MadDog2020 Posted October 14, 2016 Share Posted October 14, 2016 You're hearing TV ratings are down as much as 20%.. and I really don't want to listen to the apologists blame it all on the Election either. There was no debate this past Monday, and the ratings were in the toilet. And it isn't just TV ratings that are down for the NFL.. merchandise and attendance have also been down the past 3 years. The NFL has taken a giant hit in the public eye with the whole CTE thing, and the Concussion movie. But I think what's really hurt the league is the lack of parody. Parody is what made the NFL take off during the early 2000's. Now week-in week-out, fans can set their watch to which teams are going to lose, and which teams are going to win. Baseball went through this exact same thing a little over ten years ago during the Yankees\Cardinals\RedSox dominance, and you can see the same is happening to the NFL. If you look at the landscape of the Superbowl over the last 10 years or so.. 2004 & 2005 Patriots.. 2006: Pittsburgh vs Seattle.. 2008: Giants vs Patriots.. 2009: Pittsburgh wins again.. 2011: Pittsburgh's in the Superbowl again.. 2012; Giants vs Patriots.. 2014: Seattle\Denver.. 2015: Patriots\Seattle.. 2016: Denver again. It's been really great if you're a fan of the Steelers, Broncos, Seahawks, Giants or Patriots the last 10 years.. but the problem is, there are 27 other franchises. If you look at the previous 10 years of the NFL from 1994-2004, you'll see Superbowl appearances by San Diego, Buffalo, Dallas, SF, Green Bay, Atlanta, NE, Tennessee, Pittsburgh, Denver, St. Louis, Oakland, Tampa Bay, Baltimore, NY, Philadelphia, Carolina, etc. That type of parody's gone. You take this season for example.. the Patriots don't have either Brady or Gronk for 4 games, and they're still 4-1. Meanwhile the rest of the AFC East is garbage, just like it's been for the last 10 years. It's like.. why even watch anymore if you're a Jets fan? Same in Detroit, or Chicago, or Miami, or Cleveland, etc. These are huge markets. Why even watch anymore? Great post Beez. I think people are really getting fed up with the NFL. I didn't watch a down of Denver-SD last night. I didn't watch a down of the Thursday night game the week before. I think lack of parity is a big reason for the drop, but I also think Goodell has over-saturated the market with Thursday night games, Sunday morning games in London, etc. I HATE Thursday Night Football myself- the games are garbage, the match-ups suck, the players have three lousy days to recover from the previous Sunday's games, which absolutely kills the quality of these games and puts the players at risk for more serious injuries- It's ridiculous. And CTE, along with the NFL's stunning lack of concern about head injuries, have disgusted people as well. I also think the American public absolutely despises Roger Goodell- I know I do. Every time I see his face, I want to cave my fist into it. So I think a combination of all of these things have contributed to the ratings decline, and quite frankly, I hope the ratings keep tanking. Goodell , the moron owners, and the league as a whole needs a big-time comeuppance. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
'7' Posted October 14, 2016 Author Share Posted October 14, 2016 (edited) There is a lot of truth to what you're saying, and the fact is the league has tilted so much towards the great qb's of the league that it is nearly impossible to compete unless you tanked, lucked into, or did job scouting and drafting a great or very good quarterback. That's simply it. There was a time where even with a great Qb...if you didn't have a running game it was tough to compete. Or if you had a great or very good QB and a below average defense forget it. You had no chance Now it doesn't matter. You can have a sh!tty run game, a bottom 1/3rd defense and spotty special teams and still 42-35 your way to a championship. You don't need complete teams anymore. The Giants did it twice with thoroughly unimpressive and lucky teams. The Colts for years was Manning (and whatever WR he was turning into a star) and 2 edge rushers. It's all load up on offense, load up on speed receivers, and just chuck it downfield hoping for big plays or flags. I miss when you used to have various different strategies and styles of play and offenses. Houston was Run n' Shoot. The Giants were big, methodical, conservative, and defense first. The Dolphins were the only team that would line up in the shotgun on 3rd and 2. The 49ers were seamless, airtight, precise in everything they did, Dallas was innovative, the Raiders were tough and dirty, the Bears were running and defense... Now? Every team is some version of the 1981 Chargers. Edited October 14, 2016 by '7' 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MadDog2020 Posted October 14, 2016 Share Posted October 14, 2016 There is a lot of truth to what you're saying, and the fact is the league has tilted so much towards the great qb's of the league that it is nearly impossible to compete unless you tanked, lucked into, or did job scouting and drafting a great or very good quarterback. That's simply it. There was a time where even with a great Qb...if you didn't