Even with the losses in viewership the NFL is still the biggest spectator sport in the US. They have a big chunk of their fan base based on gambling which I assume doesn’t care about any of the issues discussed here. That said these losses cannot help the bottom line for the NFL. The NFL won’t die but clearly if the losses mount the cash cow aspect is going to end. The only certain change is that the NFL will be poorer in the future. I will be curious as to how game attendance is because those are the most dedicated fans who shell out big bucks of their own money. Las Vegas book totals would also be another interesting stat to look at.
That’s a pretty sound hypothesis - but the more the NFL depends on the Vegas viewer the more the incentive for “Black Sox”-type manipulation of the game increases. And if any major cheating or game-throwing scandal is ever detected, the gambling crowd will start to back away pronto.
Normal people are assaulted by political influences the whole day - in what they hear from their kids in school, in what they see on TV, in the way the news gets spun, etc, etc. If they watch sports, they want to get away from that crap, and once that crap invades their sports, franchise owners should not be surprised when they say “screw it” to the NFL.