Whaddya know! The NFL’s ratings tanked after the recent escapades of that great American, San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick.
As detailed by The Daily Wire, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell has been more than understanding about the insulting behavior Kaepernick and other NFL players have displayed regarding our national anthem. Now, the chickens are coming home to roost.
The NFL’s ratings for the first week of the regular season plunged from last year. The Thursday night opening game: down. The Sunday night opener: down again. The Monday night games? Guess.
For example, Vikings-49ers, the last game of Monday Night football in 2015, grabbed four million more viewers than this year’s opening Monday Night Football game. The only game that drew more than it did last year was Sunday afternoon’s Cowboys-Giants on Fox instead of the Ravens-Broncos on CBS last year, likely because the Cowboys are a perennially popular team.
As Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk reported:
Via Forbes, the Thursday night opener between the Panthers and Broncos drew 25.2 million, down eight percent from 2015 (Steelers-Patriots) and six percent from 2014 (Packers-Seahawks). Also, Sunday night’s game between the Patriots and Cardinals generated an audience of 23.1 million. Despite the game being decided at the last second, the audience fell by 14 percent, in comparison to last year’s Giants-Cowboys Sunday night opener. All metrics were down with the exception of the late-afternoon Sunday game, thanks to another Week One Giants-Cowboys contest, which saw growth in ratings from 14.7 from last year’s Ravens-Broncos game to 16.9, according to SportsBusiness Daily.
It’s interesting the Cowboys still drew a big audience, especially in light of remarks from Cowboys owner/general manager Jerry Jones in a radio interview with KRLD-FM on Tuesday:
I got to give a big pat on the back to our entire team, our coaching staff, our entire organization. We strongly, strongly support the flag in every way we support — and it’s almost ridiculous to be saying it — the people who for generations and generations have given it all up so that we can get out here and show off in front of millions of people on television. We respect that so much. That’s the real business. The forum of the NFL and the forum on television is a very significant thing. I’m for it being used in every way we can to support the great, great contributors in our society, and that’s people that have supported America, the flag, and there’s no reason not to go all out right there. And for anybody to use parts of that visibility to do otherwise is really disappointing.