have a running game it was tough to compete. Or if you had a great or very good QB and a below average defense forget it. You had no chance Now it doesn't matter. You can have a sh!tty run game, a bottom 1/3rd defense and spotty special teams and still 42-35 your way to a championship. You don't need complete teams anymore. The Giants did it twice with thoroughly unimpressive and lucky teams. The Colts for years was Manning (and whatever WR he was turning into a star) and 2 edge rushers. It's all load up on offense, load up on speed receivers, and just chuck it downfield hoping for big plays or flags. Yep. And the game sucks now because of it. Everything is tailored to ratings and fantasy football. The NFL has effectively neutered defense, and only rarely do you see a team with an average to even slightly above average offense win anymore- you need a DOMINANT defense to be able to win a SB with anything less than a franchise, top 5, top 10 QB. I HATE that DB's can't jam WR's at the line anymore, I HATE that if you even breathe on a QB its a personal foul, I HATE that we can't define what a fvcking catch is anymore without a Venn Diagram... The product is sh!t compared to what it used to be even 10 years ago. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colorado Rockies 1976 Posted October 14, 2016 Share Posted October 14, 2016 (edited) What's interesting about what you all (and clearly others elsewhere) are saying is that even the most hardcore NFL fans are starting to feel a lot less enthusiastic about their "gotta have it" product...to the point where, like MD, you don't feel compelled to watch any two teams go at it, just because. I think there was a "yeah, but it's still NFL football" sentiment for years and years, where we were all willing to keep looking the other way, no matter what the league did to potentially turn fans off. But they're FINALLY doing what seemed so impossible. And the ratings are proving it. Edited October 14, 2016 by Colorado Rockies 1976 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
'7' Posted October 14, 2016 Author Share Posted October 14, 2016 4 minutes ago, Colorado Rockies 1976 said: What's interesting about what you all (and clearly others elsewhere) are saying is that even the most hardcore NFL fans are starting to feel a lot less enthusiastic about their "gotta have it" product...to the point where, like MD, you don't feel compelled to watch any two teams go at it, just because. I think there was a "yeah, but it's still NFL football" sentiment for years and years, where we were all willing to keep looking the other way, no matter what the league did to potentially turn fans off. But they're FINALLY doing it. And the ratings are proving it. And this philosophy actually contributes to injuries too! When you can't jam the WR just sprints downfield in his flimsy hutch pads a thousand miles an hour. So naturally when you have a guy going that fast and colliding with a safety, the hits will be devastating. Back then these guys would be chucked, slowed up...sure there were big hits but not the car crash style torpedo crap you see now. This is why you can't compare a QB playing now to anybody in the 80's. Great 80's QB's were gunning that ball into tight windows to sometimes very covered receivers. And those QB's got hit. And they got hit a lot. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SS#4-Life Posted October 14, 2016 Share Posted October 14, 2016 the parity thing is very true. doesnt help when good teams go from favre to rodgers either Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beezer34 Posted October 14, 2016 Share Posted October 14, 2016 (edited) 55 minutes ago, '7' said: There is a lot of truth to what you're saying, and the fact is the league has tilted so much towards the great qb's of the league that it is nearly impossible to compete unless you tanked, lucked into, or did job scouting and drafting a great or very good quarterback. That's simply it. There was a time where even with a great Qb...if you didn't have a running game it was tough to compete. Or if you had a great or very good QB and a below average defense forget it. You had no chance Now it doesn't matter. You can have a sh!tty run game, a bottom 1/3rd defense and spotty special teams and still 42-35 your way to a championship. You don't need complete teams anymore. The Giants did it twice with thoroughly unimpressive and lucky teams. The Colts for years was Manning (and whatever WR he was turning into a star) and 2 edge rushers. It's all load up on offense, load up on speed receivers, and just chuck it downfield hoping for big plays or flags. I miss when you used to have various different strategies and styles of play and offenses. Houston was Run n' Shoot. The Giants were big, methodical, conservative, and defense first. The Dolphins were the only team that would line up in the shotgun on 3rd and 2. The 49ers were seamless, airtight, precise in everything they did, Dallas was innovative, the Raiders were tough and dirty, the Bears were running and defense... Now? Every team is some version of the 1981 Chargers. This is an excellent post. 9 minutes ago, SS#4-Life said: the parity thing is very true. doesnt