San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick forced a nationwide controversy and debate when he first kneeled during the National Anthem in a preseason game in August 2016.
The end of that particular 2016-2017 season was the last down Kaepernick played in the NFL but it didn’t prevent players from carrying on the torch. However, less than a handful of players are continuing those efforts this season.
And NFL ratings are skyrocketing due to Kaepernick becoming irrelevant.
Disgraced former QB Colin Kaepernick keeps perpetuating the notion he’s ready to come back to the NFL. He posted a video of his 5AM workout routine before the season started, which was annoying in the sense of an ex-significant other would desperately do trying to say, “look at what you’re missing.”
And then Jay-Z’s Roc Nation struck a deal with the NFL to focus on social justice issues, which many considered to be a slap in the face to the embattled quarterback because they’ve been friends for a long time.
On top of that, Jay-Z has defended Kaepernick at every turn and believed the league blackballed him due to his protests.
But maybe this Kaepernick controversy has officially run its course.
The Hollywood Reporter noted recently, “Linear ratings for the {NFL} hit a multiyear bottom in 2017, prompting a rash of speculation about whether pro football’s stranglehold atop the Nielsen charts was coming to an end.”
Keep in mind too that the 2017 season, right before Week 3, was when President Trump directly called out players for not respecting the American Flag and the National Anthem. Trump proclaimed if he was an owner then these disrespectful and unpatriotic players wouldn’t be allowed to compete in the game. After he said that at a rally, players across the league kneeled in solidarity with Kaepernick.
Now, the only NFL players who kneel are Kenny Stills and Eric Reid.
But despite those two players, the first six weeks of the 2019 season has seen a surge in ratings.
The Hollywood Reporter said, “NFL games across all its television partners are averaging about 16.3 million viewers, up 3 percent from last season’s average of 15.8 million. Since hitting a low for this decade of 15 million viewers in 2017, viewership has climbed 9 percent and is on par with the 2016 season (16.5 million).”
However, it’s worth considering Kaepernick didn’t really have a whole lot to do with it.
Quite possibly the biggest deciding factor in the inflated ratings from two years ago is the legalization of gambling in sports. Sports gambling is a multi-billion dollar venture with Las Vegas betting and daily sports leagues becoming exponentially more popular.
Or it could possibly be better quarterback play.
Kansas City Chiefs Patrick Mahomes, Houston Texans Deshaun Watson and Baltimore Ravens Lamar Jackson have been setting the league on fire in the first weeks of this NFL season.
All three are just flat-out exciting to watch right now.
But Fox Sports Executive Vice President Michael Mulvihill believes it is the absence of protests that has had the biggest impact.
He said, “If the conversation around football is primarily about the game, then we’re probably winning. And if the conversation is about topics away from the game, we’re probably losing. I think the focus for the past season and a half has become more where we’d like it to be, which is just on the games.”
Sporting events are about escapism. It’s a way to escape the mundane of our everyday lives and it also brings people together from different walks of life. The more it’s exclusively about the game rather than some condescension about the political climate it is better for all fans.