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NFL viewership off 11% YOY (9 Viewers)

It would be great if they did this, but they won't... this would be in addition to, not instead of commercial breaks.  
Soccer manages to function in a world with no commercials.  Yes they have logos on the front of their jerseys, but the games are more fun.

The NFL can cut down commercial breaks. If they don't, they won't last.

One reason it's so hard to watch is that we've virtually eliminated commercials from our lives. In fact, aside from football/basketball games, I can't think of a scenario where I watch commercials.

Adapt to the 2016 viewing patterns of your audience, or suffer a massive ratings drop.  Your call, league.

 
They need let these guys do celebrations like they used to. Remember when Terrell Owens got that TD and pulled out a sharpie and signed the ball? Or the time he celebrated on the star? Don't see how it would hurt to let them do fun stuff like that again. Good stuff to talk about at the water cooler. What do we talk about now? 
I was at the game where TO took the cheerleader's pom poms.  Crowd was going crazy because it was unexpected and different. That appeal of what is he going to do next keeps people watching.  

 
There really haven't been any marquee games yet this season. A lot of injuries, suspensions, retirements, so many good teams have been down this year. The schedule maker probably thought they had some nice matchups but seems like every week the slate looks blah. A lot of the top teams being defensive orientated not helping.

 
Fariq said:
We need more rassling type stuff in football. I want parrots, I want snakes. Maybe get some wacky lineman to bite on penalty flags for laughs. 
I think foreign objects should be allowed.

 
Like the people in St. Louis, according to the NFL, it sounds like you guys just don't understand football.  This is great stuff!!!11!

 
I think my 2 biggest complaints are too many penalties and too many commercials. 

Every year we hear about a new "rules emphasis".  Seemingly every year one of the owners gets his panties in a twist because they lost an important game on a call the year before they feel should have been made, and they call for a crackdown on it the following year.  It's getting to be that after every big play you're looking for the flag.  Even the announcers are starting to complain.  Maybe it's because the level of play has decreased since teams can barely practice anymore.  I don't know.  Regardless, it gets annoying. 

The commercials on primetime games are extremely obnoxious, especially early in the game.  Team gets the ball runs a few plays, kicks a FG.  Go to commercial.  Kickoff is a touchback :yawn: , go to commercial.  3 plays and a punt, go to commercial...  1 minute left in the 1st quarter.  Team punts, go to commercial. Quarter ends 2 plays later, go to commercial.  The other team punts 2 minutes later, go to commercial.  I know you have to make money, but :wall:

Oh, and yeah...Phil Simms.  :thumbdown:

 
Can we stop with the faking of injuries to get a breather? 

CJ Anderson needs two guys to help him off the field. Commercial, come back and two plays later CJ is in and scores then SPRINTS to the sideline. Must have really been hurt...

Can they retroactively fine him for simulation? 

 
Can we stop with the faking of injuries to get a breather? 

CJ Anderson needs two guys to help him off the field. Commercial, come back and two plays later CJ is in and scores then SPRINTS to the sideline. Must have really been hurt...

Can they retroactively fine him for simulation? 
I think I see what you're doing here.

You know, if your game needs a rule book 700+ pages long, it might be time to consider the possibility that it's a tad overconstructed.

 
Can we stop with the faking of injuries to get a breather? 

CJ Anderson needs two guys to help him off the field. Commercial, come back and two plays later CJ is in and scores then SPRINTS to the sideline. Must have really been hurt...

Can they retroactively fine him for simulation? 
I think it would really help increase scoring if we allowed defensive players to line up on the other side of the line of scrimmage in the offensive backfield instead of calling that a penalty.

 
shader said:
The NFL needs to take drastic steps to alter their product in this new world.

But how?  The problem is that many people are moving on.  The NFL is so unbelievably out of touch that they wouldn't have a clue how to fix their product.  They basically lucked into a fantasy football revolution, and they've done nothing to improve the game in a long time.

5 steps to fix the game:

1. Shave one 30 second commercial off of each  stoppage.

2.  Allow celebrations

3.  Instant Replay is handled in 30 seconds by an offsite set of officials.  It can't be that difficult.  Use quick common sense and move on. 

