They also have the concussion issue, the domestic abuse issues, and now the (invented) anthem controversy.

But I think having games on any which day of the week, any time (the London games come on at 6:00 a.m. Pacific!), etc. is diluting the product. And it makes it harder to plan to watch your team play. At this point, they could be on Sunday (any time from 6:00 a.m to 5:00 p.m.), Monday, or Thursday nights. (This is happening with college football, too, the ADs are having trouble because the fans want consistent start times and their TV contracts don't permit it).

I'm not dismissing any of the other problems, the NFL has an image problem that's been building for a while, and it's not Goodell's fault, but it would be just like the conservative owners to blame it on players kneeling during the anthem instead of looking at the other issues.

The NFL has always been just like a TV show. It was on at a familiar time every week, and you planned your day around when it was on. With games on at odd times of the day and week, fans got lost as to when the games were on.

Goodell would have to have a pigectomy on both hands to get to merely ham-handed. He serves at the sole pleasure of the owners, so I guess they're the problem behind the problem of Goodell, but Roger is pretty offensive all on his own.

But I know that for me (at least), the concussion issue finally tore it for me. I've rationalized and justified quite a bit over the years: Players dying young or living out their lives in terrible pain, rampant domestic violence, abuse of painkillers and performance enhancing drugs, devastating injuries, and so forth. I don't know what the borderline would have been for the post-mortem examination of those 110 players' brains would have been (10? 50? 100? don't know), but all but one was far too high. I can no longer watch young men grind up their brains for my entertainment.

One guy in a non-market city isn't going to make any difference to the NFL, but this is the year I have to give up on football. I've watched and enjoyed it for decades, but I can't to it anymore.

But you are having the last laugh. If they’d just allowed your peaceful protest, this wouldn’t have happened

And the ones they trot out are the viewers that are upset about the kneeling. Those aren't the viewers they are losing. This is simply a blame game. The loss started before Kap took a knee. They are just continuing. Pretty sad how the two are being conflated.

no stability in star power due to injuries, even with all the rule changes to give passing offenses a VERY slanted field in their favor the general level of QB play is trash, and folks are tired of seeing New England win every year...

OK, they won 3 of 4 years in the early 2000s, but..."every year"? Hardly.

Teams,and a limited Talent Pool of Blue Chip Athletes. Every Billionaire wants a Team,and if it wasn't for the Tax Payer Subsidies,this League would blow up.

when you dedicate your time to watch it on monday, thursday or sunday, you do not want the distraction of having the commentator bringing up the fact that certain players stood and why.

you wait all week for Sunday night

"you do not want the distraction of having the commentator..."

Seems a problem with the play-by-play announcers rather than the players.

NFL is still gargantuan, and its "tanking" numbers still put it far ahead of any other sport's viewership.

Personally, I don't care one way or the other, but I also don't believe that Kaepernick's protest has cost the sport 3 million viewers.

the NFL now offers on Direct TV etc? The article seems to concentrate on the nationwide bcast games.

Could be that a segment of the viewership has moved away from the CBS/FOX et al bcast model.

They moved to L.A. Perhaps the people of San Diego aren't watching anymore. Recall last year the ratings were down at the start perhaps because of the election coverage. Of course Trump does want to get revenge against the league he sued over the USFL deal many years ago. Trump sued, won and got eleven dollars! This is a notable Trump screw-up that demonstrates no one wins under Trump. He's a dumb-ass.

That is an issue, too.

it will go back up.

Unless it's racists boycotting their uppity players trying to get them to see that BLM.

All the talk about concussion, domestic violence did affect me some, but I just got bored with it.

Used to have season tickets even. Wonder if anyone else has experienced the same?

Never was a season ticket holder but my interest just waned away over the past several years. I could care less if the NFL folded tomorrow.

Same small group of top teams year after year. Ever rising prices to go see a game which is way out of my price range.

You can only get a limited amount of free games on TV anymore and the number of those are shrinking.

Bread and circuses fails when the peasants can't afford to go to the games or even watch them on TV.

I am just bored with the whole overpriced, same winning teams every year, overhyped BS.

Cleveland Browns are 0-8. Zero viewership in North and Central Ohio? (Cincy at 3-4?)

Denver, LA (Chargers) and Oakland with losing records? San Diego stopped watching football, of course.

New York Giants 1-6. San Francisco 0-8! There's a 5% drop in just those markets!

No undefeated runs. Lots of parity and mediocrity.

Backup quarterbacks and Tom Brady is highest rated?

Who wants to watch Tom Brady?

Maybe it'll comeback as the games begin to matter. But what players do on the sidelines pregame - who has ever watched that?

Ratings for TV are down in general. Is this more or less than other shows.

I stream all of my games on my Kodi and Roku boxes. Do the Nielsen ratings count these two platforms?

Every week there are relevant games

Every week I have to double check when Michigan is playing (that's my team, but it could apply to most teams) because the start time is TBD. I go back for a game every year, and it makes it more difficult to plan weekend activities, too.

too!

I don't believe they have a reliable way to measure people watching on a streaming service. My Comcast stream on a cheap WiFi TV might be able to tell i'm streaming through the modem, but it won't know what channel i have on. The main cable box might.

Also in public opinion polling, some of the meatballs who say they're not going to watch because of the anthem nonsense might still be watching because, you know, football.

I think this slide is likely less precipitous than advertised.

We want to watch a game as an escape from politics.

We were sick of this last year. Fox News and now Trump have beat this dead horse into the ground. And they're trying to hijack the narrative. Time to move on.

I believe viewers are getting used to on-demand options and being able to watch just what you want, when you want, and on whatever platform you want. The NFL is stuck with contracts that do not allow for individual game viewing unless you are on a specific provider (Dish). I have been a long suffering Chief's fan but don't live in the kc market. I would pay per game if that were an option, but it is not, so on Sunday, Monday or Thursday when a game is on between the Jets and the Bill's I simply find something else to do (no offense to either team or fan base, it is just an example). Give us NFL on Hulu, Netflix or whatever and the ratings may increase...and stop allowing teams to dump their fan base because the owners don't want to spend their money on the stadiums they use to make money.

I watch online using the product the NFL markets directly to the European market. I do this by using a VPN that makes my computer look like it's in England or France or wherever I decide I want to be from that particular Sunday. I plug my computer into my TV with an HDMI cable. Few NFL fans know this exists because the league has cow towed to DirectTV for 25 years, ignoring the fact there are far more NFL fans who have cable than satellite, even in this day and age when both are in decline. Even more have internet connections.

The league needs to get with the program. MLB began offering online packages to their fans a decade ago.

with a Southern accent.

All he has to say is something like "Jew see hee-im kitch 'at bawl?"

Street cred...

Nobody tries anymore...

bazillion dollar edifices to greed for the owners are getting emptier by the game.

Good thing the seats are painted to look like fans .

Things change.