watch of the game.

There might be too many times that they fire coaches, (all throughout the NFL), the Dolphins have changed more than once a year recently, I think,
and this changeover may be diluting the overall readiness of teams to play good football.

I'm quite certain, that there are too many specialized games, Thursday night, Monday night, sunday night, and things might be better if more were done for the Sunday 1 pm games.

ONe thing, I'm tired of watching, is " automatic 1st down penalties, that give a team playing badly, too poorly to get a score, another 3 options from inside the 5 yard line,
(hey here's a thought, just once in a while, admit that the team blew it, blew the opportunity!) No we can't have that, we must force the scoreing of the points
THAT'S STUPID and when I see, it! I don't want to see any more of that game, either outcome.

NObody gets points for downing the ball on the 0ne yard line, or inside the 5 after they punt. But the broadcasters act like they do.

Can you name 6 players on the Cleveland Browns who I should root for that I can be assured will be on the team this time next year?
Maybe, but I bet they're rookies.
(careers are too short)

It's still close to 80 degrees in Ohio. Maybe I'll step outside, instead of watch Geico!! interrupted by football
starting 20 years ago, I almost always watch " football and something else"
Football, when it's on, and another show, during the commercial breaks" and I don't miss either show

because that's how many commercials there are.

Peyton Manning, is a great football player, but ANNOYING to listen too talk, or watch on television, and the fact that he spent about the last 5-7 years making papa johns commercials, Nationwide commercials, and especially overannunciating "Omaha" may have been just SO annoying, that it drove hundreds of thousands of viewers away altogether.

The Chief's and Vikings, are not a part of the east coast elite, and thus, if they have been a part of a good matchup I'd like to see, ... it probably ain't on , in favor of the Eagles, Patriots, Giants, Jets, or Redskins. which matchup might not be worth seeing anyways.

(how many qb's have the Jets had?) the fact that NO team, almost none of them can stick with a quarterback 4 years plus, means, not only

NOt only do I not know who my team is going to put up to try to beat the other guy,

But I don't even know who the "other guy" is that has to be beat down!

Which is a big part in the statement, " there is no matchup I want to see, feel I need to see."

By the time I do place a player with a team is about the time he moves on.

You emptied the chamber with that post, I must say.

I want to add one correction. I believe there were 19 accepted penalties in the game and that there were actually 23 called.

I gave mcdonaugh credit ... he might hear some flak, but he's correct

Dolphins, Jets, Chiefs, Chargers, Ravens, Bengals, Browns, Titans, Jaguars, Colts, Giants, Rams, Cardinals, 49ers, Lions, Bears, Buccaneers, Saints, and Panthers.

That's a lot of mediocre at best and garbage teams in the league.

I couldn't agree more. Over the last decade it seems the bar for what kind of play deserves a celebration spectacle has continually lowered. We LBs and D lineman tackle the RB for a 2yrd loss and now the guy is marching, strutting, and flexing.

Kinda like they are posing in the shower room mirror after their Planet Fitness workout.


Lurker- Now, I have to admit I'd like to see a little more WWE action on a TD celebration. Something along the lines of Macho Man Randy Savage off the top turn buckle dropping that elbow on the football.

More COWBELL.

As I read it, I pictured an old, paranoid blind man unloading 8 rounds of buckshot in a clumsy 360 degree spin at 4am because two raccoons were having relations under his porch.

Last decade?? This has been pretty much the norm since Marc Gastineau in the 80's. Nothing new here.

Enough personal attacks. Leave Arch out of this.

I remember, years ago, after a play there was this unpiling of humanity from a big pile as guys got up slowly.. Now it's a freakin' sprint. The second the play is over (and sometimes BEFORE its officially over) players are fighting to get up as fast as they can so they can do "their move" for the camera.

And what is this thing with making a tackle and then running 20 yards up field gesturing to the crowd? What is that about?


I've never done that... as far as you know.


LOL, that would be awesome. I would like to see fewer celebrations but when there is something to celebrate, give them some room

I'm not watching much NFL this year mostly because my Browns are, well shall we say they are not very competitive. That's the way it is for me. I'd rather play my guitars or be shooting something, or even washing the dishes this year.

As for the rest of the NFL? The games have become far too dependent on the officials for their outcome. I can recall a time when blown calls weren't the norm. Now we have all these ticky tacky rules being enforced on top of just plain bone headed calls. Some times I'd swear they're trying to make the games more "fair" by adjusting the officiating. If I want to watch that I'll just go to a high school game on Friday night. At least I get paid to go to those.

Add in the fact that I'm extremely tired of hearing about players and their drama. I don't care about their domestic violence case, their DUI, drug abuse, political convictions, contract negotiations, product endorsements, murder trials, or any of the rest of it. I just want them to shut up and play football the way Paul Brown intended.

Blown calls have always been the norm.. but the more strict you make the rules, the harder it is to enforce them correctly.

The advent of the HD cameras and TVs, the fact that there are now 4 times more cameras on a game than their used to be and you can see every play from 10 angles with close ups and super HD slo-mo.. there is no way officials are going to look good. Just not going to happen.


Back in the day, you went up for a pass, you came down juggling the ball, you finally got control of it as you hit the ground and the ref made the signal, either "catch" or "no catch".. and you moved on... boo if you want to, cheer if you want to, the coach would come out in a rage and scream at the ref for a minute.... whatever, but the game moved on. Now the coach doesn't come out screaming, he listens into his headset and turns to watch the jumbotron.. BORING!!!! This whole notion of "fairness" that just because we have the technology to microdisect things to the gnats ass to try to get it right because that is more "fair" is a big part of the problem.. Football, sports in general, was more fun to watch when it was more about the human element than the technology.