Professional sports have been infiltrated by politics.
They no longer provide a refuge from the so-called mainstream media political outrage of the day.
But NFL ratings are ticking up for one big reason.
NFL fans are slowly coming back to watching games in impressive numbers.
The league’s resurgence coincides with the decline of “woke” politics like the anti-American anthem protests that have roiled since 2016.
Unsurprisingly, the league just had its best year since 2015, the year before Colin Kaepernick kneeled for “The Star-Spangled Banner.”
From Breitbart:
“Sports reporter Michael McCarthy reported the NFL’s viewership bump of ten percent over the 2020 season. That is the best year since 2015, the year before Colin Kaepernick began protesting against America during the playing of the national anthem…The NFL’s ratings cratered starting in 2016 as Kaepernick began his protests during the anthem. The league did see a small ratings bump in 2019 when the league began trying to discourage the protests, but the ratings again dipped as the NFL went all-in for social justice causes.”
The NFL just wrapped a HUGE TV year in 2021.
The league says its games averaged 17.1 million viewers (TV/digital) this season.
That’s up 10% vs. 2020. And league’s highest regular season average since 2015 season.
Fans consumed 370 billion total minutes through 2021, up 18%.
— Michael McCarthy (@MMcCarthyREV) January 12, 2022
The sports media plays a major role in the politicization of the sports world.
Sports journalists are shockingly more left-wing than political journalists; in 2016, a greater percentage of sports journalists voted for Hillary Clinton than did straight news journalists.
Progressive sports reporters are the reason why Kaepernick was treated like a hero.
They encouraged other athletes to follow suit.
These same progressives are also not fans of the sport of football.
Many left-wing journalists have argued that football is too violent and too toxic and kids should not be playing it.
The War on Football has been going on for quite some time.
Breitbart continued:
“But the [viewership] numbers fall began among some demographics several years before Kaepernick’s outrageous attacks on America. In 2021, the Super Bowl, for instance, saw a loss of viewers under the age of 49 for the ninth straight year. The ratings were also dismal for last year’s Super bowl. It was the least-watched championship game since 2006.”
Hopefully the NFL learned its lesson by ending the anti-American anthem protests.
The league still plays both “The Star-Spangled Banner” and the unofficial black national anthem before select games, which is an unnecessarily divisive practice.
If NFL commissioner Roger Goodell is smart, he will phase out that plan, too.
There should only be one anthem under one banner before NFL games.
The fans appreciate it.