Football is still Americaâs most popular sport. And the NFL our biggest and most popular sports league. But while the NFLâs status as the king of Americaâs sports hill remains, I donât remember its position ever being as precarious. To wit, each of the biggest NFL-related stories of the year has been extremely unflattering to the league.
Thereâs all of the Colin Kaepernick-related stories (the protests, the reactions from the fans and the front offices and the freakin president to the protests, the boycotts, and the possible collusion to blackball him). And, then, the action on the field has been overshadowed by the conversations about what the action on the field is doing to the brains and bodies of the players.
The NFLâs ratings have reflected this, falling 9.7 percent this year after falling 8 percent last yearâa dip that was then attributed to the election. This decline has led to a $300 million drop in ad revenue. Which, for a multibillion-dollar behemoth, isnât the end of the world. I doubt anyone in the leagueâs front office is panicking. But I wouldnât be surprised if the whiskeys they order at their pre-Super Bowl meetings and parties this weekend were doubles.
Naturally, there are myriad possible reasons for this decline in viewership. Most notable is the fact that there are just too many things to watch and too many ways to consume media. People are just doing other things.
It is interesting, though, that a week before the Super Bowlâthe biggest sports and television event of the yearâthe stories dominating the national sports conversation have nothing to do with the NFL. Instead, weâre discussing, debating and arguing about a draft. A draft for the NBA All-Star Game. A draft that wasnât even televised. A motherfucking conference call. A Skype conversation between LeBron James and Steph Curry.
To be fair, Iâm sure by this time next week (as the actual game nears), the NFL will be back at the center of our public and cultural consciousness. Especially as the country puts our collective psychic powers together to band against Tom Brady and his merry crew ofâMAGAâ Patriots.
And like every other year, there will be Super Bowl parties, where many people will be only tangentially interested in the actual game. Only now, instead of it being cooler to give a shit about the gameâor to at least pretend that you doâitâs now better not to.
