Colin Kaepernick Doesn’t Get Why His National Anthem Protests Would Hurt NFL Ratings

Boston.cbslocal.com ^ | Oct 25, 2016 | Matt Dolloff

[11th_VA]

BOSTON (CBS) — San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick certainly believes in the cause he is ennobling by kneeling during the national anthem before games, but he doesn’t understand why his protests would turn fans away from their TVs.

The NFL’s sharp ratings decline has been one of the biggest hot-button issues in sports since the start of the 2016 season, and there is undoubtedly a myriad of reasons as to the causes. One of the major underlying factors across the league is the weakened on-field product and increasingly unwatchable broadcasts, bogged down by excessive commercials and penalty flags. But there is a vocal group of fans who took Kaepernick’s demonstrations as a sign of disrespect to the American flag, many of whom consider sacred. Many of these fans have turned away from the NFL, some of them permanently.

When asked about the NFL’s ratings decline and whether he feels his actions have been a cause of it, Kaepernick sounded incredulous – but admitted that he doesn’t understand how ratings work in the first place.

“I don’t know much about ratings and how they are affected and all of those things,” said Kaepernick, according to the Sacramento Bee. “But I don’t understand why ratings would go down, fighting for justice for people, to try to stop oppression, especially in a league that is predominantly black.”

owever noble the cause Kaepernick is attempting to promote, he should at least understand that such a prominent demonstration would be polarizing for NFL viewers, many of which would view protesting during the national anthem as at best counterproductive and at worst disrespectful or ungrateful toward his country.

A new poll conducted by Yahoo! surveyed 1,136 Americans who identified as NFL fans, 29 percent of which said they are watching fewer NFL games in 2016 than they did in 2015. Forty percent of those viewers cited Kaepernick’s national anthem protests as the reason they stopped watching, which shakes out to about 11.6 percent of all fans surveyed. The NFL’s collective ratings are down by about 11 percent in 2016 as compared to 2015, as of Week 7.

Thirty-one percent cited “lack of opportunity” to watch games while 29 percent cited “lack of interest,” which would go back to the league’s watered-down product. Seventeen percent of fans watching less football cited presidential election coverage as the reason why.

As much as Kaepernick has a right to demonstrate and express his beliefs, the fans who disagree with the way he has gone about his protests also have the right to change the channel or boycott the NFL and its sponsors entirely. Even if the effect his protests have had on the ratings is negligible, the NFL has nonetheless turned off a segment of Americans who once viewed Sundays as a day dominated by football. The anthem protests and the subsequent backlash may not be the primary cause of the ratings decline, but at this point, it’s hard to dismiss it as a total non-factor.

Between the politicizing of sports and the broadcasts themselves becoming less watchable every week, the league will need to make serious changes if it wants to get its ratings back to where they were last season, let alone make them continue to grow.

Kaepernick and the 49ers play the Patriots on Nov. 20 in Week 11. It’s highly likely that he will again kneel during the national anthem before that game, and that the NFL’s ratings will still be in a freefall.

[JimRed]

Duhhh...’cause most Americans do not agree that you are oppressed, and because they realize that the race card expired on 1/20/09 and is non-renewable.

[Mr. Douglas]

Exactly!

[JimRed]

Why is it okay to be "predominantly black" in the first place, when anything "predominantly white" is disallowed or at least harshly criticized?

The NFL, NBA and various forms of entertainment are the only places in which you can hire the best for the job without fear of repercussions from the less qualified.

[Jmouse007]

You said: "Boycott the NFL!" My family is doing our part; as former decades long NFL fans we haven't watched ANY NFL games, not going to watch ANY NFL games INCLUDING THE "super bowl"!

REMEMBER THIS:

WE DON'T NEED THE NFL, THE NFL NEEDS US!

Without us "deplorable suckers" paying their outrageous costing NFL ticket prices; without us spending OUR HARD EARNED MONEY on their ridiculously overpriced concessions; without us spending wasted hours watching overpaid, racist, thugs who hate America and make tens of millions of OUR HARD EARNED MONEY play a game; without us wasting hours watching useless commercials made by NFL sponsors who HATE OUR AMERICAN VALUES, BUT WANT US TO SPEND OUR HARD EARNED MONEY ON THEIR PRODUCTS...

WITHOUT US; THE OBSCENE AND LUDICROUSLY RICH AND RACIST, ANTI-AMERICAN NFL, NFL COMMISSIONER, NFL OWNERS, NFL MANAGERS, NFL PLAYERS, NFL SPONSORS HAVE

N O T H I N G!

REMEMBER THIS:

WE DON'T NEED THE NFL, THE NFL NEEDS US!

Until EVERYONE in the NFL realizes this and ends their P.C., "breast cancer pink" (while MILLIONS OF MEN ARE DYING OF PROSTATE CANCER), Kaepernick racist "Only Black Lives Matter" Anti-American, "hate cops", hate the military, hate whitey, hate, and disrespect the National anthem, America, our flag, our American values policies; and continue to hate their former fans: the NFL WILL DIE!

