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.