help when good teams go from favre to rodgers either It’s not even that so much for me. You want to go from Peyton Manning to Andrew Luck.. God Bless you. You caught lighting in a bottle two times over, and good for you. But when I see organizations winning with Tom, D!ck, and Harry.. that’s what bothers me. Big Ben goes down.. Pittsburgh still wins with Landry Jones, Charlie Batch, Michael Vick, Byron Leftwich, etc. Tom Brady goes down.. New England still wins with Matt Cassel, Jimmy Garoppolo, Jacoby Brissett. Denver wins with Trevor Siemian. Denver wins with Brock Osweiler. Denver wins with Peyton Manning. Denver wins with Jay Cutler. Denver wins with TIM TEBOW for Christ sake! It gets exhausting, and I think fans are sick of it. The league can highlight these franchises all they want, but that only makes it worse. They can showcase them, flex them, put them on primetime.. and try to forcefeed them on everyone. But in the end, they can’t force people to watch. In the end, the NFL is still a weekly sitcom.. and these episodes of the Steelers, Seahawks, Patriots, Packers, etc. winning every week, all the time, every season.. it’s getting boring. I’ve seen this episode 100x before. It’s boring. I wouldn’t play the same video game for 15 years straight.. or listen to the same album on repeat. So why should I vest my time in a season where I already know who’s going to win each division already in June? I’d rather go outside and play with the kids. Or do something else with my time. In alot of ways I feel like I’ve been watching the same Jets game since 2002. Edited October 14, 2016 by Beezer34 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CRASHER Posted October 14, 2016 Share Posted October 14, 2016 The NFL has started to do with football, what the WWE has done with the network, there's just too much and it wears you out on it, the football schedule has been well-illustrated here as is, let me share what's a typical WWE schedule Monday, 3 hours plus of Raw Tuesday, 2 hours of Smackdown (plus an excellent post-show on the network) Wednesday, nXt and Cruiserweight Classic (least for the summer and now there's talk of doing a women's one) God help you if you want to watch TNA or Ring of Highspots or Lucha Underground and on top of this every other week there's a 3 hour PPV "special"....its just too much, and no matter how good the damn programming is (and when it's Raw it's usually NOT), you eventually get worn down by it and want it to go away!! I'm embracing the "break" of not having a PPV this week, the split brands has watered down the talent and with some exceptions it's painful to watch, least with wrestling you can fast forward the crap parts, it's hard to do that with NHL or NFL games, and you just tune the damn stuff out, I jumped for joy last week when I had no fantasy players in a crappy Arizona-SF game which was going to be ten million bleeding hearts going on about Kapernick and the only reason I watch the London games is if I'm on the treadclimber at the gym and I'm a captive audience for an hour but God forbid they scale back and leave ANY extra scraps on the table either..... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MadDog2020 Posted October 14, 2016 Share Posted October 14, 2016 The NFL has started to do with football, what the WWE has done with the network, there's just too much and it wears you out on it, the football schedule has been well-illustrated here as is, let me share what's a typical WWE schedule Monday, 3 hours plus of Raw Tuesday, 2 hours of Smackdown (plus an excellent post-show on the network) Wednesday, nXt and Cruiserweight Classic (least for the summer and now there's talk of doing a women's one) God help you if you want to watch TNA or Ring of Highspots or Lucha Underground and on top of this every other week there's a 3 hour PPV "special"....its just too much, and no matter how good the damn programming is (and when it's Raw it's usually NOT), you eventually get worn down by it and want it to go away!! I'm embracing the "break" of not having a PPV this week, the split brands has watered down the talent and with some exceptions it's painful to watch, least with wrestling you can fast forward the crap parts, it's hard to do that with NHL or NFL games, and you just tune the damn stuff out, I jumped for joy last week when I had no fantasy players in a crappy Arizona-SF game which was going to be ten million bleeding hearts going on about Kapernick [emoji14] and the only reason I watch the London games is if I'm on the treadclimber at the gym and I'm a captive audience for an hour but God forbid they scale back and leave ANY extra scraps on the table either..... It's all about the money, quality be damned. Let's see what happens when the next round of TV contract negotiations come up... I hope the bottom falls out and the league has to settle for something like 1/3 of what they get from these networks now. The only way they'll scale it back is if people don't watch. And if people don't watch, the networks won't pay. Period, end of story. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