And everyone in the NFL who formerly got rich OFF OF OUR HARD EARNED MONEY WILL LOSE EVERYTHING! And there will be no one to mourn its passing or their financial demise because we will have all come to the realization that:

ALTHOUGH THE NFL DESPERATELY NEEDS US, THE VERY PEOPLE THEY HATE AND DISPISE:

WE DON'T NEED THE NFL ANYMORE!

[NormsRevenge]

We get a week off from his idiocy.. 9ers have a Bye week.. and it would be a good week to say Bye to Colonic and wish him and his Muslim fiance the same..

and Plz, maroons have feeeeeling too , yaknow.-)

[GOPJ]

Kaepernick has the right to protest... WE have the right to boycott NFL games.

We should go to the black community and have a march: "THE WHITE MIDDLE CLASS MILLION MAN MARCH AGAINST UNFAIR GLOBAL TRADE AGREEMENTS."

We'll march right down MLK Boulevard and demand 'the black community' FIX the PROBLEM OF UNFAIR TRADE AGREEMENTS.

Kaepernick NEEDS TO GET REAL.

Kaepernick needs to direct his protest to the black community and start a discussion... WHY is their relationship with the police so bad? Is the black inner city culture part of the problem?

Why are black men killing each other in such large numbers? How can black people work together? What's stopping that process? Blacks ARE capable - why aren't they finding solutions?

The black community needs to make an effort to solve their own problems... before marching on others to solve their problems for them.

[ETL]

Now contrast that jerk (49ers QB Kaepernick) with the young Miami Marlins pitcher who was killed a few weeks ago in a boating accident...

________________

“Jose Fernandez -the NL Rookie of the Year in 2013 - came to the United States by boat as a 15-year-old Cuban refugee in 2008. Along the way, he rescued his mother, who had fallen overboard.

However, his beloved grandmother, who Fernandez calls a “baseball freak,” was left behind.

“She’s the love of my life... my everything,” Fernandez said.

The day before winning the Rookie of the Year Award, a shocked Fernandez was reunited with his grandmother in Florida with help from Miami Marlins owner Jeffrey Loria.

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/watch-mlb-star-jose-fernandez-reunited-with-grandmother-for-first-time-since-defecting-from-cuba/
________________________________________

***************************************************

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[catnipman]

SJW Colin Kaepernick is also helping to finish off the once proud San Francisco 49ers football club by adding massive distractions to bad ownership and bad coaching, a toxic stew for a football team if there ever was one.

[HotHunt]

Why is this idiot given airtime? He's a lousy QB and when he opens his mouth, he reveals his dearth of intelligent thoughts and speaking ability.

He would fade into oblivion quickly if he was just ignored.

[notdownwidems]

There’s not ‘a myriad of reasons’, douchebag, there are ‘myriad reasons’...who edits these idiots’ stories?

[dfwgator]

A lot of games are now streamed over the Internet, I don’t bother turning on the TV, when I can have the game going on in the background on my PC.

They probably thought only people without access to a TV would watch the games on their mobile devices, but I think they badly miscalculated there.

[castlegreyskull]

I am pretty certain the damage is permanent.

[VeniVidiVici]

Besides Crapernick, they lost me when they called a Redskins player for unsportsmanlike conduct for shooting pretend bow an arrow. How idiotic can the league get?

[publius911]

Miami Heat game National Anthem.

Somebody has no clue how STOOPID that looks...

[Lou L]

If he doesn’t know any of those things, he doesn’t understand his sport, he doesn’t understand where the money comes from to pay those multi-million dollar contracts, and he doesn’t understand the United States of America—those people that buy and support the NFL.

[Seaplaner]

I'm not sure what the goals of the NFL boycott might be (I don't do #s)

However, if they include strong suggestions of the removal of Mister Goodell, then that might be a good thing. (Discussion invited here, all I know is that he seems okay with the Anti-American insults from the millionaire ingrates.)

In the mean time, there will be no NFL gear in my family's Christmas holiday, and for the foreseeable future.

.

[publius911]

There’s not ‘a myriad of reasons’, douchebag, there are ‘myriad reasons’...who edits these idiots’ stories?

You noticed that too, huh?

No one has ever accused these mental midgets of even elementary erudition...

[Alberta's Child]

A lot of white people are apparently starting to figure out that over the last 25 years the business model for network TV has changed dramatically, and is now aimed at low-IQ and/or minority viewers. That includes the NFL, by the way.

[dfwgator]

The point is to get people so upset, that they end up scrapping performing the anthem period. That’s the ultimate goal.

[Alberta's Child]

The NFL boycott actually has no goals. That's why I've said all along that there is no "boycott."

The NFL fans who say they are "boycotting" the NFL have simply given up on it entirely. They're never coming back, no matter what happens with the NFL, Kaepernick, Goodell, etc.