After Mass Kneeling Protests Here's What Happened to NFL Ratings

After a third week of mass protests by the NFL – the teams, the players, and now the entire league – ratings are swirling the toilet bowl.

Through the first three weeks of the season, viewership for national telecasts of NFL games is down 11 percent compared to last year, the AP is reporting.

The games averaged 17.63 million viewers for the first three weeks of last season, but have dropped to just 15.65 million this year.

Those numbers may drop even lower, as DirecTV has offered an unprecedented cancellation option for NFL Sunday Ticket if a subscriber takes issue with the kneeling demonstrations.

Under the normal policy, DirecTV doesn’t allow refunds once the season has begun. But The Wall Street Journal is reporting that they are making exceptions this season – which began in early September – in response to the protests, which include taking a knee, staying in the locker room, or linking arms during the Star Spangled Banner.

The ratings have bombed because the NFL has politicized the games. People on the right are critical of the demonstrations against the National Anthem, and leftists are angry at the perceived mistreatment of their hero, Colin Kaepernick, the former San Francisco 49ers quarterback, who has yet to be signed by a team.

The protests have spread rapidly across the league after President Trump denounced them. Even the NFL came out in defense of their players.

Next week, the ratings will be in even closer focus, since Fox News’ Sean Hannity and others have demanded – sometimes indirectly – a boycott of all NFL games.

“You’re spending a thousand dollars to go to a football game and it’s going to insult so many Americans,” Hannity said. “I don’t believe in boycotts, but naturally people are going to get turned off and turn away.”

If the players don’t tone down their behavior, he said, revenue and ratings will continue to drop.

“Players are going to see their contract numbers begin to go down, and once it starts hurting their bottom line I think they’re going to realize, maybe the American people would rather see football and would rather join and honor their country first,” Hannity said.

Hannity thinks most NFL fans view the flag as sacred, and want it to be treated with respect. Taking a knee during the National Anthem is a statement with which many conservative Americans have taken offense.

“The fans of football, there’s probably not one of them that don’t know somebody that went and fought and bled and died for the country. And they fought under that flag, and that anthem means a lot to Americans,” he concluded.

Meanwhile, a Facebook group called “Boycott the NFL” is encouraging people to avoid watching football over Veterans’ Day weekend in an attempt to show support for the national anthem, The Daily Caller is reporting.

The group is urging people to turn off the National Football League Nov. 12, the day after Veteran’s Day, to show support for the country’s veterans. Football players have increasingly taken to kneeling and protesting during the national anthem.

“We will be not be watching or listening to NFL games on November 12th in solidarity with veterans around the country, as football players have continued to disrespect the national anthem, the American flag, and everything our nation stands for,” the Facebook page for the event states.

What do you think? Have you boycotted the NFL? Sound off below!

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