Free Republic

A Yahoo survey says that 44 percent of Americans report a likelihood of shutting off NFL games should players continue to kneel for the national anthem. The poll result follows Nielsen ratings showing that many fans already do something else beside watching football this season. Monday Night Football endured its lowest ratings earlier this week since moving to ESPN a decade ago and Sunday games also suffer year-to-year losses, albeit smaller than the double-digit decline witnessed at the Worldwide Leader in Sports. The absence of Tom Brady and Peyton Manning may help explain viewership losses. But another quarterback also not...

President Obama said Friday that professional and college football have been “a little bit of an old boys’ network” but that he thinks sports franchises are now establishing clear policies to address the off-the-field behavior of their athletes. “This is not unique to the NFL,” Obama said in an ESPN radio interview. “There have been some blind spots that are rooted not just in pro football but back into college football.... Certain behaviors have been tolerated.” (snip) Asked whether NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell had “too many men” around him as he was handling the matter, Obama made an argument for...