Has the NFL bubble burst?

[Cheesehead Craig]

Market saturation. Sunday night games, Monday night games, Thursday night games. Football 12 months of the year. The draft. The combine. Beginning of free agency period. Mel kipper. The NFL network. On and on.

Scandal. Deflate gate. Free Brady! Drugs. Millionaires knocking women around. DUIs. Steroids. Oh my!

Roger Gooddell as the face of the league. A bumbling, unlikeable, uncharismatic, smarmy, douchey, power hungry attack dog for the owners. Other than 32 Billionaires, who likes this pogue?

Damn, that reads like "We Didn't Start the Fire" by Billy Joel.

[KYPack]

Market saturation. Sunday night games, Monday night games, Thursday night games. Football 12 months of the year. The draft. The combine. Beginning of free agency period. Mel kipper. The NFL network. On and on.

Scandal. Deflate gate. Free Brady! Drugs. Millionaires knocking women around. DUIs. Steroids. Oh my!

Roger Gooddell as the face of the league. A bumbling, unlikeable, uncharismatic, smarmy, douchey, power hungry attack dog for the owners. Other than 32 Billionaires, who likes this pogue?

Strong work there, George.

[Pugger]

I stopped watching games live as the cost to follow an out of market team with NFL ticket was too much. I use NFL gamepass now and watch Sunday night or Monday morning. I think a lot of people are cord cutting as well with lots of different streaming options becoming better and more available. Around the same time I decided to stop paying for NFL ticket I also cancelled DirecTV as that was the only reason I had it. I'm saving around $850 a year, but probably more as no doubt DirecTV's prices would go up as they always do.

Try to find someone back in Wisconsin willing and invest in a Slingbox. We are doing it now and it works great. We purchased a refurbished Slingbox on Amazon and set it up in my BIL's house in GB. Anything he gets from his cable company is streamed to us via the internet. We can now watch all of the programming in GB down here.

[King Friday]

Don't look now, but another arrow in the quiver of those who predict a decline in the future for the NFL, such as Mark Cuban. MNF posted an anemic 5.7 overnight rating this week. Granted, it was up against the CLUMP debate...which had a huge viewership. However, this is yet another example of how the NFL's drive to expand into every nook and cranny of the TV schedule might not be paying dividends. If people see it every day of the week, it isn't special anymore. Good thing they have a game in London at 9:30am Eastern this week...I'm sure lots of people will be tuning in to that one.

[Joemailman]

Don't look now, but another arrow in the quiver of those who predict a decline in the future for the NFL, such as Mark Cuban. MNF posted an anemic 5.7 overnight rating this week. Granted, it was up against the CLUMP debate...which had a huge viewership. However, this is yet another example of how the NFL's drive to expand into every nook and cranny of the TV schedule might not be paying dividends. If people see it every day of the week, it isn't special anymore. Good thing they have a game in London at 9:30am Eastern this week...I'm sure lots of people will be tuning in to that one.

I think MNF has been in decline for a while. Sunday Night is now the marquee game. I sure don't watch MNF like I used to. You also have 2 teams from the same region of the country who haven't been good for a few years. And you had the debate that more than 80 million people watched.

Giants at Vikings this Monday might give us a better idea where MNF stands.

[vince]

I'm good with this. Perhaps they'll retrench a bit and build more value into their delivery for more hardcore consumers rather than dumbing it down in a never-ending attempt to expand the market of casual fans upon whom the greatest aspects of the game are almost entirely lost.

[channtheman]

MNF lost a lot of luster for me when it went to ESPN. Even more so now that I don't have a cable or satellite service. I definitely agree that fewer people care about the"primetime" games on Monday and Thursdays. I just don't care to watch two crap teams play each other. Even the better matchups have lost their appeal on me to some degree.

[Bretsky]

girl on girl porn is just more enjoyable

[SkinBasket]

I think you're seeing the decline of the inflated interest that was generated by pushing fantasy football. Just like any other game, though, people move on, and there were a lot of people more invested in games because they had a fantasy stake in a player or two. Fuck, for the past few years, a majority of pre and post game shows were dealing almost exclusively with "fantasy" stats instead of analyzing what those stats meant to the team and their real future.

Combine that with people watching in less traditional ways, and you have a "decline," which I think is simply an end to a boost created by a very successful multi-year marketing tool. I do think there will a longer term slump, as focusing on individual players broke a lot of fans' "loyalty" to specific teams, and football was about the last major sport where team was still the focus. They may need some of those old NFL film type propaganda pieces to start rebuilding the image of what football should be.

[Rastak]

I think you're seeing the decline of the inflated interest that was generated by pushing fantasy football. Just like any other game, though, people move on, and there were a lot of people more invested in games because they had a fantasy stake in a player or two. Fuck, for the past few years, a majority of pre and post game shows were dealing almost exclusively with "fantasy" stats instead of analyzing what those stats meant to the team and their real future.

Combine that with people watching in less traditional ways, and you have a "decline," which I think is simply an end to a boost created by a very successful multi-year marketing tool. I do think there will a longer term slump, as focusing on individual players broke a lot of fans' "loyalty" to specific teams, and football was about the last major sport where team was still the focus. They may need some of those old NFL film type propaganda pieces to start rebuilding the image of what football should be.

I had a co-worker several years ago who talked football non-stop. He was an avid fantasy player. Week 17 of the season, and I see him in the cafeteria. We're engaging in small talk and he says "What are you doing this Sunday now that football is over?" , I said "You nuts? With a few playoff spots on the line it's gonna be great!", he said "Oh, once the fantasy year ends I'm done".

I was seriously thinking WTF. You can't possibly be serious, but he clearly was.

[Harlan Huckleby]

Sports are deadly boring unless you really get deeply engaged and learn about the tendencies of individual players. I agree with Vince that appealing to casual fans won't sustain interest for long.

Between college and pro, there's way too much football to expect high interest beyond local fans.

[gbgary]

i think i heard/read that all sports tv ratings are down.

[red]

Don't look now, but another arrow in the quiver of those who predict a decline in the future for the NFL, such as Mark Cuban. MNF posted an anemic 5.7 overnight rating this week. Granted, it was up against the CLUMP debate...which had a huge viewership. However, this is yet another example of how the NFL's drive to expand into every nook and cranny of the TV schedule might not be paying dividends. If people see it every day of the week, it isn't special anymore. Good thing they have a game in London at 9:30am Eastern this week...I'm sure lots of people will be tuning in to that one.

its funny that trump was worried about people not watching him at the debate cause he was worried about people watching MNF instead

when in reality, it was football that should have been worried about the debate stealing all their viewers

[vince]

I think you're seeing the decline of the inflated interest that was generated by pushing fantasy football. Just like any other game, though, people move on, and there were a lot of people more invested in games because they had a fantasy stake in a player or two. Fuck, for the past few years, a majority of pre and post game shows were dealing almost exclusively with "fantasy" stats instead of analyzing what those stats meant to the team and their real future.

Combine that with people watching in less traditional ways, and you have a "decline," which I think is simply an end to a boost created by a very successful multi-year marketing tool. I do think there will a longer term slump, as focusing on individual players broke a lot of fans' "loyalty" to specific teams, and football was about the last major sport where team was still the focus. They may need some of those old NFL film type propaganda pieces to start rebuilding the image of what football should be.

Good post. I never would have tied it to fantasy football but that's right on.

[Tony Oday]

I only watch Packer Games now. The rest can chortle my white nuts since apparently I'm a racist that hates the black man and it's all my fault that police shoot poor college bound perfect black children that never ever would hurt someone else.