The 2017 NFL season kicked off the same way the 2016 season ended — with players kneeling during the national anthem and viewers turning the game off. To make matters even worse for the NFL, some liberals are now calling for a boycott against the league until Colin Kaepernick gets a job.
The NFL’s season opener on Thursday night between the Kansas City Chiefs and the New England Patriots saw a 13% decline in viewership from last year’s opening game.
The game was the least viewed season opener in half a decade, which is not good news for the NFL as last season saw a double-digit drop in viewership after players protested the national anthem.
So, what happened?
Kansas City Chiefs cornerback Marcus Peters sat during the national anthem — a decision that quickly garnered a lot of attention:
The move by Peters comes after nearly a dozen football players for the Cleveland Browns kneeled in protest during the anthem in a preseason game on August 21.
The protest by Browns players angered Cleveland’s police union to the point where they will no longer participate in the raising of the flag during the national anthem at home games.
“The players not standing for the national anthem is offensive because of the sacrifices that people make that allows these guys to enjoy the success that they have,” Cleveland Police Patrolmen’s Association President Steve Loomis said. “While they’re benefiting from protection of the flag, they are kneeling in disrespect of it.”
A 2016 poll from Yahoo Sports revealed that 44% of NFL fans would give up watching professional football altogether if more players followed in Colin Kaepernick’s footsteps by disrespecting the flag.
Despite the anthem protests — which are supported almost exclusively by liberals and have little to no support from conservatives — the NFL is now under attack by the same liberals who divided the league in the first place.
Social justice warrior Shaun King is now calling for liberals to protest the NFL by not watching any games because of the NFL’s “mistreatment” of Colin Kaepernick — who is still unemployed — which King says is “wrong.”
Kaepernick was voted by fans as the most hated player in the NFL in 2016, and one NFL general manager said that 70% of NFL teams “genuinely hate him.”
Aside from being the most despised player in the NFL, Kaepernick performed poorly in 2016, ranking near the bottom of ESPN’s Total Quarterback Ratings.
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