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(Vote) Please finish this sentence: My interest in the NFL (2 Viewers)

For those who have a decreased interest, is it because

  • the level of play has been on a decline

    Votes: 8 3.0%

  • the politics involved in the NFL

    Votes: 38 14.4%

  • just bc (any reason, such as family obligations, work obligations, etc.)

    Votes: 30 11.4%

  • a combination of above

    Votes: 65 24.6%

  • other

    Votes: 15 5.7%

  • my interest is not down

    Votes: 108 40.9%
  • Total voters
    264
My interest is down. Flags, the catch not a catch and other rules that I can't keep up with anymore, plus just rather spend time with my family and doing family things on Sunday. 

On a side note the fans are starting to bother me. Politics affect everyone's livelihood and to act like most of us wouldn't protest or try to do something if the president said we should be fired for execrising our rights is baffling to me. I also hate when people complain about how much money the players make, but rarely complain about how much the owners make. I can't have that argument again or i might lose my mind. 

 
I just don't care enough anymore to sit through the bull#### (commercials, nozzle talking heads, nozzle players, nozzle fans, the political stuff that's attaching itself to the league, the officiating, etc, etc ad infinitum ad nauseam).  The more and more obvious health risks to the players are an underlying factor too.  Fantasy kept me interested the past 4 or 5 years anyway, but last year I pretty much totally burnt out on that angle as well. 

I still love the Steelers, and expect I will continue try and watch them when I can, but I haven't watched a single second of a game yet this season due to other obligations.  Surprisingly, I haven't really missed it. 

 
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I have watched the NFL mostly for fantasy football but also for my local team but injuries have wrecked my fantasy teams and my Vikings. I lose interest watching lessor talented backups and putting backups  in my fantasy lineup. I draft solid backups like Henry and Carson thinking I am solid and then lose 2 Rbs in Cook and Carson in the span of a few hours

 
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1. Commercials (TD-Commercial-Kickoff-Commercial-One Play-Two minute warning-commercial)

2. Flags/Penalties/Instant replay - These artificially extend the game which leads to more commercials

3. Owners/Commissioner: The fact that the they know the above but won't change the rules because it lines their pockets with money. Good for them I guess. But I wont support their cause with my time or mind-share.

 
Do people still watch games, start to finish, that don’t involve their home/favorite franchise? I follow games / FF periodically [on my phone] & watch red zone if I’m free. I paid for Game Pass to 1) watch the Lions, & 2) watch condensed games.

 
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Interest is down for many reasons.  Many of which have been stated.  Commercials, flags, poor play, and more importantly to me is sitting and/or stretching out during the National Anthem.  I would rather watch a solid Saturday Night college game right now.  The fans are totally into it.  The play is not bad at all.  Replays do not take that much time.  Less injuries it seems but maybe I am wrong.

I can keep up with my fantasy need to knows through this board and other reading outlets if I want or need to.  

Nice poll.  Worded nicely as to not offend some.  

 
My interest is different now.  I'd much rather spend my Sunday daytime doing something with my young kids.  But I still DVR the Eagles game and never miss a snap, usually watched after the kids are asleep or when they are doing something they'd rather do alone.  Then I'll watch the Sunday night game DVRed after I finish the Eagles game.  The Monday night game I might or might not watch depending on if it's a good game.  If it's involving an NFCE team I'll probably watch, otherwise 50-50.

But I pretty much don't watch live Sunday day games, rarely watch Thursdays unless the Eagles are playing, and never watch London games.

When the kids were too young to be out and about football would always be on during the day Sunday.

I can't watch live NFL because of the commercials.  I think the advent of Red Zone has allowed the NFL to sell more commercial time because the hardcore fans will tolerate the commercials for their home team and flip to Red Zone when the local team isn't on.

I don't care about the politics, commissioner, or other stuff.  The NFL is a diversion/hobby for me and I keep it that way.

 
My interest is the same as it's always been.  I have always loved football and probably always will.  If my viewing ever goes down it will be because I am busy and not because of politics.  If the game game were to change too much or something major happened to the product then I may change my viewing as well.

Fantasy football and the RedZone channel have increased my viewing over the years but I have always tried to watch the Bears game along with the prime time games.  In the past I didn't care as much about the other games on TV.

