The league is going to lose a ton of fans. No doubt about it. I am having a hard time bringing myself to be excited about the season, and honestly I might boycott the NFL all together. The product itself is not great. Long games, officiating influencing games, non stop commercials. If people remember last year mid season many people in the NFL community finally acknowledged there is a major problem with officiating in this league. It will not get better it is only going to get worse.
They’ve brought politics into sports and there is no turning back now. The final nail in the coffin for many is how not a single player spoke up against what DJAX said yesterday… and how many spoke up against Brees because of loving his country? If it weren’t for betting I would not spend a second thinking about the NFL this season. I am doing well enough in PGA ( and they pretty much never bring politics into sports), and is a sport not influenced by officiating.
The players are a bunch of self entitled, ignorant brats, the product itself is terrible and politics do not belong in sports IMO. NFL will never get back to what it was in terms of popularity, and IMO they’re in for a pretty big reality check come fall.
Iggy is spot on here. It’s very disappointing that Brees backtracked like he did. He simply said he would never support someone kneeling for our National Anthem and gave his reasons why while also noting our country is not perfect and always has room to improve.
One can support standing for the Flag and also support racial equality. Infact most Americans do but you’ll never hear that from CNN, MSNBC, and the left wing media.
Some folks only complain about another when it suits their ego…
DJAX and brees have had two very different responds and that’s not right…
But I always say this - NO ONE is 100% all the time and we all suck at various levels … I’m no where near a perfect person… ever… but when I screw up, I take it…
Some of these folks Will hide and hide and stay in denial and point confers and use faulty logic to their demise …
I don’t know if he should be canned but something needs to happen if they are holding others to a higher standard like brees…
Welcome back Iggy, and you are not wrong here. I wouldn’t argue one single point.
Last year after the sham Packers game, I swore off football. Didn’t watch another Lions game and only watched the AFC Championship game and Super Bowl for the KC aspect. I also found I really didn’t miss football that bad.
I also agree bringing politics into it is going to be a major issue. Politics is not something that someone can do right. At any moment of any day, you are going to do something that is going to offend people. The NFL has already started to lose fans, and once the allure of “sports are back” is over, people will lose interest. I think the league pushing narratives and storylines effectively killed the sport, and it’s a lame WWE copy.
My wife noticed that how come with every NFL draft pick, it has to be someone who overcame this terrible upbringing or terrible tragedy? Why is it every Sunday before kickoff, we are blasted with stories where someone has to cry and be broken and rebuilt. It’s not a sport anymore.
We’ve already had political figures try and kill it with false narratives about the flag and viewership went up. Good luck killing it. I also quit watching the Lions for many weeks, but would still catch a pro game from time to time. If they become competitive again I’ll be back full time.
I think kneeling for the National Anthem is intentionally disrespectful, and the “it’s not about the flag” rebuttal idiotic. If it’s “not about the flag,” kneel during the coin-toss. It’s 100% about the flag, and about generating outrage. It’s a demonstration of disparaging and not respecting a country you don’t like (or find unfair, hypocritical, not equitable enough, or whatever).
Goodell’s embarrassing kow-towing to Black Lives Matter (a leftist group whose aims are quite distinct from actually caring about the plight of black people) is probably shedding NFL fans in droves.
BUT … I am able to separate my opinions about NFL players’ stated beliefs that I disagree with, or that I think are going too far, from enjoyment of watching the games. The way I look at it is, I bet I interact with people whose views I would find severely objectionable in every bit of life activity – at the grocery store, the restaurant, the TV shows and movies I watch, the music I listen to.
Going down the road of trying to boycott everybody who doesn’t think like you would lead to a pretty odd, less enjoyable life.
I agree every single word you said Iggy.
Welcome back!
Honestly, I am hoping they cancel the season and refund me for my season tix. Then I will not renew.
I quit the NBA not long after MJ did. No desire to watch a bunch of ignorant idiots go through the motions of playing basketball while they are thinking about what kind of luxury car to buy next or where their next mansion should be. And making ignorant tweets about how oppressed they are and comparing themselves to slaves because the owners don’t pay them enough. I will never watch another NBA game.
I hardly care about MLB…enjoy going to a Tigers game once a year but honestly can get the same experience with the West Michigan Whitecaps for about 1/20th the money and a 20 minute drive instead of 3 hr drive. People can bitch about Mayhew and Quinn but the Tigers front office makes them look like Bill B. the way they have taken a team that was a consistent division winner and contender to be the AL Champs into the worst team in baseball with no hope in sight.
The NFL…well you summed it up Iggy. I won’t renew my tickets after over a decade of owning them since the whole league is going be a political shit show. We don’t allow politics in our threads about the Lions but the NFL is going to be blatantly political and they are falling for the BLM facade as a political front for the left.
