NFL- losing interest

[OKCretro]

Is anyone else like me losing interest in the NFL? I think I watched the least amount last year and really couldn't care about this upcoming year.
I think all the arrest, murders etc etc are finally getting to me. I would rather just spend my time doing other things on Sunday.

I think Mark Cuban is right here

Am I the only one here?

[Roger S]

I lost interest when the Seahawks were still in the AFC West..... Pretty much only watch basketball now.

[boitoirich]

I don't think Cuban meant that football is losing interest right now; I believe he was talking about the future, with the league attempting to expand to 18 games, adding two teams to the playoffs, and developing a Thursday night package. He believes the NFL is overexposing itself, which is an ironic argument for someone who owns a team that plays 82 mostly meaningless games a year.

That being said, Harris Interactive asks people every year to name their single favorite sports. NFL (35%), MLB (14%), and college football (11%) are the top three, followed by auto racing (7%), NBA (6%), and hockey (5%). What's interesting is that the NFL seems to be getting more popular, while the NBA and college basketball have slowly gotten less so.

You can review the results for yourself here: Harris Interactive: Harris Polls > As American as Mom, Apple Pie and Football?

[Just the facts]

I lost interest in the NFL a long time ago. When OKC got the NBA that was the final nail in the NFL coffin for me. It's not just the NFL either, I maybe watched 5 college football games last year and at one time I used to watch 5 or more games on a single day. NASCAR has also taken a down turn in my viewing habits. I haven't watched an entire NASCAR race in 10 years.

[PWitty]

I don't think Cuban meant that football is losing interest right now; I believe he was talking about the future, with the league attempting to expand to 18 games, adding two teams to the playoffs, and developing a Thursday night package. He believes the NFL is overexposing itself, which is an ironic argument for someone who owns a team that plays 82 mostly meaningless games a year.

That being said, Harris Interactive asks people every year to name their single favorite sports. NFL (35%), MLB (14%), and college football (11%) are the top three, followed by auto racing (7%), NBA (6%), and hockey (5%). What's interesting is that the NFL seems to be getting more popular, while the NBA and college basketball have slowly gotten less so.

You can review the results for yourself here: Harris Interactive: Harris Polls > As American as Mom, Apple Pie and Football?

I'm surprised MLB is still in second. I feel like people get less and less interested about baseball season every year. It probably doesn't help that it's the same teams and the same players having their face on TV year in and year out since there's no salary cap. I would've put NBA as second behind NFL, or in third behind NFL and College Football, if I were guessing the order.

One thing that the NBA has in its favor is that it is a MUCH more international game than US Football. When I was back in engineering school there were a ton of kids from other countries in my classes and they were all huge NBA fans. I don't think they even understood or cared about the general concept of US Football.

But to answer your question, yes I still watch NFL as much (probably more) than I used to. It doesn't hurt that I'm from KC (where there is an NFL team), and take part in Fantasy Football. FF makes it a lot more fun to keep up with teams I otherwise wouldn't really care about.

[OKCretro]

I guess what got me thinking of this was the Desean Jackson thing, and the aaron hernadeaz thing. tired of supporting gang members and murderers

[SoonerDave]

I guess what got me thinking of this was the Desean Jackson thing, and the aaron hernadeaz thing. tired of supporting gang members and murderers

This!! I think the long-term negative impact this has on the NFL is overlooked and VERY hard to calculate. I know there are lots of decent guys in the NFL, but man, there are some serious thugs in there, too, and its sometimes pretty hard to get too excited about any of them.

CFB has always been my primary sport, and OU's my team....I honestly never paid much attention to the NBA except a few times when Jordan was playing, and certainly now moreso with the Thunder. MLB has always been a giant yawn for me. Its just intolerable to watch a full 9-inning game on TV. I used to go to Redhawks (well, 89er) games and girl-watch in my younger days , but I've never developed the statistical memorization/roster fascination for it some have.

I don't like the NFL because they no longer desire excellence. They have purposely destroyed the model that creates great, legendary teams in favor of one that turns the league into 32 pachinko marbles, any one of which might bounce their way to winning a SuperBowl. I think the era of great NFL dynasties is what made the NFL great, not this bland, everyone's about 8-8 homogeneity they've turned into over the last few years.

[Garin]

Fantasy football completely turned the nfl around for me. I'd had quit watching it for the most part due to free agency, however fours years ago I joined a fantasy league and it has got me interested once again. College is still my favorite, and I'd rather go to the dentist than watch an nba game.

[BrettM2]

Yep, because two players (only one of which is facing a criminal charge right now) definitely defines the entire league. Yes, I know there are several more who get in trouble every year. There are 53 players on 32 teams... those getting in trouble are not the norm. Every sport is going to have its boneheads; will you just quit watching everything then?