 
Nearing 200 votes, hopefully votes keep coming... With 500 votes, even though a small sample size, you can start forming some sort of opinion with a little validation, especially on a FF board. 

Interesting and surprising so far, TBH.

 
I'm curious how the voting would shake out between people who have always just enjoyed football vs the ones who mostly just play fantasy.  This being a fantasy site will skew the results me thinks.  Personally, I've watched football years before I knew FF was a thing, and continue to watch years after I stopped playing FF.

 
It's hard to say. I still watch all the Redskins games for sure. But unless there is another interesting game on that I want to watch, I don't go out of the way to try and watch it like I used to do. Some of that has to do with a bunch of bad matchups and some is due to having kids now, so it's not like I can just sit around all Sunday and watch games.

 
My interest hasn't decreased specifically this year, it's about the same as in the past, but it's definitely down from ~5-7 years ago.

I'll watch the Bills game start to finish and then watch bits and pieces of other games but never sit down to watch.  Last year was the first year that I didn't religiously watch the playoffs.  I don't play fantasy football any longer, haven't in like 5 years now.  For me it's really just about the time commitment and the stoppages in play.  I much prefer college football over the NFL, and I don't have the patience for 2 full days of stoppages, reviews, commercials, etc.....after Saturday I'm done.  I watch probably as much sports as I used to when I was younger, but I've noticed that I gravitate towards sports with minimal stoppages - soccer, esports, to name a few.

I find the constant stoppages in college football to be palatable for the sheer number of televised games.  I'd probably have more of an interest in the NFL I didn't have to pay for an extra package to have all of the games at my fingertips, but I'm sure that's not in the NFL's best interest to give me all of the games without getting their cut.  I have no desire to pay for Sunday Ticket or to seek things out to watch them illegally.  As long as I get the Bills game.... :shrug: .

I have noticed over the years that my interest in the rest of the NFL is sometimes dependent on the Bills performance.  There's no point in watching other AFC contenders and getting jazzed up for a wildcard race when your team isn't in it.  I watched more NFL this past week than I did for the first 3 weeks....caught part of the 4 PM games, caught part of SNF, even watched a few minutes of Football Night In America.....I don't think it's a coincidence that the Bills had just upset the Falcons in the 1 PM games.  If the Bills had lost, like I fully expected them to, I probably wouldn't have watched any football for the rest of the day.

 
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msudaisy26 said:
My interest is down. Flags, the catch not a catch and other rules that I can't keep up with anymore, plus just rather spend time with my family and doing family things on Sunday. 

On a side note the fans are starting to bother me. Politics affect everyone's livelihood and to act like most of us wouldn't protest or try to do something if the president said we should be fired for execrising our rights is baffling to me. I also hate when people complain about how much money the players make, but rarely complain about how much the owners make. I can't have that argument again or i might lose my mind. 
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Wait till the next contract negotiation bogs down and the season is remotely threatened. I bet sentiment runs 80-20 in favor of the owners in here. No love of the underdog in that contest.

 
The majority of votes say their interest is down. The majority of those voters say it's because the politics of the NFL (or that along with a combination of other factors). That's not very surprising to me...I totally agree with them. It's the same reason ESPN is now utter garbage 90% of the time.

 
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While I guess I end up echoing many previous observations/statements, my own interest has held the same but trending down, but would be different if it were not for fantasy, which makes watching the available games in my area more worthwhile to watch.

I don't care about the political brou-ha-ha going on right now. In my mind, people have the right to peacefully protest the way they want. I think professional sports isn't the best time or place to do that, but I do recognize that players think the platform they have as pros affords more visibility to their viewpoints, which is fine by me. 

