The unplanned decline of the NFL

[Direwolf63]

Well said...

And for some reason...I think of this...coincidence? Tired of getting the shaft...

This moment is the tipping point for me.

It was the start of my decline in interest.

 

[ShortRound]

If you haven't checked out Twitch, please do. Kids these days don't talk about sports teams like I did when I was young. Or trade baseball cards.

They have competitive gaming, esports in their pocket. There are huge sponsored esports teams online, and if you check out communities like reddit for their respective sports, when a player switches teams, it's big news. The NFL needs to innovate get the young viewers back. They've already lost them.

Esports is the future for competitive sports, there was news of Jerry investing in esports this week, but that train has been steaming along for years now.

 

[DFWJC]

Well said...

And for some reason...I think of this...coincidence? Tired of getting the shaft...

And the two full steps with control preceding it.
yes, this was almost the final straw. Now quite, but almost.

 

[dragon_mikal]

The biggest reason is that a growing segment of under 30 people don't watch television. They just camp out on their phones.

People under 30 still watch TV. They just do it on Hulu or Amazon or Netflix or the many other cordless options available. I work for a rather large telecommunications company and we are moving away from wires altogether in the near future.

The time of having to pay for channels you don't want will be ending soon. Picking what channels you want and you don't want is the future.

 

[cowboy_ron]

It doesn't have to be planned....when a company, corporation, or most any entity for that matter has incompetent leadership decline will surely follow without planning for it.

The same goes for the team owners that really think Goodell is doing a great job only need to look from day one of his leadership till today.

 

[Tractor1]

The Cowboys and I were born the same year, and I've been a fan since earliest memory. Never thought I'd say so, but I'm losing interest in a game I've played and loved.

I couldn't care less whether a player chooses to stand, kneel, raise a fist, or stay in the locker room during the Anthem. I'm more interested in the game, but things like what constitutes a catch, endless replay, and penalization for playing good defense has left a soured taste.

Add in the Leagues' poor decisions when it comes to advertising revenue streams; their insistence on applying legal standards beyond the courts, and the NFL is no longer must see TV.

 

[erod]

Close, but I wouldn't blame phones. There are just better ways of entertaining yourself these days, and people under 30 like myself are quicker to discover them. We all share netflix/hbogo/hulu accounts, we all know how to pirate things, I've personally streamed every Cowboy game I've watched the past few years for free. The idea of paying an outrageous price for cable TV when I can get just as much if not more content myself for dirt cheap is already forcing content providers to change their models.

The NFL, like Reality stated, has been insulated from these changing trends to a point. The falling T.V. ratings is proof that they too will have to change their model, and I expect countless missteps on their way to rediscovering how to put out a good product again. I doubt they figure it out before being replaced by something new.

Don't hurt yourself patting yourself on the back. I know how to do all that, too.

I can just afford TV. Lol. It's nothing.

Millennials spend all their time trying not to pay for anything, and don't figure out how to make serous money. It's really not hard to make $150K and up if you just decide to do it. Way more than that, in fact.

But heaven forbid you put that phone down....

 

[Asklesko]

Roger Goodell singlehandedly destroyed this league

 

[Section446]

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.

The decline of the league can be attributed to a lot of things (politics, race, etc...), but the biggest factor is the simple fact that the product on the field is severely lacking, it's almost unwatchable at times. Parity put the wheels in motion for the death of the NFL, nobody wants to see a bunch of sub-.500 teams every week.

 

[Saluki]

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.

.

This is exactly the trajectory NASCAR took. They didn't allow the sudden influx of political grandstanding, but they did oversaturate the product, try everything to attract the "hip" crowd, effectively dissing the tried and true fan. Now EVERY track is removing seats. How's that working out for ya?

 

[DrunkWithPower]

Pretty much dead on.
I will add that the new rules and way too frequent and subjective penalties have preconditioned me to never get excited after a big play. That was the fun of tge nfl, now it is waiting for flag and the comparing it to other plays in a game and that is just exhausting

This!!! Too many plays under review for subjective penalties that change the outcome of the game. Holding on one play is not holding two plays later. Too many rules that supposedly protect players (actually touching the QBs are a no no) which often change the outcome of the game. Kickoffs and punts are a flag fest. Half the league has adopted pick fest offenses because the refs never call them. During the Atlanta game they caught two times the defensive player creamed our receivers (blind sided badly), but they weren't defenseless players???

The quality of game play has also been severely impacted in the 1st half of the season due to strict practice rules in the CBA. And almost no teams in the NFL have a defense any more. Add all this to the horrendous price of tickets and the whiny players kneeling during our anthem. BTW - IF YOU KNEEL DURING THE NATIONAL ANTHEM WHEN WE'RE HONORING THE MILITARY AND THE FLAG, IT IS ABOUT THE FLAG!!!

Because of the protests I only watch Cowboys games when I used to watch most of them.

Sorry for the rant. Go Cowboys!!!

 

[Direwolf63]

This!!! Too many plays under review for subjective penalties that change the outcome of the game. Holding on one play is not holding two plays later. Too many rules that supposedly protect players (actually touching the QBs are a no no) which often change the outcome of the game. Kickoffs and punts are a flag fest. Half the league has adopted pick fest offenses because the refs never call them. During the Atlanta game they caught two times the defensive player creamed our receivers (blind sided badly), but they weren't defenseless players???

