Is the NFL declining?

[US Egg]

Youth football numbers are plummeting in the U.S. Interest among them will to.

 

Maybe there will be more gamblers among them to offset this loss of revenue.

[Real McClappy]

Been a fan of this team since 1984 and can't remember really ever missing a game or turning one off for that matter regardless of the score. 

 

Last Monday night was the first time I ever shut off a game in the 4th quarter when still 20-20. I have seen a ton of poor officiating through the years, but this game was the 1st to break me.  I went to bed and just looked at the result in the morning to see we won.  The game was an absolute clown show and unwatchable for me. 

 

To the OP, yes, the NFL is declining 100% based off above for me. 

Edited Saturday at 02:42 PM by Real McClappy

[Saint Doug]

I just feel accountants are running the NFL now and not football people. I don’t watch every Bills game anymore. Ironically, the network exclusive games introduced me to this practice. I used to religiously when I was young, but there’s just too much other quality things to do than to watch this product. It’s actually been liberating. 

[Albwan]

yea I think this season is predestined to be another chiefs superbowl. 

[BillsVet]

Can we have more threads that ask a question like it's Yahoo News/Sports/Any other click-bait news company?  

[Don Otreply]

By all accounts the NFL growing world wide, any decline noted is very likely in the old guard fan base, for reasons I mentioned in my previous post in this thread, the cartoonish graphics, and over the top endless hype, those things are or can be unappealing to folk over fifty years of age lol, we just want to watch the damn game, and don’t care what the sideline reporter has to say, or the majority of the nonsense the broadcast booth talking heads want to impart, for many fans the entire broadcast has turned into a bit of a clown show, I do suspect younger than me fans think all the hype is just fine, and us “older “ fans will just have to learn to except how it now is, me I’ll follow the Bills games and some non Bills games as usual, while enjoying my preferred beverage 🍸a martini so dry Lawrence of Arabia would have a hard time getting through it, 😁👍

 

GO BILLS!!!

[Another Fan]

If the Bills weren't putting out a competitive product anymore I probably would have checked out at this point.  

 

There's something about the modern day NFL I can care less about.  I'm still a sucker for watching old Bills games.  A pretty bad effort that day and year by the Bills but I'm still a sucker for clicking on it when it comes on my YouTube recommendations.  

 

 

Edited Saturday at 02:01 PM by Another Fan

[BillsPride12]

This is the NFL I grew up on!  This 3 minute clip still gives me goosebumps.  I miss the old NFL production, sure the presentation is much more polished these days

but it completely lacks the heart and soul of the yesteryears.  NFL football used to be sacred hobby but it feels like such a sham in the modern era for all of the reasons many of you have listed in the last 7 pages

[mannc]

2 hours ago, Neo said:

I could write for hours.

 

The game has always changed, era to era.  The forward pass was once a “fad that defenses would figure out.”

 

The game of our youth, our first exposure, is always the measuring stick.   I miss games where premier running backs had 30 carries a game and teams marched up and down the field four yards at a time.   Rule changes for more “big plays” simply made big plays less big.

 

Replay review.  Ten minutes of nothing that in the aggregate changes nothing.   Over the course of a season, it’s zero sum.  The magnitude of any change for one team is equal to the magnitude of the same change to the other.   But, it’s more accurate!   Accurate?   There are 20 callable offenses every play.   Every one reviewed is associated with 19 un-reviewed.  We went from “over officious jerks” to an “over officious design.”   Replay is opium and dopamine telling us the results are better.

 

Fantasy, betting, picture in picture, Networks, cable, alternative broadcast companies, Apps.

 

So, today’s game ain’t “my game.”   What’s that mean?    I don’t miss a Bills game.   I subscribe, I pay, I travel.

 

I also don’t watch five non-Bills game a year.   I haven’t watched a full Super Bowl in decades.

 

All that said, the leagues is not declining.   Quite the opposite.   NFL revenue is growing at nearly 9% annnually over the last 20 years, up every non-covid year (to the best of my earnest effort to assemble and review data).

 

The league is thriving even though it’s diverging from my ideal.   The two issues are different.

Correct.  The league is not declining in any objective sense.  Ratings and attendance are higher than ever and the caliber of the athletes is as high or higher than ever, especially with the rise of mobile quarterbacks and the migration of the best athletes in the league to wide receiver.

 

i do think the decline in youth football participation, although it is regional in nature, poses a real threat in that the talent pool is shrinking and less youth participation could mean fewer future fans.  I think this is an important reason the league is trying to expand internationally.

Edited Saturday at 03:07 PM by mannc

[BillsPride12]

This one was incredible too!

 

[Mr. WEO]

The NFL is in decline....because I say it is!!!!

 

Anyway, to all the "purists" out there:  the NFL requires 16 commercial breaks per game (this hasn't changed in YEARS)--8 per half, 2 being mandatory at the end of the 1st and 3rd Q and at the 2 minute warnings. The other 6 per half can be used after TDs/PAT/FG or injury, team TOs.  Also total penalties called per game 2015-2023 have decreased 16%.  No "premiere RB" has ever averaged 30 carries a game.  Only one who came close over a season was 18 years ago...

 

So, in reality, many of the reasons cited in this thread as emblematic of "the decline of the NFL" aren't not fact based, but based on feelings.   So why keep posting about a game you no longer enjoy watching? 

 

 

[MikePJ76]

1 hour ago, BillsPride12 said:

This one was incredible too!

 

CBS were the kings of the intro's.  Simple and effective driven home by the greatest voice to ever call a football game in Pat Summerall.

