They’re a bunch of pompous felons.
Unfortunately, it’s not complicated. The owners simply made a business decision. They chose to lose 10 or 20% of their audience instead of taking the very serious risk that the NFL thugs would go on strike and take all their profits away if they tried to force them to behave like normal Americans. It’s not Rocket Science.
The real problem with the NFL is rooted in the following:
1. Their game has gotten boring as hell over the years.
2. An NFL game now looks more like a staged event than a competitive sport.
3. The economics of entertainment is working against the NFL. Forget about ticket prices; even people who watch football at home for free are realizing that an NFL game is an enormous waste of time.
4. Demographics is working against them, as their older fan base dies off and isn't replaced by new fans with the same passion for the game.
In addition to the good postings on this thread, consider the fact that NFL football has become predictable (everyone in the world knows what will happen on 3rd and long), uncreative and tedious. The college kids have fire and enthusiasm as opposed to treating the game like another day at work.
In a word?
Goodell
The NFL used to be fun, but now it sucks.
I grew up in Irving Texas in the 60s and 70s - at our Fellowship of Christian Athletes meetings there was always a Dallas Cowboy there.
If you’re looking for something to do tomorrow afternoon and you’re close by, come and visit the Richard Nixon Presidential Library in Yorba Linda, Calif. I’ll be working there as a docent.
What happened to the NFL?
It turned into another ghetto!!!
Get out the ghetto!!!
Yeah, just the place I want to spend my Sunday! /sarc
America no longer likes the NFL.
The owners want cash cas and more cash and the players are arrogant oafs with an anti-American mindset.
The best thing for America would be for the NFL to go out of business.
... and I do not intend to watch their Super Bowl or anything else they have.
Does this guy really think the NFL is going to approve commercials that criticize them? And does he really think the people that submitted those commercials could actually afford the time? It’s an old publicity stunt, submit a commercial you know the NFL will say no, put it on youtube, send out a press release about the “commercial the NFL won’t let you see”, more publicity than showing your commercial during the game, and for free.
The people who have not gotten the message are white male NFL fans over the age of 30 or so who think the old league will eventually come running back into their arms.
The people who run the NFL know exactly what they are doing. They are repositioning the league to account for shifts in technology, demographics and changing American culture. Broadcast ratings will fall but that was going to happen anyway.
The NFL is a consumer product and that product will change to adapt to the market it has to sell into. It's like toothpaste. I use toothpaste because that's what Proctor and Gamble sell now. But my Grandfather used tooth powder until the day he died. He thought the paste was weird.
I let the new NFL go because I think it's weird now.
watched every super bowl ever played. will not watch this year. Wave that flag that so many have died for so we can live in freedom!
I read this week that the NFL stands to take in $52 BILLION in Super Bowl ad revenue... Think about that next time some owner demands a new stadium, parking concessions or local tax breaks. His share of that ad revenue could build a new stadium every freaking year (which of course isn’t necessary).
Ungrateful cowards?
Along with a number of other reasons, one big problem is...its boring.
Some years ago, I remember seeing an article where a black man - perhaps he was some sort of race relations guy, I can't remember - was asked the question "What American cultural institutions, if any, exist that are appealing to both whites and blacks?" and his joking answer was "NFL football."
Almost since the day that article appeared (probably around 2009 when Saint Barack ascended his throne) the NFL has turned deliberately away from white Americans. Obama-era social justice activists certainly noticed that NFL fandom was a unifying force in American life, and set out to undermine it.
IF Brady wasn’t playing, I would not pay one little bit of attention.