I thought long and hard before I responded to this and I want to be very clear that in this thread I am not attempting to argue the merits of the anthem protests or of those who are protesting the NFL. I am merely providing an observation that differs from some of those that have been posted to this thread. I will ignore any and all responses to my post that attempt to argue the merits of either side.
The anthem issue is meaningless to the ratings and is just brought up by fans who don't agree with the issue
I heard on the radio this morning that NFL ratings are down about 12% across the board and I find it hard to believe that the anthem protests doesn't play some sort of role in those numbers. I'm sure there is a multitude of contributing factors, it's an election year and we have a couple of extremely polarizing candidates, the Cubs and Indians in the world series is an interesting storyline, there is no more Manning vs Brady, but in my little slice of the there are a lot of people who are simply choosing not to watch games because of the anthem issue.
I have numerous friends and relatives who are either active military or former military and the vast majority of those in my circle are protesting the NFL this year. It's a silent protest, meaning they are not taking to social media , burning things, or trying to draw attention to themselves in any way. They are just not watching/following NFL on TV, radio, internet or news. I'd say somewhere in the neighborhood of 65 percent of my friends and family are boycotting the NFL. If I extend this to co-workers then I'd say that number probably drops to 25%. I'm not trying to imply that this is representative of the of all of America because I know it's not, but from where I sit it's hardly insignificant.
The fans IMPACTED by the anthem...are not "true" football fans.
I don't know what your definition of "true" fans is so I won't dispute that. What I do know is that the people I'm referring to above are fans of football and prior to the protests were watching games on tv, attending games in person and buying merchandise.
That's interesting. I was wondering if anyone actually knew people who'd stopped watching, and what their reasons were.
Absolutely. I think the most encompassing explanation that I've heard from any of them is that they feel that while Kaepernick and others do have a right to use their platform to bring attention to a cause, they are doing so in a manner that they feel is disrespectful to another group of people (veterans).
While some of the disgust/anger I see is directed at Kaepernick and the other players, a lot of it is directed at the NFL as an organization. They aren't just boycotting San Francisco and Seattle games, they are boycotting all things NFL. Further fuel was added to the flames when some of them found out that the NFL stepped in when the Cowboys were wearing stickers in support of the police because they were worried about offending another group and yet has, for the most part, remained silent about this.