[adaniel]

Well you may be losing interest in football but given the strong ratings for regular season games and the Super Bowl I dont think the NFL is going anywhere from its perch as #1 sport. The move to more games is a bad idea and the league needs to get serious about the concussion issue but I have a hard time seeing another sport take over the most popular spot.

As far as the Deshawn Jackson I have a wait and see attitude on that. Hernandez was a bad seed that slipped through, not unlike a lot of other organizations. And what are you going to turn to that is so squeaky clean compared to the NFL? The NBA? The Malice in the Palace was only a decade ago. Even the well behaved Thunder had a player thrown off the team for beating the **** out of his girlfriend. Don't even start me on the shenanigans of college athletes.

I agree that if you want to see a sport that is dying look at MLB. Way too many game, steroid scandal, same old ass players, and games that are frankly BORING. Have you ever tried to watch a double header on TV? Its torture IMO.

[Easy180]

Lost a lot of interest in all sports as I get older. Just don't have the passion I had as a kid and teen. With two young kids I am down to mostly watching second halfs of Thunder games.

[zookeeper]

There's a lot of good, fun baseball in the minor leagues. I'm turned off of MLB because of much what's already been stated here, but I still think the minor leagues have some good, solid baseball. Guys that want to play and want to get called up. Many do - many don't, but it's fun to watch. Baseball in Frisco, TX and the Redhawks make for a fun night out. Even the teams playing in really low level pro ball are fun to go see. One of my favorite books from last year was called Class A: Baseball in the Middle of Nowhere. It followed a season with the Class A Clinton (IA) LumberKings. Fascinating book, Really, there's still a lot of great baseball outside of the big teams of MLB.

[Achilleslastand]

Watching the NFL is just about the only consistent thing I do watch on TV.
Unless its a movie my TV is hardly on from Feb to August and believe you me watching my fav team{Cowboys}is a full time job with more then one remote control meeting the wall at high velocity.

[bluedogok]

I lost interest when the Seahawks were still in the AFC West..... Pretty much only watch basketball now.

I hardly watch basketball anymore, the inconsistent officiating and football on hardwood style of play just ruins it for me. I miss the old Billy-ball style that both college and the NBA played with.

[Mississippi Blues]

I've completely lost interest in the NFL and even CFB. I switched to the real football, otherwise known as soccer (Go Arsenal and Paris Saint-Germain!!!).

I've also found rugby to be a substantial alternative as well.

[mugofbeer]

I guess what got me thinking of this was the Desean Jackson thing, and the aaron hernadeaz thing. tired of supporting gang members and murderers

This is one of the reasons i like the Thunder is that the players seem to genuinely be decent people. This compared with the recent Denver Nuggets lineup that included the quality lineuo of Carmelo Anthony, Alan Iverson, Kenyon Martin and other assorted gangsta supporters.

[SoonerDave]

Well you may be losing interest in football but given the strong ratings for regular season games and the Super Bowl I dont think the NFL is going anywhere from its perch as #1 sport. The move to more games is a bad idea and the league needs to get serious about the concussion issue but I have a hard time seeing another sport take over the most popular spot.

As far as the Deshawn Jackson I have a wait and see attitude on that. Hernandez was a bad seed that slipped through, not unlike a lot of other organizations. And what are you going to turn to that is so squeaky clean compared to the NFL? The NBA? The Malice in the Palace was only a decade ago. Even the well behaved Thunder had a player thrown off the team for beating the **** out of his girlfriend. Don't even start me on the shenanigans of college athletes.

I agree that if you want to see a sport that is dying look at MLB. Way too many game, steroid scandal, same old ass players, and games that are frankly BORING. Have you ever tried to watch a double header on TV? Its torture IMO.

Granted that for the near-term, NFL is the king of American sports. I don't think that's in dispute, or even in imminent decline. The point is that just a few decades ago, the same thing was said of MLB. It was invincible, until it wasn't. The NFL will be invincible. Until it isn't.

Nothing lasts forever. There was a societal notion, perhaps even a stereotype, back in the 40's or thereabouts that ballplayers were kinda bums. I know someone in my wife's family was supposedly looked at back in that era to play ball, but his mom wouldn't permit it because "ballplayers were drunks and bums." Somehow, we got away from that notion in the 70's and into the 80's, took to lionizing professional athletes just as the gangsta/drug culture emerged. Again, we started taking a closer look at some of these people and didn't like what we saw. We saw the thorough corruption of baseball, didn't want to believe it, laughed at Jose Canseco when he told everyone about the elephant in the room of steroids, only to find him vindicated years later. Now we have a generation that's been raise amid that gangsta culture, recognize it to be no small part of the contemporary NFL, and it turns some folks off.