Aside that, here are some specific reasons why my interest is waning (apologies in advance for the wall of text):

  • The game is overtly commercialized -- from the billions of commercials to the product placement, even to the slick corporate presentation of the game itself (the multiple "causes" the NFL shoves in front of viewers for their own commercial gain), all of that is just at a sickening level. It's that way across all life in this country, but it's just one more venue that I'm constantly assailed by it when all I want to do is watch a game.
  • The league itself is overtly commercialized -- so, no real surprise that the commissioner serves at the behest and best interest of the owners, but the league is at the point where it's movements, policies, decisions, etc. move more and more away from the interests of the fans to the point where it's sublime. Games are not affordable, even for the lowest attended teams, merchandise prices are inexcuseable for a shmatta put together by some kids in Eastern Asia, and whole cities and fanbases are subject to the whim of making an extra buck to line billionaire's pockets. Again, not unique to the NFL, but it's getting a lot worse. Hard to watch a team need to move away from a city that has supported them for generations because the city is making the right decisions not to bankrupt themselves by publicly funding more luxury boxes.
  • The move to expand overseas has absolutely brought down the quality as Thursday night games are atrocious, but the league doesn't give a whit as they sell out, which is a short-sighted money grab at the expense of long term quality of the game.
  • Goodell -- the guy has zero consistent policies on approach for issues that continue to plague the NFL (domestic and all other violence, substance abuse, etc.) to the actual rules (remember all the confusion of what a catch is?) and the quality of the refs. 
  • The game is still way to inaccessible -- I'm a Raider fan in Seattle. While I'll root for the home team, until the Raiders were a little better I never saw them on TV. You are forced to watch largely uninteresting games in your market. Free and paid streaming, cable/dish packages, and even the NFL's own GameChannel has improved that, but not to the point that it's tailored to how I as the fan would love to watch games (great example -- I think I've only seen Coach's Film on one single game on the XboxOne NFL GameDay app, and would love it to be even more customizeable, like being able to focus on just one player for a period of time). NFL should do what Amazon does and work from the customer backwards in creating the best NFL UX.
  • Some concern over future long term health impact -- this isn't necessarily affecting my enjoyment of the game, but it's clearly a problem, and not sure what this means for the future of the game. It's not just the NFL, it's the entire sport, so I wonder what happens to quality, etc. as the real issues involved with playing football continue to be unveiled and studied and remedied. In the end, players are making a choice to play, but more and more I can totally see players just thinking it's not worth the return.
 
roadkill1292 said:
Wait till the next contract negotiation bogs down and the season is remotely threatened. I bet sentiment runs 80-20 in favor of the owners in here. No love of the underdog in that contest.
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It boggles my mind, these are the guys that are most like us in the NFL. They are the employees, they are the ones shortening their lives, yet everyone is up in arms that they are trying to get a few more million from their billionaire owners. It would be like yelling at Wallmart employees for striking for a raise, because you can't do your shopping there.

 
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msudaisy26 said:
It boggles my mind, these are the guys that are most like us in the NFL. They are the employees, they are the ones shortening their lives, yet everyone is up in arms that they are trying to get a few more million from their billionaire owners. It would be like yelling at Wallmart employees for striking for a raise, because you can't do your shopping there.
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We also root for rich college athletic directors and coaches to get every penny they can get while saying that an athlete making his market value will ruin the game. We can apparently be talked into almost anything.

 
Warrior said:
The majority of votes say their interest is down. The majority of those voters say it's because the politics of the NFL (or that along with a combination of other factors). That's not very surprising to me...I totally agree with them. It's the same reason ESPN is now utter garbage 90% of the time.
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The ESPN part of this quote is another thread in itself.  That station has gone to hell.  What garbage.  Reminds me of the days way back when MTV was kind of cool and then stopped playing music videos.  (I know I'm showing my age)

 
My interest is down and I'm selling my season tickets after 25+ years. It's for a multitude of reasons (in no particular order).

  • Tired of the politics and the drama in the NFL (knell/don't knell, Ezekiel Elliott, etc)
  • Apparently I don't know what a legal hit is anymore. Burfict is a dirty play but to call a 15 year penalty on this is just flabbergasting. If this were an isolated incident that be one thing but stupid calls like this are rampant.  https://twitter.com/Josh_Kirkendall/status/914571778915266562
  • Tired of the mediocraty of the team I support (Cincinnati Bengals)
  • Cost of season tickets just doesn't seem worth it anymore given the creature comforts of home and a HD picture on a 60" TV

 
SanDawg said:
The ESPN part of this quote is another thread in itself.  That station has gone to hell.  What garbage.  Reminds me of the days way back when MTV was kind of cool and then stopped playing music videos.  (I know I'm showing my age)
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The political stuff accounts for 14% so far... Far from the majority, but enough to take notice. 

