The ritual war has been taken over by Lawyers inserting nonsense to cop a fee
Give us the war and get rid of the lawyers
Don’t forget the ad men who have saturated the product but insist on jamming more ads in - sponsor mentions, drop-ins, billboards, etc. Signal to noise ratio is poor and getting worse.
Many people have wondered what the value of commissioner might be. Let’s just say Pete Rozelle would have cleared all this up in a fortnight.
But I remain amazed (but not surprised) at the sports talkers - on ESPN and radio shows - who continue to maintain with absolute conviction that player protests and viewer/fan reaction are ABSOLUTELY NOT responsible for the ratings drop. A 5% fluctuation might reasonably be assigned to interest in the election or other competition but 15-20% drops so suddenly and consistently are clearly cause-and-effect.
The viewers have stated their intentions and followed through. I suppose if I had large sums riding on the outcome ie ratings I would be in denial as well but I wouldn’t make a fool of myself doing so publicly.