There are cracks in the NFL. Free agency killed any remnant of team loyalty. Fantasy leagues have done a lot to do the same on the fan end, in all honesty. Ditwad owners like Jerry Jones have done all they can to kill great franchises like the Cowboys, crushing and melting through unabated ego what free agency did not. External influences are trying to turn the game into flag football, and politicians are trying to use it to push their social agendas. Cities are not supporting taxpayer-financed stadiums at the expense of hundreds of millions of dollars. No one element is killing the NFL, but the constellation of negative impulses circling certainly shows that the NFL is no more inevitable or invincible than any other comparable societal institution.

[kevinpate]

NFL? Oh, yeah, those are the folks who spend months ginning up interest for million to tune in on a cold winter night and tweet about a batch of commercials. Sure, I remember them.

[bluedogok]

This is one of the reasons i like the Thunder is that the players seem to genuinely be decent people. This compared with the recent Denver Nuggets lineup that included the quality lineuo of Carmelo Anthony, Alan Iverson, Kenyon Martin and other assorted gangsta supporters.

Carmelo Anthony and Kenyon Martin haven't been with the Nuggets for three years and Iverson last played for them six years ago, hardly a "recent lineup".....of course that purge of good players with questionable decision making might be the reason why the Nuggets suck now.

[Stan Silliman]

This is a joke from a few years back. Here's a lady with a complete tattoo sleeve of facebook friends:



It's a shame. If she only had a few more friends, she could play for the Denver Nuggets.

[mugofbeer]

Carmelo Anthony and Kenyon Martin haven't been with the Nuggets for three years and Iverson last played for them six years ago, hardly a "recent lineup".....of course that purge of good players with questionable decision making might be the reason why the Nuggets suck now.

I'm well aware of when these players were with the Nuggets, Bluedog. I've lived in Denver a few years longer than you and have seen the type of element who wore their garb. They were thugs, pure and simple. You're last statement is exactly why the Nuggets struggle. They've got some good talent but they need a solid star which they don't have along with more depth.

[gurantula35]

NFL is doing nothing but gaining interest. lol

[boscorama]

I love NFL football, can't wait till September!

[dankrutka]

This is one of the reasons i like the Thunder is that the players seem to genuinely be decent people. This compared with the recent Denver Nuggets lineup that included the quality lineuo of Carmelo Anthony, Alan Iverson, Kenyon Martin and other assorted gangsta supporters.

Wow. This is dated. And how is Carmello Anthony "gangsta?" He's hardly ever been in trouble (maybe a DUI, which hardly qualifies) and does lots of community work.

There seems to be some confirmation bias going on here. Even though there are 1,700 NFL players, people think they're all "thugs" and cite 2 examples while ignoring all the information that goes against their hypotheses.

[Laramie]

I don't think that it has anything to do with the character in the NFL or any major professional sport these days. Gone are the days where high profile figures & athletes are being given a pass because of who they are in the community. In this day and age, Law enforcement officials are encouraged to bag these trophies and expose high profile figures if they are violating the law.

These players and owners come from the community and they will continue to reflect the community. As parents, we are the role models for our children and that shouldn't be the profile encouraged by professional athletes.

In the Oklahoma City market where the Dallas Cowboys are dominate and devoted NFL fanatics are scattered among the St. Louis Cardinals, Kansas City Chiefs, Minnesota Vikings, Houston Texans, Denver Broncos--the NFL will continue to take a back seat to Division I Collegiate Football where the University of Oklahoma Sooners will continue to be the dominate in the OKC market. Whenever the Dallas Cowboys are having a successful season; you'll find that the OKC NFL market rating interest will be high.

Collegiate football in Oklahoma is full of surprises especially when you have the OU Sooners and the OSU Cowboys competitive every year. How well I remember a friend of mind in the early 80s talking about our university in Stillwater taking the nickname of the Dallas 'Cowboys.' Oklahoma State formerly Oklahoma A & M 'Aggies' started using the 'Cowboys' nickname in the late 50s long before the expansion 1960 NFL Dallas Cowboys were established. Why in the world would we want to steal anything for Texas?

Let's also look at that fact that the NBA wasn't as interesting in OKC until we supplied a temporary home for the 'Hornet' and obtained our own franchise in 2008. Now you have some Sooner and Cowboy diehards united together under the Thunder umbrella.

"Oklahoma City looks oh-so pretty... ...as I get my kicks on Route 66." --Nat King Cole.