When it comes to changing the entertainment interests of a large number of people, "movements" just don't work. Things like billboard campaigns and organized calls for people to "don't go to events" or "don't watch it on TV" have very little short term effects and almost no long term effects against whatever the target is.
The problem is that, while important, most so-called issues are just not deal breakers for most people, especially not to the loyal fans. How many Get-Rid-Of-____ posts did we see on CZ back in the 2000's? Three 5-11 years in a row .. for the COWBOYS!?!? Yet, the NFL and Dallas Cowboys just kept getting more popular and more valuable. Movements, petitions, promotions, campaigns, etc. just don't have any long term effects like people think or hope they do.
So, what does push long time fans away from something they adore? A decline in entertainment or enjoyment value more than anything, but that is rarely a quick process. That is when bad decisions lead to a decline in quality over time, with a large part of it going unnoticed early on except by a few "Wolf! cryers" until one day it just hits you, "What happened to this?"
There is one thing of course that will push long time fans away more quickly, and that is when decisions are made that either greatly change or negatively affect the product/service/entertainment or that deeply offend or upset the fans. For example, when Jerry fired Landry, especially the way he did it, it drove a lot of older fans away from the team who have never returned. Younger fans were upset as well, but the Super Bowl wins a few years later helped bring a lot them back into the fold.
In a more current example, Cowboys fans are losing interest in the NFL because of a perceived bias against the team over the last few years, culminated by the unjustified suspension of Ezekiel Elliott. While that in itself is not enough to drive Cowboys fans away from the team itself, many Cowboys fans' views of the NFL are way more negative and tainted these days. For example, I do not watch NFL games unless the Cowboys are playing, where I used to watch NFL games almost every time they were on.
The world of entertainment is changing. People are moving away from scheduled-based TV and moving more toward on-demand entertainment. That last big hold-out for scheduled-based entertainment has been sporting events, with the NFL dominating that market for the last few decades. However, with the change in how people view and want entertainment combined with all of the missteps,. mistakes and decisions the NFL has been making in recent years along with a noticeable decrease in quality of the NFL as a whole, are starting to impact the NFL's long time untouchable popularity.
For example, ten years ago, if a network cancelled your favorite TV show, you might have been upset, but you looked for and eventually found a replacement for it. Now, because most people are wanting more control and freedom in their lives, people are moving away from scheduled TV shows and TV in general. So, when a network cancels a show you like, you get upset, but then you soon realize that's another 30-60 minutes of your life each week that's no longer tied up with something usually 13-24 weeks out of the year.
For me, the NFL is the same way. In the past, my Sundays, Monday nights and Thursday nights were usually tied up with watching NFL games, either directly or casually while doing something else. Now, I only have one game a week I watch and in many cases, I am doing something else while the game is on, which I never did in the past while watching Cowboys games. Watching Cowboys games used to be a mental break for me from the rest of my busy schedule. I watched Cowboys games, and even the commercials, from start to finish. Now, I find myself sometimes wondering things like, "How did they get the ball back so quickly?" or "How did they get up/down by 3?"
People's entertainment interests have been changing for a while. Unlike many forms of entertainment, the NFL seemed to be shielded (pun intended) from those changes, but cracks have been appearing the last few years, and it seems like this year, the cracks are about to be replaced by gaping holes as fans and viewers leave.
The decline of the NFL has already started and given how long the process has been in motion, I cannot see any way it recovers. At best, the NFL needs to start making better decisions and providing teams with a better way to field more competitive teams if they want to hold on to what they still have.
