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What's really caused the NFL's drop in ratings?

Many would like to point to the National Anthem controversy as the reason for the NFL's ratings drop. But there's more to it.
Giants WR Odell Beckham Jr. is carted off the field after suffering a season-ending ankle injury. Beckham is one of three Giants' WR's who have suffered season-ending injuries in 2017.

ST. LOUIS - Safe to say that if you’re an NFL executive, Roger Goodell, a player, a fan, or frankly just anyone who knows about the NFL, it’s been a rough year for you. Among other things, there are the constant battles between players and owners, the turbulent roller coaster in suspending Cowboys’ running back Ezekiel Elliott, and essentially everything involving the National Anthem. The issues off the field have begun to major implications on what’s occurring on the field.

Because of this, the NFL has begun to experience a drop in ratings. Take last week (week nine) for example: the Sunday Night Football game on NBC between the Oakland Raiders and Miami Dolphins saw a 22 percent drop in viewership in comparison to week nine’s SNF game in 2016, according to Sports Media Watch.

And that’s just one example. An average NFL game has seen its viewership dip 5.7 percent since last season.

Many will like to point the blame on the controversy surrounding multiple players taking a knee during the National Anthem, as longtime fans in addition to younger fans have turned away. However, as much an impact as it has made, that’s not the true reason for the ratings drop.

There are two other key reasons.

The first is because of the over-saturation of NFL games. In addition to Sunday football, there is Sunday Night Football, Monday Night Football, Thursday Night Football, London games that air on Sunday morning, and Christmas weekend games that will air on Saturday.

Some may say that College Football has an over-saturation because of the amount of games they air, but the flaw in that logic is that College Football has its bulk of games on Saturday, with only a couple on Thursday and Friday. Plus, the audience is more enticed into watching it because there’s more channels to broadcast the games, whereas unless you have NFL Sunday Ticket, there’s only three channels to watch NFL games on Sundays (Fox, CBS, then NBC at night).

The second reason is something that’s become even more prevalent over the past few years: the amount of injuries to “big name” stars, ones that make the NFL a lot of money. You could make a super-team with many of them, and it’s not as if these are short-term injuries either.

To name a few, you have: Aaron Rodgers, Joe Thomas, Odell Beckham Jr., JJ Watt, Richard Sherman, Eric Berry, David Johnson, and rookie star quarterback DeShaun Watson, who was giving the NFL some of its most positive light in some of their darkest of times.

As of the beginning of November this year, 295 players were on the injured-reserve list, a spike from 277 at the same point last season, which was also a spike from 233 in 2015.

With every sport, injuries are a part of the game. But it’s the increase of injuries and the amount of “big name stars” they are occurring to, and the constant saturating of the game in general, that have played critical roles in the NFL’s ratings drop.

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