The NFL's ratings crisis

I have never met a Jaguars fan. I am not convinced one exists.

 

Law of diminishing returns. Spending 5 minutes watching 23 replays trying to figure out whose fingertip the basketball grazed before it went out of bounds --- which will determine exactly one out of 150 possessions in this game --- is just not worth it.

 

When trying to think of the least appealing Thursday night game in history, my mind flashed back to Rams-Eagles 1998 (a Tony Banks/Koy Detmer Production) and there it was on that 538 article.

I'll buy some of the RedZone argument. First saw RZ in 2010 on the free trial Sunday on Week 1. You couldn't just go back to watching regular NFL.

Not only does it carry out of market games but it makes it where you really only have to watch the 3:30 ET/2:30 CT window for an hour. Get your nine games, all of the Alcoa Fantastic Finishes, and then continue your day. Just one hour.

I've never sprung to pay for RZ for, since that day, I've never looked at the NFL the same way. This is probably the first year that, really, I don't care that much about the regular season. If you have a good coach and a good QB, you'll make the playoffs

 

I actually know a Jaguars fan. I do not know an Atlanta Falcons fan.

 

I haven't looked at RZ numbers and correlation to regular broadcast numbers.
I keep hearing 'it's an election year' as a reason, which is BS. There have been a lot of election years since the start of the NFL on TV.

I think there different forces at play.

1. The NFL was already huge yet managed to continue generating pretty substantial growth in audience. That is just not sustainable. There's going to be bounceback and there's going to be plateau. That should be expected. The Chicken Little coverage of the TV ratings doesn't account for it because the sky-is-falling coverage plays better than reasonable analysis. Plus a lot of the talking heads a just dunces.

2. The product stinks and the NFL, in its effort to grow its audience by turning non-fans into casual fans and casual fans into intense fans, has driven away or is driving away knowledgeable fans. There are people, like me, who have moved down the other way on the continuum - overall knowledgeable sports fans who have grown increasingly disenchanted with the NFL to point of not watching at all. This second point comprises a variety of factors that include terrible rules, replay and too many interruptions in the game.

 

My brother-in-law is a Falcons fan. Happiness is not his thing.

 

We have a family friend who is a huge Jaguars fan, but she grew up in North Florida, so that's natural.

I know at least two Falcons fans. They exist.

 

I had Jags season tickets in 2011. Still never became a fan. Blame Gabbert?

 

I know several Falcons fans, and one or two Jaguars fans.

However, I have never met a Titans fan.

 

We should have a beer sometime.

Don't think I know any Chargers or Cardinals fans.

 

Who is cool in the NFL? Who is popular, has a personality and is a top player?
Plenty of tools in the NFL who are gifted and talented, it aside from Rogers and Brady, who is cool?

Odell Beckham could have been, but he seems to be TO-lite. Richard Sherman, the renaissance man of the NFL? Seems forced and contrived by the media.

Cam could be the face of the NFL, if the NFL were a Montessori pre-school

 

The NBA seems to be the one league right now that has marketable superstars. I suspect Kris Bryant may turn out to be one in MLB.