I agree partly with you. The bad football has always been there, but I believe even more bad quarterbacking, bad officiating, long and tedious replays to determine miniscule rule infractions and consecutive commercial time-outs all are contributing to the fans watching less and less of the NFL.
But the author is in definite denial. All of the above has pushed most fans to the brink, and the anthem protests have pushed many, many fans, myself included, over the brink. In other words, when we are protesting and boycotting the anthem protests, the bad football does not tempt us to go back. We can feel secure that our protest is the right thing to do and we’re sure we really aren’t missing much.
Watching football forces fans to drink more beer during all the bad officiating, replays and announcers getting worked up about every little thing. It is hard to watch football with even the sound on. The interviews on the sidelines are usually boring. Now, they will not even show us who respects the flag and who refuses common respect. The players sometimes do not even show respect for the fan who demand they respect the flag and country. The evening news follows the game and people continue to shoot each other in the streets.