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The financial cornerstone of the NFL as it has grown into the nation’s most prosperous and popular sports league has been its network television deals. Pro football has been TV ratings gold, and the league’s handsome reward for that has been contracts with the networks now collectively worth an estimated $7 billion annually. So when ratings for NFL games slip, even while remaining at comparatively lofty levels, it is noteworthy. Such is the case this season, with the sport’s overall TV ratings down about 11 percent from last season.

The 49ers have a new starting quarterback. His name is Colin Kaepernick. He starts for a team that has lost four straight games after a Week 1 win over the NFL Rams of Los Angeles. His head coach is Chip Kelly, who is his first season in charge of the team that plays near the city by the Bay. The timing for Kaepernick to start is fitting, really. In Week 6, Time magazine's QB and his team face the Bills.

'Tom, you have kids of your own - how would you respond if your kids heard Donald Trump's version of locker room talk?' one reporter asked. Brady responded by smiling and saying 'Thank you guys, have a good day' before promptly walking off the stage.

Surveying the ratings landscape for Monday Night Football and the NFL this season, you wouldn’t be blamed for mistaking it for the barren wasteland of the Mad Max movies rather than America’s most popular sport. Back in early September, MNF posted its lowest numbers ever (8.3 rating) for a Week 2 game since ESPN acquired the rights in 2006. Then, going against the first presidential debate late last month, Monday Night Football set an all-time ratings low with barely 8 million total viewers. Now, last night’s matchup between the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the Carolina Panthers has scored MNF‘s lowest...

The disrespect for America shown by some NFL players has given Donald Trump supporters a chance to “vote early” and they are taking it. Another NFL week has past and the boycott of viewers has actually picked up steam. By one account available data shows a 30% drop in viewership for Monday night’s game between “Somebody and Who cares?” http://tvbythenumbers.zap2it.com/daily-ratings/monday-cable-ratings-october-10-2016/ Naturally the leftists in sports writing are telling us it’s the bland product or the movement from appliances they can’t track that are causing the steep drop in viewership and “blah blah blah” anything but the truth. To keep up...

The NFL continues to get sacked. Monday Night Football’s Bucs-Panthers game saw ratings tumble 24 percent versus the same Week 5 game a year ago. Over the first five weeks, ratings are down more than 10 percent.

Ratings for the National Football League are off substantially this season , and of course nobody at the league has the slightest idea why. It can't be due to the ungrateful arrogance of has-been 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick, or the increasing politicization of the sport by lefty sportwriters (and they're all lefties) and ESPN. No, it must be something else: The NFL has a ratings problem. The causes are many, and the leading cause is certainly up for debate. But that isn’t stopping the NFL from denying that the problem has some controversial undercurrents – or that the problem exists...

A bill to raise hotel taxes to fund an NFL stadium for the Oakland Raiders and a convention center expansion has crossed its first hurdle in the Nevada Legislature. The Nevada Senate voted 16-5 on Tuesday to approve the measure. Democratic opponents have said they oppose putting public funds to a project backed by billionaire casino mogul Sheldon Adelson, while Republican opponents oppose raising taxes.

San Francisco 49ers head coach Chip Kelly announced Tuesday that Colin Kaepernick has been handed the reins to take over as the team's starting quarterback. The decision comes amid the squad's four-game slump and less-than-stellar 1-4 start to the season.

Just read that the 49rs are starting Colon Kaepernick against the Buffalo Bills on Sunday. While I am a Dallas Cowboys fan living here in TX, I was once a season ticket holding Buffalo Bills fan during the Jim Kelly days back in NYS. It would bring me great pleasure to see the Bills - in their Red, White, and Blue uniforms, welcome Mr. I Hate America back to the NFL! Go BILLS!