4. Get rid of extra points.  You always go for two.

5.  Change play clock from 40 seconds to 30 seconds. If that's too quick for the fatties, they need to lose some weight.

None of these are outlandish but they would speed up the game and make it more enjoyable.
I like the above ideas and I would also widen the field which would lessen the number of players in the same space which lessens injuries and also allows for better QB play with more space.  

 
They should allow the WRs to run towards the line of scrimmage like in arena football. 

Maybe we'll see a >8yd pass

 
Maybe we could have an extreme football league. We could call it the XFL. Celebrations, taunting, helmet-to-helmet hits all legal in the XFL.

 
make the hashtags wider.

I'd love to see a game winning 35yd field goal attempt from about 33 degrees out wide

 
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This week's primetime games:

Jags/Titans - TNF

Skins/Bengals - London 9:30am

Only 2 4pm games: Chargers/Broncos and Packers/Falcons

Eagles/Cowboys - SNF

Vikings/Bears - MNF

This will be the Bears' 2nd MNF game through 8 weeks and their 4th PT game (SNF, 2 MNF, TNF).

 
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This week's primetime games:

Jags/Titans - TNF  --  brutal

Skins/Bengals - London 9:30am --  decent

Only 2 4pm games: Chargers/Broncos and Packers/Falcons  -  both decent

Eagles/Cowboys - SNF  very good

Vikings/Bears - MNF--   bad

This will be the Bears' 2nd MNF game through 8 weeks and their 4th PT game (SNF, 2 MNF, TNF).

 
I think part of it for me is, and has been for a few years now, simply oversaturation of the sport.

How many teams in the NFL right now are really compelling, exciting, the teams you WANT to see play?  Patriots, Cowboys, Seahawks?  Then you have the decent second tier - Broncos, Packers, maybe Vikings and Raiders at the moment.  This will surely be the case if you look back over the NFL's history, but there weren't TNF and London games in the past.  And there wasn't wall-to-wall coverage on every media outlet at all times.

Watching football used to be more of a special occasion thing...little bit of coverage during the week then you'd devote your Sunday, NFL Countdown, NFL Primetime, and you could be happily satisfied until next Sunday.  Outside of Jags and Titans fans and degenerate gamblers, who wants to watch this Thursday game?  Credit Goodell and NFL management for virtually dominating sports coverage in this country, but at the end of it all you have to have compelling storylines and a compelling product.  And outside of a select few teams, the NFL doesn't have that.  That was all well and good when the NFL was a weekend curiosity, but not when it's a daily news focal point.

 
Merton Hanks had some good insight and I agree with him.  From Peter King's MMQB:
 

“The NFL wants their players to be dynamic individuals from the start of the whistle to the end of the whistle, stop exactly what they’re doing on a dime, go back to their huddle and then do it again. After being in the league office and now being on the outside looking in after being in the league office for 13 seasons, there is a real line of demarcation that the NFL product inherently harms itself when it devalues its characters, when it doesn’t live up to the entertainment entity that it itself claims it is . . . Sportsmanship is a worthy goal. I’m not minimizing that. That’s the line the NFL is taking. But they are throwing out the baby with the bath water. They are stripping away what makes the league a must-watch event.’’

—Merton Hanks, who was the NFL’s vice president of football operations until last spring, to Tom Curran of Comcast Sports Net-New England. Hanks is now associate commissioner of Conference USA.
Goodell is a joyless twig.  Bring back the fun.  

 
I think part of it for me is, and has been for a few years now, simply oversaturation of the sport.

How many teams in the NFL right now are really compelling, exciting, the teams you WANT to see play?  Patriots, Cowboys, Seahawks?  Then you have the decent second tier - Broncos, Packers, maybe Vikings and Raiders at the moment.  This will surely be the case if you look back over the NFL's history, but there weren't TNF and London games in the past.  And there wasn't wall-to-wall coverage on every media outlet at all times.

