Free Republic

In this wacky, topsy-turvy biz we call television, the one constant has been the NFL. It brings in the viewers and helps bring them back for other programming. The ad dollars pile up at a predictable rate. Until this season. From the start, the NFL and its TV distributors have noticed the ratings have not been measuring up to last season. On Wednesday, Nielsen ratings cruncher Brian Wieser of Pivotal Research Group published a report that concludes that viewership among adults 18-49, live plus same day, is off 15.1%. The big question is why. And it's just not the NFL...

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 passed 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?” Naturally the leftists in sports writing are telling us it’s the bland product or the movement to appliances they can’t track that are causing the steep drop in viewership and “blah blah blah;” anything but the truth. Apparently, sports writers missed...

Owners have mostly been quiet about the national anthem protests staged by San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick and others. But Indianapolis Colts owner Jim Irsay isn’t one to keep his opinions to himself. Irsay doesn’t like the protests. In a story about declining television ratings, Irsay told USA Today’s Jarrett Bell his feelings about Kaepernick and others. “I think it’s the wrong venue,” Irsay told USA Today. “It hasn’t been a positive thing. What we all have to be aware of as players, owners, PR people, equipment managers, is when the lights go on we are entertainment. We are...

Ratings in the NFL, while still stronger than any other challenger on the television landscape, continue to decline, and a new survey by Yahoo Sports and YouGov discerns several reasons why. In a survey of 1,136 Americans who identified themselves as NFL fans, 29 percent said they are watching fewer NFL games. (Interestingly, 27 percent said they were watching more, though that does not necessarily correlate only a 2 percent net loss.) The fans claiming they watch less of the NFL cited the following reasons: • Protests by Colin Kaepernick and others • Lack of opportunity to watch the NFL...

Well, it appears the New York Jets are planning to make a quarterback change after all. According to ESPN’s Adam Schefter, head coach Todd Bowles will name Geno Smith the starting quarterback this week against the Baltimore Ravens. Ryan Fitzpatrick, who butted heads over his contract with the team all summer before signing on the eve of training camp, has been benched for ineffectiveness.

Technophobic mad genius football coach Bill Belichick has waved the white flag when it comes to his battle with Microsoft Surface. The New England Patriots head man told reporters on Tuesday that he will no longer use the tablet for analyzing in-game plays. 'As you probably noticed, I'm done with the tablets,' Belichick told reporters during a conference call, according to ESPN. 'I've given [the Suface] as much time as I can give them. They're just too undependable for me. I'm going to stick with pictures as several of our other coaches do as well, because there just isn't enough...

No dynasty lasts forever. If the Holy Roman Empire could fall, so can the NFL. NFL ratings are down 11 percent from last year across the board and by double digits in prime time. Sunday night's Colts-Texans game drew just 12.9 million viewers, a 38 percent dip from last year's Patriots-Colts tilt. One game airing opposite a Presidential debate barely cracked 8 million viewers. The NFL's numbers may remain enviable to virtually everyone, but that doesn't change that they've fallen. So what's to blame? Everyone has a theory. With some help from WEEI's Mike Mutnansky, who discussed this at length...

NBC’s flagship Sunday Night Football game had its smallest audience in five years this week, evidence of the NFL’s new deflation issue. The game between Indianapolis and Houston reached 13.6 million viewers, removing the weekly broadcast from its usual spot at or very close to the top of the Nielsen company ratings. CBS’ Thursday night game scored slightly higher. …

NFL Live Thread Week 7 Thursday, Oct. 20 8:25 p.m. ET Bears at Packers Sunday, Oct. 23 1 p.m. ET Saints at Chiefs 1 p.m. ET Colts at Titans 1 p.m. ET Vikings at Eagles 1 p.m. ET Browns at Bengals 1 p.m. ET Redskins at Lions 1 p.m. ET Raiders at Jaguars 1 p.m. ET Bills at Dolphins 1 p.m. ET Ravens at Jets 4:05 p.m. ET Buccaneers at 49ers 4:05 p.m. ET Chargers at Falcons 4:25 p.m. ET Patriots at Steelers 8:30 p.m. ET Seahawks at Cardinals Monday, Oct. 24 8:30 p.m. ET Texans at Broncos Bye week:...