Of all the pro sports, the NFL was the only one I really cared about, even through our losing and getting F’d by the refs. But if this season turns into one big BLM lovefest I am done with it forever. More time to hunt and fish.
I already have doubts there will be any football this year as it is, but if there is, I think the media coverage, and the pregame shows will have a lot to do with how much I can stomach.
I seriously don’t want to hear about politics and protests during my football Sundays. It’s already infected every other aspect the 24 hour news cycle, the internet, and even this message board.
Personally, I will probably not tune in to the pregame shows, will avoid the Anthem (s), and will hope it doesn’t turn into a continuous commentary throughout the game.
The longer I go without pro sports the harder I find it to care about them. Especially with all these “oppressed" multi-millionaires making ignorant statements about how bad they have it and how bad America is
I can ignore all of the pregame stuff, pseudo-political statements, etc. I rarely even see the Anthem, and never see pregame.
Where I draw the line is officiating. The WWE comparison was spot on. If the refs continue to have increased influence in games, it will eventually exceed my threshold for bullshit, and I will quit, just like I did with NBA. I haven’t seen an NBA game in a decade…Not even playoffs/finals.
I may get curious enough to watch conference ship or finals if Pistons got in, but it would be more like background noise than actual giving a shit the way I used to (season ticket holder for 4 years).
I can’t stand the direction Goodall’s NFL is going. Best part of him being the commish is watching him get booed at the draft. I was laughing my ass off when one of the guys said they should pipe in booing noise during this year’s virtual draft. LOL
Actors, celebrities, athletes non-essential?
The worship culture for these people is all about marketing in my view
There should be no celebrity culture
I wish people paid more attention to people that matter, than to celeb gossip
Ah well …
We need to #DefundTheNFL and #DefundTheNBA and #DefundMLB
Maybe if we take away the 1 in a Million ultra longshot dream of being a pro sports millionaire young kids will figure out that they need a education to succeed in life instead of growning up ignorant and dependant
Yup - the people that matter are mostly us and our neighbors. People get all fearful, then turn to others for leadership. Who are you turning to for leadership? Our govt officials are the least professional professionals that you can find. IMO, in many cases, you’d be just as well off trusting McDonald’s employees. I’ve never understood why anyone would listen to a celeb for political education/leadership. Makes zero sense. They have a cooler job than you…that’s it.
This is a big issue in my opinion. Athletes have essentially become spoiled brats and expect to always be put on a pedestal. The Mahomes contract is completely ridiculous, no athlete should be making half a billion dollars over a 10 year span and now it just set the bar for even more ridiculous contracts. I’m kind of hoping the league struggles financially after covid and has to pay athletes less so maybe it makes athletes be a little more humble…but I doubt it.
I don’t know that there is a broad solution
Idolizing athletes goes back forever— gladiators…
I still enjoy watching Olympic competition, but not on American tv where more than half the coverage is “up close and personal” stories
I can enjoy truly remarkable stories, but it’s waay over killed at this point
Also, the decline in sports interest is, in my view, a natural result of the maturation process
Combine demographics with the rise in “digital competition” and you can see sports taking hits as a result.
The notion of peak football— well yeah, I’ve been talking about saturation of the sport for a long time — indirectly by saying the salary cap cannot go up forever — ex inflation of course …
Lets be honest, there’s a lot of emotional speak going on in this thread because of the current state of the country and because there’s nothing else to talk about really.
You guys are posting on a Lions board in the middle of July and are still die hard Lions fans after years/decades of watching the worst sports franchise so I highly doubt a lot of you are just going to drop football because it has gotten politicized.
I find politics being injected into sports to be a turn off as well but when it boils down to it and these guys are competing on the field, none of that matters. We aren’t watching the games because we’re fans of them as people, we watch because it’s sports, it’s competition, it unites fanbases and offers an escape from the harsh realities of the world. Are you really thinking about BLM and anthem kneelings when Stafford is throwing a TD pass? No, who even cares about that stuff once the games are being played? You think Chiefs fans (and NFL fans in general) will boycott watching Mahomes if he kneels during the anthem? Of course not. We only care that he entertains us with his greatness when he’s throwing footballs all over the field.
As far as NFL popularity is concerned, it will always be hugely popular. There’s nothing more American than grabbing some brews on Saturdays, Sundays and Monday Nights and hanging with your buddies/loved ones or at the bar or alone in your man cave and enjoying the great American game. I don’t think politics will ruin that for most people but time will tell I suppose.
I am not going to spend $6000 to watch a BLM lovefest and BLM propaganda all fall and winter
I have already Contacted my Lions account manager and told her I am canceling for next year and if possible I want my money back for this year
And to be honest some people might have noticed that I post way way way less recently than I have for the last decade on this board. That’s because I’m caring less and less about the lions and any other pro sports
