The regular season of the National Football League begins tonight with the defending champion Philadelphia Eagles taking on the Atlanta Falcons. Yesterday blacklisted quarterback Colin Kaepernick was all over the newspaper because of a new Nike ad. Kaepernick's anthem protests have been blamed -- and continue to be blamed -- for the substantial ratings drop -- 10% last year; 8% the year before -- plaguing the league, which is significant because the NFL is really the last bastion of a cultural commons in the U.S. Its disappearing fan base is a harbinger of even greater political divisiveness.
My sense is that this year, absent some unforeseen development, will be as bad as last year, if not worse. Tom Brady's theory about the ratings drop is media overload. I think he is partially correct. It's that in tandem with a decrease in quality of the games, whether due to fears of CTE, conservative play-calling, or increased injuries from the Thursday-Monday schedule.
I'll be a canary in the coal mine. I'll tune into the hometown Seahawks, now in a rebuilding year, but have vowed to tune out in a week or two if the team continues to play as poorly as they did in preseason.
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