 
Shutout said:
Generally, I find the lineman play as a whole on both sides of the ball is so mediocre that there can't be sustained greatness in any but a small handful of teams and I honestly can't get interested in a 7-8 team league. If I did still play fantasy I would be very frustrated because the incredible inconsistency of those other 24 or so Jeckyl and Hyde teams would make it nothing more than a "dumb luck" proposition to me. 
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rschroeder1 said:
1. Made it so difficult to build a winner defensively.  Sure, there will always be 1-2 teams each year with a dominant defense, but building with that path forward is not really feasible because there's not enough top-level talent in the defensive backfield for more than a couple teams to excel there.

2. #1 is exacerbated the lack of quality at quarterback.  The NFL apparently wants a super downfield passing league, with all those penalties on defense in mind, yet there aren't the QBs to execute that style of play.  Teams see no other way to build, and so teams will try just about anything at QB.
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I could care less about the protesting or the commercials, I have DVR when my team is on or if I go somewhere to watch them I can eat or drink beer while its a commercial. I agree with others that the league could be way more tech savvy and take a lot of the guessing out of spotting the ball, breaking the plane, out of bounds, forward motion, etc. For me, the main reason for a decline since a decade ago is something similar to these two quotes above. Rule changes that have favored QB's and passing and have resulted in the have's and the have not's in the league. I loved the idea of parity and the salary cap when it was first instituted, but the rule changes made it into the QB league. How many posts are there every year about how the MVP should just be renamed the MVQB award? The changes were great in the short team for points scored and "excitement" but has made the game miserable and futile for 2/3rds of the fanbase who are just praying their team can find the next franchise QB. Unless you are a fan of one of the teams that hit the QB lotto, it sucks watching your team flat out suck or be stuck in mediocrity for a decade plus.

Reminds me of a comment from a regular posting Colts fan on these boards in a game thread about 5 or 6 years ago. He "couldn't understand how anyone could root for their team to lose and get a higher draft pick." Well no #### Sherlock, your team drafted Peyton Manning, made the playoffs every year and were put into a division with an expansion team that spotted you two wins a year for the better half of a decade. Beautiful irony that the Colts tanked for Luck maybe a year or two after that comment.

That and Thursday games are major pet peeve, it was great when it was special like Thanksgiving day, but they diluted the product. I've stated this in other threads on the subject, but having an every week Thursday game also turned fantasy football into an all week grind and sucked a lot of the fun out. Used to be I had a nice break until the weekend before waivers ran, now I have got to have requests in today (Tuesday) and be ready for FCFS after my different leagues different timed waiver runs tomorrow on Wed. Then I've got to figure out who I am starting Thursday or not over that GTD player that isn't playing until the late Sunday game or Monday. Plus gotta check in Saturday night now too, because that London game starts about the time I wake up Sunday mornings due to time zone differences.

That all being said, I still love football and my interest is probably up a little bit compared to the last few years. But I doubt it will ever hit the peak of my 20's a decade and half ago when my friends and I would watch games all day long and each of us could root and support each others favorite teams. We're all married now and some of us have moved away or others have had kids, that's just getting older I guess. :shrug:

 
I voted stayed the same, but my interest  dropped off a while ago. I'm kinda burned out on being a sports spectator, even for my favorite teams to some extent. At some point I get uncomfortable with the notion that I'm spending time watching other people do stuff rather than doing stuff myself (same deal with fantasy sports, I'm done with fantasy sports after this season, I dropped fantasy baseball a couple of years ago and haven't missed it).

With the NFL I'm also becoming increasingly uncomfortable with the notion that I'm watching guys kill themselves for my entertainment.

I did find it galling a couple of times this week during the Charger game where they tried to squeeze additional commercials into tight game breaks by doing a split screen where the commercial took up most of the real estate. Of course the commercial ran into the start of the live action plays and they didn't switch the focus back until the commercial was done. I'm tired of the hyper commercialization of society in general though, I don't think the NFL is any worse than any other entertainment medium in that regard.

I still like the NBA the best. Top players worldwide in their sport, you can see the entire play with one camera shot as it happens, the action is fast. The only problems I have right now with the NBA are the trend toward a lack of diversity in offensive styles due to the application of analytics in regard to 3 point shots (they need to move the line back) and the way timeouts (and fouls) are used to kill the flow of the game in the last 2 minutes.