NFL Live Thread Week 6 Thursday, Oct. 13 8:25 p.m. ET Broncos at Chargers Sunday, Oct. 16 1 p.m. ET 49ers at Bills 1 p.m. ET Eagles at Redskins 1 p.m. ET Browns at Titans 1 p.m. ET Ravens at Giants 1 p.m. ET Panthers at Saints 1 p.m. ET Jaguars at Bears 1 p.m. ET Rams at Lions 1 p.m. ET Steelers at Dolphins 1 p.m. ET Bengals at Patriots 4:05 p.m. ET Chiefs at Raiders 4:25 p.m. ET Falcons at Seahawks 4:25 p.m. ET Cowboys at Packers 8:30 p.m. ET Colts at Texans Monday, Oct. 17 8:30 p.m....

Don’t think for a minute this will qualify as a “second look at” moment on the Right — but it might on the Left. With progressives cheering the NFL’s national anthem protests as yet another truth-to-power moment — and the NFL itself almost preening over its own inaction — one might have expected one of the progressive Left’s icons to fall into line with the other cheerleaders. Instead, Ruth Bader Ginsburg might have added a new dimension to her “Notorious RBG” nickname: When asked by Couric how she feels about San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick, and others athletes, refusing...

The NFL has a ratings problem. The causes are many, and the leading cause is certainly up for debate. But that isn’t stopping the NFL from denying that the problem has some controversial undercurrents – or that the problem exists in the first place. Sunday Night Football between the Green Bay Packers and New York Giants drew a 10.2 overnight rating as it mostly went up against the second presidential debate, according to Sports Media Watch. It’s a steep drop from 13.1 in Week 5 of the 2015 season and the lowest overnight rating since Week 8 of the 2013...

The NFL said “a confluence of events” is affecting ratings, including the election between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton diverting viewers to cable news outlets. ESPN’s “Monday Night Football” game on Sept. 26 between the New Orleans Saints and Atlanta Falcons aired at the same time as the first presidential debate, which drew a record-breaking 84 million viewers to the football game’s roughly 8 million. The next debate on Sunday night will go head to head with the game between the New York Giants and Green Bay Packers, and the league is expecting weak ratings.

The NFL is blaming its horrible TV ratings on the election, according to a leaked memo to team owners obtained by the Wall Street Journal. Every single one of the NFL's primetime offerings (Sunday, Monday, and Thursday Night Football) is down double-digits, according to Sports Illustrated. Overall, NFL viewership is down 11% this year. The NFL wrote that the drop in primetime was likely because of "unprecedented interest in the Presidential election." The letter went on to reference the 2000 election as another period of time when NFL ratings went down.The NFL is not the only one to make the...

The National Football League has sent a memo to team owners seeking to ease concerns about the ratings decline that has hit football this fall. Through the first four weeks of the season, NFL viewership has declined 11%, and among the crucial adults 18-49 demographic that advertisers covet, ratings are down 12%.

I refuse to watch any NFL games while Kaepernick and other players continue to disrespect the flag. Symbols do matter –deeply to me – and this great nation God gave us matters Pres. Theodore Roosevelt once said, “There can be no divided allegiance here. Any man who says he is an American, but something else also, isn’t an American at all. We have room for but one flag, the American flag.” Indeed. But with the start of the 2016 National Football League (NFL) season, Americans have become witness to a shockingly disgraceful – and in some quarters, mimicked – display...

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Everyone associated with the National Football Leagues has to be worried about this. One of the current parlor games playing out in sports media executive suites is why the NFL’s television ratings have dramatically fallen through the first four weeks of the season.... it’s oversimplifying it to say Colin Kaepernick and kneeling NFL players are driving way football fans. But it’s a factor, and maybe the biggest factor. A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone and online survey finds that nearly one-third (32%) of American adults say they are less likely to watch an NFL game because of the growing number...

A 15-yard penalty apparently wasn't enough punishment for Josh Norman's bow-and-arrow celebration, so the NFL decided to fine the Washington Redskins star cornerback $10,000 on Wednesday. Norman, who was fined last week for his hit on Giants wideout Sterling Shepard, said he will appeal his latest punishment, which was doled out after he celebrated his fourth-quarter interception in Sunday's win over the Browns.