 

The thing that kills me as an editor myself these pieces are easier to produce and make and are way more effective than the bright, loud highly fx filled pieces we get from all networks now.  I always wonder how they do not understand fans love the old cbs style and not the modern stuff?  I mean we went from these amazing intro's to a robot spiking a football on cbs and a fake country star who is highly sexualized for the male gaze covering a joan jett song.

 

this one for cowboys bears wild card from 91 is great.

 

1990 nfc championship intro....perfect.

 

I admittedly suffer from too much nostalgia, everything to me that was great is over and all I have left is nostalgia....but you can not deny CBS production levels for the nfl were amazing, they also had the conference with most of the stars and the best venues.

 

I have some work to finish over the next two weeks but I think when I get it done I am going to take a stab at making one of these for a Bills game in December.  I think Bills-Jets.  I can remake that graphic open and use a pat summerall AI voice!  Now I am excited to do this!

 

Edited Saturday at 04:05 PM by MikePJ76

[CNYfan]

$800 for tickets to the Seattle Game

[US Egg]

15 minutes ago, CNYfan said:

$800 for tickets to the Seattle Game

Good point.

[Beast]

4 hours ago, US Egg said:

Youth football numbers are plummeting in the U.S. Interest among them will to.

 

Maybe there will be more gamblers among them to offset this loss of revenue.

Between betting, fantasy football and the access to the game through television and the internet as well as the party atmosphere around football, the sport will remain king for many years to come, regardless of the crappy product we are seeing in a weekly basis.

[ToGoGo]

3 hours ago, Don Otreply said:

By all accounts the NFL growing world wide, any decline noted is very likely in the old guard fan base, for reasons I mentioned in my previous post in this thread, the cartoonish graphics, and over the top endless hype, those things are or can be unappealing to folk over fifty years of age lol, we just want to watch the damn game, and don’t care what the sideline reporter has to say, or the majority of the nonsense the broadcast booth talking heads want to impart, for many fans the entire broadcast has turned into a bit of a clown show, I do suspect younger than me fans think all the hype is just fine, and us “older “ fans will just have to learn to except how it now is, me I’ll follow the Bills games and some non Bills games as usual, while enjoying my preferred beverage 🍸a martini so dry Lawrence of Arabia would have a hard time getting through it, 😁👍

 

GO BILLS!!!

My hunch is that statistic is a red herring. 
 

The “growing” fanbase will be less loyal. And quicker to leave. 

[BillsPride12]

9 hours ago, MikePJ76 said:

CBS were the kings of the intro's.  Simple and effective driven home by the greatest voice to ever call a football game in Pat Summerall.

 

The thing that kills me as an editor myself these pieces are easier to produce and make and are way more effective than the bright, loud highly fx filled pieces we get from all networks now.  I always wonder how they do not understand fans love the old cbs style and not the modern stuff?  I mean we went from these amazing intro's to a robot spiking a football on cbs and a fake country star who is highly sexualized for the male gaze covering a joan jett song.

 

this one for cowboys bears wild card from 91 is great.

 

1990 nfc championship intro....perfect.

 

I admittedly suffer from too much nostalgia, everything to me that was great is over and all I have left is nostalgia....but you can not deny CBS production levels for the nfl were amazing, they also had the conference with most of the stars and the best venues.

 

I have some work to finish over the next two weeks but I think when I get it done I am going to take a stab at making one of these for a Bills game in December.  I think Bills-Jets.  I can remake that graphic open and use a pat summerall AI voice!  Now I am excited to do this!

 

Those intro's were all fantastic.  The old NBA on NBC intro's in that same time period were incredible as well.

 

I am guilty too of the Nostalgia curse.  But I think sometimes it's fair to just say certain things used to be better.  I get nothing remains stagnant and things evolve over time but in the case of the NFL it has really changed so much over the years that it doesn't resemble the same sport we grew up watching.  

Edited Sunday at 01:42 AM by BillsPride12

[Rocky Landing]

In my opinion (as a Bills fan living on the West Coast), the biggest problem currently with the NFL, as an entertainment medium, are the numerous streaming services now involved, and the issues with navigating that morass.

[wjag]

My frustration with the NFL is you can never be sure where to find the game.  The NFL.com site is TOTAL CRAP now.  You could not make a more useless site if you tried.  Not a fan of overseas games, not a fan of TNF.  And don't get me started on the NFL+.  Greed..

 

If the Bills win, I'm all in for the week.  If they lose, I eschew the talk shows, youtube and other games.  

 

The announcers are the same as they always have been.  Some good, some bad.  

 

And the uneven enforcement and interpretation of the roughing the passer penalties is maddening.  I really think they need to throw in a 15 yard unsportsmanlike penalty with loss of down for QB flops...  That sh!t has got to stop.

Edited Saturday at 05:51 PM by wjag

[Augie]

8 minutes ago, wjag said:

My frustration with the NFL is you can never be sure where to find the game.  The NFL.com site is TOTAL CRAP now.  You could not make a more useless site if you tried.  Not a fan of overseas games, not a fan of TNF.  And don't get me started on the NFL+.  Greed..

 

If the Bills win, I'm all in for the week.  If they lose, I eschew the talk shows, youtube and other games.  

 

The announcers are the same as they always have been.  Some good, some bad.  

 

And the uneven enforcement and interpretation of the roughing the passer penalties is maddening.  I really think they need to throw in a 15 yard unsportsmanlike penalty with loss of down for QB flops...  That sh!t has got to stop.

 

Roughing the passer is the new “was that a catch?” The one Rodgers admits was nonsense infuriated me. In what world was that roughing?  😡 

 

 

.

Edited Saturday at 05:59 PM by Augie