'7' Posted October 14, 2016 Author Share Posted October 14, 2016 52 minutes ago, SS#4-Life said: the parity thing is very true. doesnt help when good teams go from favre to rodgers either Eh. You know I can't fault them for targeting the right guy. But you know having a top QB doesn't mean you should have this type of monumental advantage. Of course you should have an advantage but the league has taken away all the tools teams used to employ to beat those great and good QB's 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NJDevs4978 Posted October 14, 2016 Share Posted October 14, 2016 (edited) 4 minutes ago, '7' said: Eh. You know I can't fault them for targeting the right guy. But you know having a top QB doesn't mean you should have this type of monumental advantage. Of course you should have an advantage but the league has taken away all the tools teams used to employ to beat those great and good QB's Tell that to Drew Brees Edited October 14, 2016 by NJDevs4978 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NJDevs4978 Posted October 14, 2016 Share Posted October 14, 2016 (edited) 1 hour ago, MadDog2020 said: Yep. And the game sucks now because of it. Everything is tailored to ratings and fantasy football. The NFL has effectively neutered defense, and only rarely do you see a team with an average to even slightly above average offense win anymore- you need a DOMINANT defense to be able to win a SB with anything less than a franchise, top 5, top 10 QB. I HATE that DB's can't jam WR's at the line anymore, I HATE that if you even breathe on a QB its a personal foul, I HATE that we can't define what a fvcking catch is anymore without a Venn Diagram... The product is sh!t compared to what it used to be even 10 years ago. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Ironically the no defense approach caters to fantasy football, or maybe not that accidentally. But I don't really think the lack of parity has anything to do with declining ratings. How much parity was there in the '90's when the entire league revolved around the Niners and Cowboys for five straight years? Nor do I believe the stupid theory that people are boycotting the NFL because of anthem protests that aren't even seen on almost any TV broadcast anyway. I think it's only about saturation, backlash against Goodell and backlash due to the concussion movie/awareness. And yeah some election spillover, since this presidential election's turning into the mother of all trash reality TV shows that nobody can put down. Edited October 14, 2016 by NJDevs4978 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
'7' Posted October 14, 2016 Author Share Posted October 14, 2016 24 minutes ago, NJDevs4978 said: Tell that to Drew Brees heh. Well it's not perfect but he DID win a Super Bowl. And the Saints have had 5 winning seasons thanks to his arm alone and a sometimes garbage utterly non-competitive defense. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NJDevs4978 Posted October 14, 2016 Share Posted October 14, 2016 (edited) 10 minutes ago, '7' said: heh. Well it's not perfect but he DID win a Super Bowl. And the Saints have had 5 winning seasons thanks to his arm alone and a sometimes garbage utterly non-competitive defense. His first three years there, great especially when they had an okay defense under Gregg Williams and his bounties. But they've also been 33-35 since the start of 2012. Edited October 14, 2016 by NJDevs4978 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colorado Rockies 1976 Posted October 23, 2016 Share Posted October 23, 2016 (edited) Apparently asking Puppet to come up with a decent gameplan to slow down Landry Jones & Co was asking too much. Going to be up to Brady (again), but the line isn't helping him much. Feels like this is going to be a big win for the Steelers, sans Big Ben. And Gostkowski's awful year continues. Another fvcking missed extra point. Puppet's D of course can't stop Landry Jones on consecutive 3rd-and-10s. Ben would've torn this unit to shreds today. Finally, a stop on a third-and-10. Edited October 23, 2016 by Colorado Rockies 1976 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colorado Rockies 1976 Posted October 23, 2016 Share Posted October 23, 2016 (edited) Steelers definitely had some chances tonight...two missed FGs and an end zone pick. NE's D did tighten up later in the game, to their credit. Edited October 23, 2016 by Colorado Rockies 1976 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
'7' Posted October 24, 2016 Author Share Posted October 24, 2016 Other than N.E. the rest of the AFC is incredibly spotty. Pitt (only with Roethlisberger) can be legit but not unless they clean up that secondary. But if they can't they then you really can't take them seriously. Who else? Anybody believe in the Raiders...the Colts....Baltimore...Denver (still have that D) Cincy at a disappointing 3-4. Tons of talent, underachieving again. You have a ton of teams, the Bills, the Dolphins, KC...who are thinking "Why not us?" Why cant we go into Foxboro for the AFC Championship game. Granted there is a ton of football left to play, we're not even at the halfway point, and there are still injuries and various other twists and turns to come. But it's going to be NE vs a roll the dice team. