Well, i consider myself a hard-core fan since about 1980. So much so that i have a somewhat difficult time watching the games around friends and family
But these last few years have been tough. My clock might be near midnight too, and here are my reasons:
1. It seems the Cowboys are mired in mediocrity. I've seen teams in the league before like this, and they all have a hard time getting out of it. The Cowboys have now been this way for about 15 - 16 years or so.
2. the league doesn't know who it wants to please. The current political climate isn't about whether a certain race is allowed to play or not like it was decades ago; it's about political ideologies that the country is split basically 50/50 on, it seems. I'd like the NFL to stay out of politics altogether, but it seems that some folks tie the military flyovers and the anthem to one side of the political spectrum exclusively. I think they can leave those two things that honor our military heroes in the game and ALSO leave all other opinions out of the game. If they can't, then it makes watching games abrasive to me (and maybe not to others, for sure - but it's my opinion and i haven't seen any argument close to changing it)
3. Concussions are serious, and there MIGHT NOT be a way to stop them without turning this thing into flag football. Watching these guys hit each other hard has always been enjoyable to me, and at the same time i don't want anyone permanently damaged either. I'm truly saddened by the older players suffering CTE, especially the ones that weren't making megabucks back in the day. But at the same time, this is a physical sport and they're paid INCREDIBLY well to do it. There are other professions that are safer, if they don't want to take the risk of brain damage. But the effort to quell this malady might just take the whole league down all by itself.
4. Pass interference and holding along the line of scrimmage have long been pet peeves of mine (and for most other fans, i presume). They've instituted replay to help with pass interference this year, but i've now watched 2 straight Thursday night games (non-Dallas games) that the refs made pass interference NON-CALLS on that were mysterious and the only beneficiaries seemed to be point-spread differentials in gambling circles. Replay WAS USED in both of them and the call on the field was UPHELD in both of them. We're getting into WWE wrestling rules with the ref stuff here, but it's way more sinister because it involves major money. You could see a bad call here or there, but it's REALLY HAPPENING in EVERY GAME. There's enough tech in place right now to ensure that bad calls on the field don't define the outcomes of games, but they still don't work. And every logical person in the world would think they should work. There's no reason for these things to be happening NOW, in such large numbers. The only difference between today's game and the game 25 years ago, really, is how much money is involved. The players are a little bigger and faster probably, but the money is the real difference. And massive amounts of cash have a way of corrupting just about any manmade venture.
5. The salary cap is broken. The league and players all agreed to this format, but it's unsustainable. At some point, the bubble will burst on these salaries (or folks will keep paying more every year they go to a game, and last i checked the regular working man's salaries ARE NOT keeping up with inflation). I don't have an answer for this salary cap thing. All i know is that it does two things: it allows the teams with less money to get in the game, and it allows teams to use "creative accounting" to circumvent it (whether legal or not, depending apparently on who you know in the league office). I don't think either activity is good for the fans. If we didn't have as many poor teams in the league, perhaps we'd have a better product on the field. The league doesn't even have enough starting-caliber QB's to spread among the current 32 teams. And if your team doesn't at least have a top QB, they're not doing anything.
Look, i've always loved my Dallas Cowboys and i always will. But the variables in the league now aren't what they used to be. In the 70's, you could point to one play in a Super Bowl between Dallas and the Steelers that MIGHT have determined the outcome of that game (Lynn Swann pass interference). I can't recall any during the 80's that determined a championship game, although i will confess i don't follow the AFC as much as the NFC. In the 90's, I can recall the 49ers winning Super Bowl 29 and ILLEGALLY circumventing the salary cap to do it (and i believe they got punished for it), but that's all i can recall that was majorly controversial during the 90's. Tom Brady had his "tuck rule" back in 2001 (and the subsequent rumored videotaping of the Rams practice). But in the last 10 years, all sorts of crazy stuff has happened involving championship games / Super Bowls. Just off the top of my head I can recall several bad calls going the Steelers way in their win over Arizona, the Saints being the crazy Cinderella story after Hurricane Katrina, the Falcons throwing away one of the biggest leads in postseason history (halfway through the 3rd quarter, no less!), and the Rams, newly to Los Angeles, being HUGE beneficiaries of a blow PI call to make the Super Bowl. I suppose the last 10 years could be chalked up to parody in the league due to the cap (and incidentally making Super Bowls much closer contests), but there are just too many coincidences that help to either sell seats in big markets or make good stories for me to swallow. Sorry for the rambling, but it feels good to type it!