 
Buckna said:
That and Thursday games are major pet peeve, it was great when it was special like Thanksgiving day, but they diluted the product. I've stated this in other threads on the subject, but having an every week Thursday game also turned fantasy football into an all week grind and sucked a lot of the fun out. Used to be I had a nice break until the weekend before waivers ran, now I have got to have requests in today (Tuesday) and be ready for FCFS after my different leagues different timed waiver runs tomorrow on Wed. Then I've got to figure out who I am starting Thursday or not over that GTD player that isn't playing until the late Sunday game or Monday. Plus gotta check in Saturday night now too, because that London game starts about the time I wake up Sunday mornings due to time zone differences.
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Very underrated point.  I hate having to deal with my fantasy squads every single day.  I suppose that's why I've whittled down my leagues over the past couple years even though I hadn't thought of the angle.

 
My interest in NFL is not down because:

- I could care less about left wing / right wing debate about Kaepernick, the flag, purple lives matter, blah, blah, blah.

      You DO know that players did not even come out for the national anthem just a few years ago, don't you?

- I could care less about the retirement health status of grown men who choose to play a violent game for millions of dollars. 

      Implement safer barrier helmets, take more game checks away from those who hit outside the target zone, negotiate better retirement benefits in the next CBA and move on.

- I could care less about the whiners who want to $itch about rule changes, commercials, London games, etc. etc. etc.

      Are we football fans or clucking hens?

It's freaking football.  If you don't want to watch go join a knitting circle, freak.

/ my charitable feedback for the day.

 
I have been an avid fan of football and fantasy football since 1986.

I did take a break from fantasy football for a few years 2009-2011 but after Favre played great for my favorite team (Vikings) then fell off in 2010 I started getting more interested in the NFL draft. Even more than before. This also coincided with increased resources being available for watching college players such as draft breakdown, youtube.

My interest in scouting college players for the NFL really increased because of these resources and I am enjoying this even more than before. I think the break I took helped a lot in that regard as well.

For folks voting that they do not enjoy football as much as last year, my suggestion would be to take a break for a year and see if you miss it or not. I enjoyed just watching football without fantasy considerations for those three years and the break revitalized my interest in fantasy because I did miss it. Maybe the same will happen for you. If not then that will be because you found some other interest or just didn't miss it as much as I did.

My interest and time invested likely peaked in 2014 but still going strong. I have learned a lot over the past few years even though I have been playing this game for such a long time. As long as I am learning new things I stay interested.

After the Dalvin Cook injury it was kind of a blow for me, but that sadness is almost completely dissipated again now.

 
SeniorVBDStudent said:
My interest in NFL is not down because:

- I could care less about left wing / right wing debate about Kaepernick, the flag, purple lives matter, blah, blah, blah.

      You DO know that players did not even come out for the national anthem just a few years ago, don't you?

- I could care less about the retirement health status of grown men who choose to play a violent game for millions of dollars. 

      Implement safer barrier helmets, take more game checks away from those who hit outside the target zone, negotiate better retirement benefits in the next CBA and move on.

- I could care less about the whiners who want to $itch about rule changes, commercials, London games, etc. etc. etc.

      Are we football fans or clucking hens?

It's freaking football.  If you don't want to watch go join a knitting circle, freak.

/ my charitable feedback for the day.
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Sorry, but a pet peeve... couldn't care less. Otherwise you're saying that you care quite a bit

To a few of your points:

1. It's not just the players, it's the announcers talking about politics and injecting it into the conversation for some. I can understand how some people are put off when their escape from day to day stress includes information on the day to day stressors that come with politics. 
2. "There is no helmet or device that will decrease concussion risk." This is a direct quote from Dr. Kevin Guskiewicz, member of the NFL Head Neck and Spine Committee and one of the architects of the NFL concussion protocol. Just FYI
3. Rule changes impact the play of the game. You just said yourself with #2- "take more game checks away from those who hit outside the target zone." Would that not impact how the game is played if people are hitting more tentatively? Cant have it both ways kiddo
4. Just because some of the above matter to some people, does not make them "freaks." Relax. To quote yourself, "it's freaking football." Do you get this worked up over someone saying they don't like Subway, but you happen to love their sandwiches? 

 
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