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colorado Rockies 1976 Posted October 26, 2016 Share Posted October 26, 2016 Great article on how much of an incompetent and slimy buffoon Roger Goodell really is. It's going to be interesting to see how he's remembered once his reign (mercifully) ends. Gotta be THE most hated commish in sports, which is pretty hard to do with Count fvcking Chocula running the NHL. http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/columnists/ct-nfl-end-zone-dances-domestic-violence-20161025-story.html Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CRASHER Posted October 26, 2016 Share Posted October 26, 2016 He is....and as much as I can't stand him....this is what they pay him an OBSCENE amount of money to do...he's the one who gets to stand there like a douche and absorb all the venom of the fans and all their hatred while he's nothing more than a glorified spokesman for the owners......changing the head on the puppet wouldn't change a damn thing now Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
'7' Posted October 27, 2016 Author Share Posted October 27, 2016 Titans-Jaguars Thursday Night Football....RATINGS BONANZA Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colorado Rockies 1976 Posted October 27, 2016 Share Posted October 27, 2016 2 hours ago, '7' said: Titans-Jaguars Thursday Night Football....RATINGS BONANZA I actually host Thursday Night Football with some neighborhood friends...anywhere from one to four people show up...nothing fancy, just some drinks and BSing, where the game is almost more of a background than anything else. This game is SO lame that I just said screw it, not bothering tonight. Note to Goodell's NFL: Sunday afternoon, Sunday night, and Monday night are enough. I don't need Thursday nights AND Sunday mornings on top of that. Especially when the on-field product is clearly suffering as a result of these games. Save Thursday games for friggin' Thanksgiving. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NJDevs4978 Posted October 28, 2016 Share Posted October 28, 2016 The Jaguars are a joke...and I'm dying laughing at Bortles' junktime second half production since I'm stuck starting him in both my 16-team leagues Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
'7' Posted October 28, 2016 Author Share Posted October 28, 2016 19 hours ago, Colorado Rockies 1976 said: I actually host Thursday Night Football with some neighborhood friends...anywhere from one to four people show up...nothing fancy, just some drinks and BSing, where the game is almost more of a background than anything else. This game is SO lame that I just said screw it, not bothering tonight. Note to Goodell's NFL: Sunday afternoon, Sunday night, and Monday night are enough. I don't need Thursday nights AND Sunday mornings on top of that. Especially when the on-field product is clearly suffering as a result of these games. Save Thursday games for friggin' Thanksgiving. Exactly. That makes it special. A once a year Thursday Thanksgiving event, throw the Pack and Lions and Cowboys out there and call it a day (that game was for the longest time the only reminder that the Lions were still in the NFL) I know Friday isn't a big TV night but I would also experiment with a once a year Friday night NFL game in the Nov/Dec months. Everybody home, big bar night, not as many people out because of the cold. You stick Cowboys/Eagles on a Friday night in mid Dec when both teams are good and people will watch. Granted I'm not wholeheartedly endorsing it, it's just an outside the box idea as the NFL seems hell bent on capturing as many time slots and days as possible. What they really need to do is make their footprint a bit smaller and put themselves back in demand a bit. When football fans are overwhelmed with football, then you have a problem. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
'7' Posted October 28, 2016 Author Share Posted October 28, 2016 10 hours ago, NJDevs4978 said: The Jaguars are a joke...and I'm dying laughing at Bortles' junktime second half production since I'm stuck starting him in both my 16-team leagues Ugliest 33 completion 337 yard 3 td 0 int game I've ever seen I'd love to see just a breakdown of guys passing yards when the game is either tied or or up +14 or down -14. Garbage time stats are just completely obscuring QB evaluation nowadays.Their needs to be a better breakdown and evaluation of clutch qb'ing much like you have the "late and close" stats in baseball. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CRASHER Posted October 28, 2016 Share Posted October 28, 2016 I didn't mind the post-Thanksgiving Thursdays having games too, the NFL won't try Fridays "out of respect for HS football" but they don't mind crapping all over the College games on Thursdays?? Rigggghhhhttttt, once Mariota left the game last night I turned it off since I got my 25 points and was content LESS IS MORE....the NFL doesn't get it....the WWE certainly doesn't get it....and all it's doing is burning out the fan bases I'm more excited each week for the CW superhero shows than I do the NFL now Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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