NFL Sunday Night Football Ratings Down After National Anthem Protests

The NFL’s sum of all fears just became realized: Fans are tuning out.

After this past Sunday’s temper tantrum display of players taking a knee during the National Anthem, it looks like the league is losing viewers.

Deadline Hollywood just broke the news: “In metered market numbers, the primetime matchup that saw the Washington Redskins beat the Oakland Raiders 27-10  snared an 11.6/20, the worst SNF has performed this season so far. It’s an 8% dip from the early numbers of last week’s game, Atlanta’s 34-23 win over Green Bay.”

Did you read that? An 8% dip from last week.

Granted, this was only one game. But it was the only game broadcasting on cable during its time slot, and it came on after a full day of players protesting President Trump and the American flag.

Coincidence? I don’t think so.

[totalpoll id=”115496″]

Even NBC suspects that it was President Trump’s tweets about the NFL and the National Anthem that caused the ratings dip: “President Donald Trump’s tirade against NFL players who kneel during the national anthem received blanket news coverage, but that didn’t help the ratings for NBC’s ‘Sunday Night Football,’ according to Nielsen’s early market data.”

Looks like the NFL better get its act together, or their ratings will continue to plummet. An ESPN poll from earlier this summer revealed that 26% of viewers tuned the games out because of excessive political protests.

Something tells me, when the threat of decreased viewership, and the subsequent loss in salary, becomes more apparent, you’ll see whole teams standing for the National Anthem again.

And, of course, Colin Kaepernick will still be on the sidelines, not playing a single game.

Fans let the NFL know how they feel about its suffering ratings over Twitter:

https://twitter.com/Byron_Shultz/status/912369030836752384

https://twitter.com/jedwardholley/status/912368873873313792

What do you think? Did you boycott the NFL yesterday? Or did you watch? Tell us your thoughts below and share this story on Facebook and Twitter!