The quality of game play has also been severely impacted in the 1st half of the season due to strict practice rules in the CBA. And almost no teams in the NFL have a defense any more. Add all this to the horrendous price of tickets and the whiny players kneeling during our anthem. BTW - IF YOU KNEEL DURING THE NATIONAL ANTHEM WHEN WE'RE HONORING THE MILITARY AND THE FLAG, IT IS ABOUT THE FLAG!!!

Because of the protests I only watch Cowboys games when I used to watch most of them.

Sorry for the rant. Go Cowboys!!!

DrunkWithPower is what you call yourself?

Is that you, Mr. Goodell?

 

[john van brocklin]

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.

Awesome write up !!!
I wrote a similar post awhile back, but nearly as well written as yours !
Tip of the hat to you Sir !!!

 

[Solution]

Don't hurt yourself patting yourself on the back. I know how to do all that, too.

I can just afford TV. Lol. It's nothing.

Millennials spend all their time trying not to pay for anything, and don't figure out how to make serous money. It's really not hard to make $150K and up if you just decide to do it. Way more than that, in fact.

But heaven forbid you put that phone down....

Is there a reason you're so combative? You sound like a grumpy old man shaking his fist at kids to get off his lawn. Did I say something to upset you, or do you simply enjoy mocking things you don't understand? I'm glad you make so much money, though it's odd you brought it up, and even odder you would assume I don't make a lot of money simply because I'm a millennial (I'm an Elevator Mechanic so I do alright for myself). It's simply a difference in priorities between our generations, one that the NFL will have to account for going forward. I'm going to go back to not visiting this forum, it really just feels like a bunch of angry old white guys circle jerking each other here. Sorry I questioned your preconceived notions, toodles.

 

[JDSmith]

The NFL has been less and less important to me every year for half a decade at least. At this point I'm entirely done with it. I was holding out hope that Romo and Witten could get a ring, and that was keeping me around. Now that dream is dead, and I have found that I am entirely disinterested in the NFL as a whole. You have to watch over 3 hours of programming to see 11 minutes of time when the ball is actually in play. I think the study done said 3 hours and 12 minutes for 11 minutes of play - that's 3 hours and 1 minute that the NFL is basically just stealing. Between that and the fact that the officiating is questionable at best, I find nothing enjoyable about watching - which is why I simply don't watch anymore. I'm not going to invest time and energy into a form of entertainment that doesn't entertain me.

And on top of all that Goodell is a scumbag.

The Cowboyszone is the only tie I have to the NFL at this point, and that's because I like the community here.

 

[Beast_from_East]

When you start to realize that what you are watching is either rigged or scripted, it kinda takes away from the fun and excitement. Perfect example is wrestling, used to be a big fan growing up and always watched wrestling on TV. When I started getting older and realized that it was all scripted, I my interest plummeted like a rock I stopped watching.

NFL is getting close to that point, even now the only games I watch are the Cowboy games. I have cancelled Sunday Ticket, I have dropped out of all my fantasy leagues, the game itself is just not entertaining anymore and once the Cowboys are eliminated from playoff contention I probably wont even watch the last couple of meaningless games.

 

[wssaustin]

Really a good read.

For me, just like OP, used not to miss any games, TNF, Sunday, SNF, MNF, etc. What made me watch Cowboys game only now is that these engineered drama/close games, home-cooking etc. Refs can selectively choose which rule to execute, how to execute, and pick the target to execute. This has been reached to a degree that can largely determine the result of game.

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.

 

[drawandstrike]

I guess it's going to take a real cratering of ratings, merchandise sales, ticket sales for these goofballs to get the message.

So be it.

I'm proud that the owner of my team, Jerry Jones, is leading the charge to try to save the NFL from this current stupid front office.

 

[plymkr]

yep, Bryant, no OL holds in six games, the Butler non penalty, screwing Zeke over big time, all adds up

That's what did it for me also. The Dez non-catch, The 12 man in the huddle in last year's playoff loss, inconsistent calls at crucial times in the games that always seem to hurt the Cowboys, no holding calls in six games. That's just on the field. Off the field you have inconsistent enforcing of the rules, a dictator who likes to play God, not knowing if your star player will play on a week to week basis due to an event that the local authorities didn't arrest him for, billionaire adults acting like kids.

It's no fun when all that is talked about by the news networks during the week is off the field drama and little attention is paid to on the field performance. The NFL has turned into a really bad reality show featuring a bunch of characters that no one can relate to. I feel annoyed with the personalities the NFL displays as far as owners and coaches and any type of personality characteristic that is displayed by the athlete is scrutinized. I really feel the NFL has turned into a horrible reality show based on billionaire owners gossiping about each other with Daddy Goodell being inconsistent with grounding them. I can't relate and I'm losing interest.

 

[lurkercowboy]

There are lots of insightful comments in this thread. I find myself feeling the same as many of you. I used to watch all the games and the pregame shows etc. Plus read all the articles I could find online. Now it is just not the same. I only watch Cowboys games and only the games, nothing else, and only a few articles here and there. What has happened to my interest? I don't know.

About the DVR thing, whenever I watch a game on DVR I am very bored and fast forward through most of the action. I sometimes have Sunday meetings (I am a minister) and last week I came home late and started watching the Falcons game recording. It was soon apparent in the first quarter that it wasn't our day so I just zipped through the rest. And that was it for my NFL week.

I can't speak for others and why their interest is waning, but I can't even say why I only have a fraction of my former love of all things NFL. I can't put my finger on it. Does anyone else have the same feeling?