Game of the Year?

So basically you are going to join the other millions of ex fans that quit watching the Goodell's NFL. It cracks me up that the league is so clueless as to why their ratings are plummeting. Maybe they should pay attention their customers and listen to what they've been saying for the past 10 years.

#1 Clean up the officiating! - BTW handing Bryant the game ball for getting away with the most blatant offensive pass interference (multiple times) I've seen is a kick in the balls to fans everywhere. When you invest 3-4 hours of your day in a game and then the outcome is dictated by bad officiating it's a joke. It's WWF. Not saying thats why we lost at all. Just saying that's 1 reason people don't watch like they used to. It drives me nuts. Sneeze on Brady and it's 15 yards. Pick up Ben and slam him on his head after kicking him in the crotch and it's a good effort by the defense. Holding? it's worse than traveling in the NBA. They call it when someone pisses off the ref I think.

#2 LESS COMMERCIALS! - watching an NFL or watch 3 hours of infomercials? It's worse than watching a movie on A&E or Lifetime.

#3 STOP CHANGING THE RULES!! - defense has been outlawed - this is what erks me more than anything. The real reason they eliminated kick offs is so they can get in more commercials - see #2!. 25 yard line? WTF! It's a fumble? It's a catch? It's Incomplete? WTF is it!??

 

Dont start this 8-8 7-9 crap will win this division, everbody can start dumbing down their expectations for the playoffs because this team sucks but playing the way they will finish out the year they dont deserve to be in the playoffs with some crappy record to embarrass themselves and the fan base even further than they already have....

 

Whaaa? We are done. Dunn. Dung

 

The #1 reason imo for declining viewership is the amount of penalties. More importantly the ones called on the defense. Like you said, if you look sideways at an offensive player its a penalty. The second reason is the Anthem kneel downs. Does the viewing public, actually give two ****s about what these athletes think. I can make up my own mind thank you. Do we constantly need actors and musicians forcing their views upon us just because they have a platform?

 

I was actually gonna start a thread about this and just haven't gotten around to it. I personally think there are a multitude of factors going in to it. I'm a die hard action figure collector and love He-Man and Ninja Turtles among other brands. In 2002 Mattel done a re-release of the line and made some super awesome looking figures. They were flying off the shelves and all of us nerds were stabbing each other in the backs hard to get each new wave as soon as it hit the shelf. Then Mattel got the idea to make tons and I mean TONNNNNNNS of variants and they stopped making truly new figures and the line just fizzled out quick. Now most of that line is worth basically zilch. The main reason I think that happened is because they over saturated the market. If you look at what has happened under Goodell we have gotten football on Sunday, Monday, Thursday, and even some Saturday games. They just put so many games on tv and there are really only so many games that are "tv worthy". So that's one reason I think the numbers are down is because the American public is nothing if not fickle.

I agree about the penalties and the lengths of games. It's just so over the top but I don't think it's as big of a factor as over saturation. I also think that the "protests" by complete and utterly clueless idiots like Kap also turned people off. Another thing I think that have viewership down is sorta the same thing that happened to the NBA. Peyton Manning was a posterboy for the league the same as Jordan was for the NBA and now that he's gone I think a lot of casual fans don't have that person that just really intrigues them the way Manning did. Another thing that I know for a fact took some numbers from the NFL, and especially in certain markets, was the great post season in baseball. My Cubbies literally DOUBLED the Bears in the rating in the Chicago area and that was even when we were playing on a network that most people don't have (FS1). The Cubs CLOBBERED the NFL. I really think if MLB plays their cards right they have a chance to really reemerge now because I heard tons of people talking about watching baseball this year that haven't watched it in years. My wife can't stand baseball but my love for the Cubbies has even infected her and she watched tons of games with me this year. She doesn't even do that with Steelers games. Just my two cents. You think these things are valid?

 

I think your point on Manning is valid. He was very relatable to the fan base across the NFL. Who do they relate to now? Luke Keichly would be the closest to my views of football. JH92 for the Steelers if you want to bring it closer to home. I love David Johnson with the Cards. But I really don't fall in line with the popular views of current players.

 

Yeah Manning was sorta the old school "All American" dude that wasn't surrounded by scandals and just general stupidity. Now the league is filled with dudes that are covered in tats and can't hardly speak good English. That kind of urban stuff doesn't really relate to the older generation of fans. They want more Unitas, Montana, and Manning type guys. Maybe just a generation gap there and I suppose that's what you're referring to in saying you can't really relate to them. There are still great players in the league though and people that I think the league could definitely try and market to the "every man". J.J. Watt strikes me as a guy that's pretty down to earth and just an old school football player.

 

Me and my best friend, also a Steelers fan, refer to these as "games where the refs think they are the stars of the NFL," as if we watch the games to see them. It's ridiculous that it takes four hours to watch a 60-minute game.

 

What's funny is that one of my buddies was talking about how stupid baseball is because of how long the games are. LOL! Although he literally hardly watches a single snap of football and only plays fantasy. Just funny that people don't dog on football for how long their games are. Also the one ref that I think really loves himself is Ed Hochuli. I think he likes to throw flags so he can get in front of the camera and flash his flabby man boobs and old man guns. LOL! Midlife crisis much???

 

Ed Hochuli is the first ref that came to mind when I made that post.