Watching football used to be more of a special occasion thing...little bit of coverage during the week then you'd devote your Sunday, NFL Countdown, NFL Primetime, and you could be happily satisfied until next Sunday.  Outside of Jags and Titans fans and degenerate gamblers, who wants to watch this Thursday game?  Credit Goodell and NFL management for virtually dominating sports coverage in this country, but at the end of it all you have to have compelling storylines and a compelling product.  And outside of a select few teams, the NFL doesn't have that.  That was all well and good when the NFL was a weekend curiosity, but not when it's a daily news focal point.
The constant stadium extortion isn't helping.  They have proven they are totally willing to destroy long-term fans to make a quick buck.  

I mentioned it earlier, but I will mention it again.  They have gone completely overboard with driving profits.  They are 100% about the money and have no qualms about showing it.  That's just a huge turn-off for a lot of people.

This is more of a long term fatigue factor though.  I suspect there are multiple factors impacting the recent, large drop.

 
I guess I'm in the minority but I would not want them to loosen the restrictions on player celebration. These guys celebrate on every play as it is, even the most mundane of plays. Every tackle, every catch, every incompletion. What would happen if there were suddenly no endzone celebration penalties? It would be out of control. Emmanuel Sanders may do Michael Jackson's entire Motown25 performance. Some guys may recreate whole passages of the Bible. You'd have guys climbing the uprights so they can emulate their favorite stripper. No thank you.

I've said it before but what they need to do is call a penalty on guys making the first down signal on every first down. It's out of control. Every freaking guy does it. Jimmy Graham does it with the ball as do many others.  Running backs pop up on 2 yard carries so they can fire their arm forward as to alert everyone watching to what we already know. How is it not a taunting penalty? They call taunting for the most mundane reasons and yet flinging your arm forward like Jerry Seeman signaling a change of possession with 30 seconds to go in a tie game, and sometimes while holding then dropping the ball at the defenders feet, is not a penalty? Just for the sheer annoyance of the act it should be an ejection.

 
I guess I'm in the minority but I would not want them to loosen the restrictions on player celebration. These guys celebrate on every play as it is, even the most mundane of plays. Every tackle, every catch, every incompletion. What would happen if there were suddenly no endzone celebration penalties? It would be out of control. Emmanuel Sanders may do Michael Jackson's entire Motown25 performance. Some guys may recreate whole passages of the Bible. You'd have guys climbing the uprights so they can emulate their favorite stripper. No thank you.

I've said it before but what they need to do is call a penalty on guys making the first down signal on every first down. It's out of control. Every freaking guy does it. Jimmy Graham does it with the ball as do many others.  Running backs pop up on 2 yard carries so they can fire their arm forward as to alert everyone watching to what we already know. How is it not a taunting penalty? They call taunting for the most mundane reasons and yet flinging your arm forward like Jerry Seeman signaling a change of possession with 30 seconds to go in a tie game, and sometimes while holding then dropping the ball at the defenders feet, is not a penalty? Just for the sheer annoyance of the act it should be an ejection.
I don't know about you, but I watch sports to be entertained. While, sure, I can agree that some of the celebrations are dumb, it's why I watch. I don't want to watch robots out there playing football. Show some personality and flair. It's what makes watching the games enjoyable.

 
I wonder what percentage of NFL viewers have never actually watched a game in person, and whether or not that lack of connection has a detrimental effect over time. I'd be interested to compare that to the other major leagues.

 
They piloted their run at reality TV the last few years with Manziel and Deflategate... I blame every one of you penis wrinkles that took that bait hook, line, sinker.

Every one of you sheep that bought it.

Now we will get more and more of this ####.

 
This week's primetime games:

Jags/Titans - TNF- not watching

Skins/Bengals - London 9:30am- not watching, doing my usual Sunday morning routine.

Only 2 4pm games: Chargers/Broncos and Packers/Falcons- good games but getting bored after 1 oclock games

Eagles/Cowboys - SNF- Walking Dead

Vikings/Bears - MNF- Westworld and Shameless on DVR

This will be the Bears' 2nd MNF game through 8 weeks and their 4th PT game (SNF, 2 MNF, TNF).

 
I wonder what percentage of NFL viewers have never actually watched a game in person, and whether or not that lack of connection has a detrimental effect over time. I'd be interested to compare that to the other major leagues.
Games suck worse at the stadium

 

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