Does the NFL have a problem?

[burnsy]

Originally Posted by LottaKash

Went to the Doctor for Insomnia...

Doctor prescribed watchning the NFL...Worked like a charm..Thx Doc.. :jump...NOT

When you are suffering through the work week. Thursday night football is a guaranteed snoozer. Start the weekend off right, watch those games and sleep well Thursday night. You'll feel like a King on Friday morning!

[Marshall Bennett]

Yeah, Titans vs. Jags in prime time. I've heard these schedules are made way in advance and that's an excuse networks often use. Neither of these teams have been worth a crap in ages.

[barahona44]

Originally Posted by Marshall Bennett

Yeah, Titans vs. Jags in prime time. I've heard these schedules are made way in advance and that's an excuse networks often use. Neither of these teams have been worth a crap in ages.

Every team is required to play one Thursday game each year, including Thanksgiving,(This doesn't include the season opener featuring the Super Bowl champ)

Maybe the NFL decided, for one night at least, to put two of their rotten apples in one barrell.

[Valuist]

Game 5 of the World Series outdrew the Eagles/Cowboys Sunday Nighter by 40%. So much for the nonsense any prime time NFL game will always outdraw MLB. This time it wasn't even close.

[burnsy]

Originally Posted by Valuist

Game 5 of the World Series outdrew the Eagles/Cowboys Sunday Nighter by 40%. So much for the nonsense any prime time NFL game will always outdraw MLB. This time it wasn't even close.

I was wondering about that and I'm not surprised. That was even a really good football game. But the NFL has multiple issues now, I ask my friends (both genders) and they say the same thing.

1. They watch football to steer clear of politics and all of the finger pointing crap. Sports and Movies have always been a forum to escape that garbage.

2. Many of them complain about the "over reporting" of the off the field crap. Domestic violence and violence or crime is bad but if its a football player these fools will kick it to death for hours upon hours and days.....Say it once or twice and move on. That crap has nothing to do with the game itself. In other words, See number 1! People don't want protests and they don't need a crime report with a bunch of sappy BS!

3. The penalties are killing interest in the game. Twenty something penalties in a regular season game is a joke, a travesty. Then suddenly the playoffs start and there are 3 or 4 a game........lately that's even gotten worse. What's the deal? They play cleaner after the season is over? I understand the "safety" calls for roughing and late hits but these ticky, tacky, holding calls and pass interference calls are an absolute detriment to the game. They are so inconsistent that the Refs look like the Keystone Cops out there......they just suck.

Anyone that thinks I'm kidding, just ask people that watch less now and listen to what they say.

[Valuist]

Originally Posted by burnsy

I was wondering about that and I'm not surprised. That was even a really good football game. But the NFL has multiple issues now, I ask my friends (both genders) and they say the same thing.

1. They watch football to steer clear of politics and all of the finger pointing crap. Sports and Movies have always been a forum to escape that garbage.

2. Many of them complain about the "over reporting" of the off the field crap. Domestic violence and violence or crime is bad but if its a football player these fools will kick it to death for hours upon hours and days.....Say it once or twice and move on. That crap has nothing to do with the game itself. In other words, See number 1! People don't want protests and they don't need a crime report with a bunch of sappy BS!

3. The penalties are killing interest in the game. Twenty something penalties in a regular season game is a joke, a travesty. Then suddenly the playoffs start and there are 3 or 4 a game........lately that's even gotten worse. What's the deal? They play cleaner after the season is over? I understand the "safety" calls for roughing and late hits but these ticky, tacky, holding calls and pass interference calls are an absolute detriment to the game. They are so inconsistent that the Refs look like the Keystone Cops out there......they just suck.

Anyone that thinks I'm kidding, just ask people that watch less now and listen to what they say.

The Raiders set a single game record for penalties yesterday....and amazingly, still won.

[burnsy]

Originally Posted by Valuist

The Raiders set a single game record for penalties yesterday....and amazingly, still won.

Yeah, but does that make people watch or piss them off? And they were playing Tampa Bay so I'll believe anything that involves the Buccaneers' losing.

There were several other games with a ton of penalties too. Not just that one. This is getting worse not better. I guess its trendy, but I know several people that watched every week and now they don't care.

When people say "unwatchable" they will eventually have a problem.

[magwell]

I know several people cant get enough NFL (like me) .......

[RaceBookJoe]

Heard on the radio that viewership is down 19% on Sunday Night games and 24% on MNF...or vice-versa cant really remember. Sunday's when there is a London game, its hard to ask a fan with a family etc to sit for approx 14hrs watching football. Combine that with bs calls/inconsistent refs, its no wonder why the ratings are dropping.

[ronsmac]

The flags for celebrating and taunting have turned me off completely. Sports and talking trash go together like peanut butter and jelly. Even in my day of low level organized sports, late 70s til mid 80s. Smack talk was what made it fun and why all the teens from my era loved watching the hurricanes. The refs have made the games unwatchable. The terrible primetime matchups haven't helped either.

[Valuist]

And for one's viewing "pleasure" tonight? The 0-9 Cleveland Browns. A couple weeks ago it was the Jags. Just can't figure out why people aren't tuning in.

[lamboguy]

the offshore gambling has basically been shut down for most people, and the fantasy stuff is nothing but a scam.

they lose a lot of people to watch those games if they don't have any financial interest in the outcome of the event.

[Inner Dirt]

Originally Posted by lamboguy

the offshore gambling has basically been shut down for most people, and the fantasy stuff is nothing but a scam.

they lose a lot of people to watch those games if they don't have any financial interest in the outcome of the event.

If it wasn't for gambling and Fantasy Football is gambling whether dictator Goodell thinks so or not next to no one is going to tune in to a pair of 10 loss teams playing each other late in the season.

[Track Collector]

Originally Posted by lamboguy

they lose a lot of people to watch those games if they don't have any financial interest in the outcome of the event.

This.

I am in the minority in that I am a fan without a financial interest.

[ultracapper]

Originally Posted by Valuist

NFL games are too long? They aren't the ones who stop the clock after every first down. NFL games are going to always be right around 3 hours to 3:15. Get two passing teams in college and one is looking at a 4 hour game. College needs to rethink their rules on clock stoppages.

At least when a college game gets drug out, they're lighting up the scoreboard. The NFL can drag a 17-13 game out with penalty flags and replays and injury stoppages (the worst delay of them all. A guy will be laying on the ground for 3 or 4 minutes, then get up and walk off as if all he did was stub his $2M toe.) to the point it ends up having zero flow.

With the new avert-injury-rules in play, these QBs should be averaging 350 yards a game. Instead we have half of them with 70% completion rates averaging 4.5 yards per attempt. It's just boring. Stefan Diggs had 13 catches last week for, drum roll please, 80 yards. Impressive.