BOSTON (CBS) — Monday Night Football in Week 5 featured two underperforming (or just-plain-bad) NFL teams and posted the lowest overnight rating since ESPN acquired the rights to broadcast the show in 2006. The Week 6 contest between the Arizona Cardinals and New York Jets, somehow, performed even worse. (snip) Of course, there is still the segment of fans who have decided to stop watching the NFL altogether in the wake of players protesting the national anthem, which many mainstream media outlets continue to curiously ignore (save for a select few from Forbes and The Sporting News). (snip)The NFL is...

Maybe it was the Los Angeles Dodgers-Chicago Cubs Game 2 of the National League Championship Series, or The Walking Dead retrospective special ahead of next week’s Season 7 debut. Or maybe it was just NFL exhaustion after the Dallas Cowboys crushed the Green Bay Packers 30-16 earlier in the day, or maybe blame The Simpsons’ annual ‘Treehouse Of Horror’ episode. Whatever it was, Sunday Night Football and NBC had a real problem last night, and it wasn’t Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump.

Odell Beckham Jr. [NY Giants] punctuated a magnificent game Sunday against the Ravens by taking one knee — no, not during the national anthem — and pantomiming a proposal to the kicking net, his old enemy.

Amid loud chants of “USA! USA! USA!,” 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick knelt for the national anthem Sunday in his continuing protest against racial oppression and police brutality. Outside the stadium, vendors sold shirts with Kaepernick’s image in the sights of a rifle scope, and fans tackled a dummy dressed up like the quarterback . Nearby, other fans protested in support of the movement .

Amid loud chants of ''USA! USA! USA!,'' San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick knelt for the national anthem Sunday in his continuing protest against racial oppression and police brutality. Outside the stadium, vendors sold shirts with Kaepernick's image in the sites of a rifle scope, and fans tackled a dummy dressed up like the quarterback . Nearby, other fans protested in support of the movement .

ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. -- Before San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick knelt during the national anthem of Sunday's game against the Buffalo Bills, a loud chant of "USA, USA" rang out at New Era Field. ... As Kaepernick, who made his first start since week 8 of last season, led the offense on to the field, he was greeted by a loud chorus of boos from Bills fans. Those boos continued for the first couple of snaps before dissipating into cheers of encouragement for Buffalo's defense. ... Kaepernick's first drive as the starter ended in a punt. He ran for...

Dennis Byrd, a former New York Jets defensive end whose career was cut short in 1992 because of a broken neck, was killed in a head-on vehicle collision Saturday near his home in Oklahoma, the Oklahoma Highway Patrol confirmed to ESPN. Byrd, 50, was pronounced dead at the scene due to massive injuries.

Football, America’s biggest prime-time powerhouse, has been thrust into a crisis this fall, with dwindling ratings sparking questions over whether it can remain a gold mine for television in an age when more Americans are abandoning traditional TV. Network executives have long used the National Football League’s live games as a last line of defense against the rapid growth of “cord-cutting” and on-demand viewing upending the industry. But now, the NFL is seeing its ratings tumble in the same way that the Olympics, awards shows and other live events have, falling more than 10 percent for the first five weeks...

San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick believes that the flag of the United States is nothing more than simply a piece of cloth. "At the end of the day the flag is just a piece of cloth and I am not going to value a piece of cloth over people's lives. That's just not something I can do, it's not something I feel morally right doing and my character won't allow me to do that," Kaepernick told reporters.

Colin Kaepernick has not been shy about calling out major public figures. He recently described Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump as “proven liars.” But when presented Wednesday with some unexpected criticism from Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the 49ers quarterback actually took the relative high road while saying her comments were “disappointing.”

Las Vegas’ legislature is about to hand $750 million in tax dollars to a casino operator and, potentially, an NFL franchise owner ****************************************************************