I would agree. The vibes are way different than they were even about 5 years ago. I think there’s a few reasons.
QB play is down right now. You don’t really have the 10-15 rock solid starters that have been holding it down for their franchise for a decade that we had for years in Brady, Big Ben, Palmer, Romo, Eli, Peyton, Brees, Ryan, Rodgers, Rivers, Prime Russel Wilson, Prime Andrew Luck etc.
Pad rules at practice have led to a decline in the quality of offensive line play. It’s impossible to get real reps at that position as a unit in T shirts and shorts.
All of the officiating changes have also resulted in a pretty watered down and disjointed game experience with all of the flags flying. When I was in Ireland I went to a few Gaelic football games and played a few pickup games with locals myself. The rules were simple, and flexible. It’s rare for a penalty to occur and it is usually reserved for an egregious violation. They said Gaelic football is not focused on the rules, but retaining the core characteristics of the game. The NFL could learn something here.
Additionally, I understand it’s a business, but the over commercialization has gotten pretty out of control too. If you watch any weekday sports shows, I would estimate at least 33% of the discussion is focused around lines, over unders for yards, TDs, etc. Almost nobody I know, even people that were previously die hards for a franchise, really watch a favorite “team” anymore. Everything is about what ridiculous 7 leg parlay they built that week. Games being moved to a number of different streaming services just to gauge the consumer even harder is also taking a toll.
As the social media generation has come of age, player egos also seem to have generally ballooned to levels that wouldn’t have been possible previously. The social media atmosphere surrounding the NFL is corny.
The whole thing has less substance than it used to. That’s fine, in the end it’s just entertainment, but in my opinion it’s just worse.
