I honestly don't think this has anything to do with the ratings drop. Players have been doing this way before this year. Abdul Ryul (Chris Jackson) NBA was doing it 20 years and nobody cared.

I honestly do not watch the games anymore. I follow live fantasy stats and highlights. I talk to other people who play fantasy FB and they tell me the same thing. The NFL is in a decline in viewership because the game has evolved into this Disney full contact sport.

I honestly don't think this has anything to do with the ratings drop. Players have been doing this way before this year. Abdul Ryul (Chris Jackson) NBA was doing it 20 years and nobody cared.

I honestly do not watch the games anymore. I follow live fantasy stats and highlights. I talk to other people who play fantasy FB and they tell me the same thing. The NFL is in a decline in viewership because the game has evolved into this Disney full contact sport.

You are entitled to that opinion, but I highly doubt it's correct in this case.

You might follow stats and not the games, but most people still prefer to watch the games as well. Or they used to. I think this unquestionably has almost everything to do with the protests. These are steep drop offs, not a steady decline.

As for what Chris Jackson did, he definitely took a large amount of heat for that, and it still comes up. But that was one incident, and it was basketball. This is far more widespread, and it's happening in a much more popular sport. So people are sick of it.

I'm absolutely tired of the touch football style of play these days, as well as all of the arbitrary dictates of Roger Goodell. But this rapid decline is happening right at the point that all of this garbage protesting began. I don't think that's an accident.

Here is my take from a Saints fan perspective...

NFL launches NFL Network in 2003

Hurricane Katrina
Immediately after Tom Benson claimed the Saints facilities were damaged beyond repair and he set everything in motion to move the Saints to San Antonio.

Commissioner Tagliabue along with other NFL owners stopped Benson and Saints from moving.

Roger Goodell becomes commissioner in 2007

• NFL Network begins to become a PR mouth piece for the NFL commissioners office
• Rediculous player suspensions start
• Player misconduct not handled internally but in the public eye
• Patriots caught wiretapping into Jets lockerroom - public specticle
• Thursday Night Football comes along....
• More public PR disasters, Goodell becomes even more powerful
• Bountygate - Where former commissioner Tagliabue had to return to mediate and release players from suspensions because of made up evidence. Players were about to bring the NFL to its knees in federal court.
• Blah blah blah - drama drama
• Concussions - NFL knew about them then get busted and start changing all rules.
• More drama
• Deflategate - more Goodell drama
• Tom Brady suspension - more Goodell drama

Colin Krapinjack starts boycotting America flag before games and it's allowed
(even though U.S. Olympias stood for the U.S.S.R.'s national anthem during the cold war, players protest their own country's flag - unsportsmanlike...)

So really the recent protest and allowing politics to start every game is only the latest B.S. that fans have to put up with watching the NFL. To me, there's a very consistent pattern involving the de-evolution of the game of American Football since Roger Goodell became commissioner.

And Qbrees9 is right - the market is saturated. Way too many MNF, TNF, SNF games. GIVE IT A REST NFL. Even I get tired watching games.

I can only speak for myself, but I've stopped watching most games because of the anthem protests. I have read that many others are too.

Hollywood is taking a hit as well. People are finally sick of their crap.

Another reason I'm sick of it is all of the in your face crap and stupid celebrations after every play. And its bleeding over into NFL promos and commercials.

As for what Chris Jackson did, he definitely took a large amount of heat for that, and it still comes up. But that was one incident, and it was basketball. This is far more widespread, and it's happening in a much more popular sport. So people are sick of it.

It was more than one incident, and like Kap, it took a couple of games before people even noticed. I think what he eventually did was decide, since he was refusing to stand during the anthem for religious beliefs, was to just pray while the anthem was being played.

It kind of died down after that.

I'm saying that it was just him. People definitely took notice and didn't appreciate it. But you didn't see any boycotting because it wasn't a widespread thing. That was the point.

This whole situation doesn't remotely compare to that. A guy, here and there, doing something spread out over a lot of years doesn't generate the level of outrage that these BLM protests do.