Trump Has His Finger On a Pulse and the NFL is in Trouble by Publius Tacitus

I do not know why Donald Trump pulls the pin on a verbal grenade and rolls it into the crowded public tent, but he appears to know what he is doing as far as appealing to his base goes. His latest lip attack came during a political rally last Friday in Alabama. The Donald was campaigning for Luther Strange and decided to verbally flay the NFL players who are using the playing of the U.S. National Anthem as their chance to kneel in protest.

The full absurdity and ignorance of the NFL players who are refusing to stand for the anthem was on display in London, England yesterday, where the Jacksonville Jaguars played the Baltimore Ravens. When the U.S. National Anthem was played several of the players dropped to their knees in protest. Yet, when the British National Anthem, God Save the Queen, was played those clowns stood. They did so out of respect. Their message was this--they have no respect for the U.S. flag or anthem.

But the irony of the moment was lost on most of these simpleton athletes--they stood for the National Anthem of a country whose bloody history included bringing slaves to America and imposing colonial rule on black men and women throughout Africa. So much for principle.

The chattering class of the Washington, New York and Hollywood elite are beside themselves over Trump outrageous denunciation. They are savaging him and are in the throes of the delusion that most of America agrees with them. But that is not the case. The NFL is in trouble. Let me give you some of the warning indicators:

• Ratings for Sunday Night Football are down significantly. Last night saw a 10% decline compared to the previous week.
• Two of my buddies in Tampa, Florida (one of them retired military) returned their season tickets today and will not renew for next year.
• Another friend called up DirectTV and canceled his NFL Season Pass. The kid handling the cancellation for DirectTV told my friend that he was the 150th call terminating the NFL subscription that day.
• The formerly San Diego Charger, now in Los Angeles, cannot even fill the tiny 35,000 seat stadium that currently houses them (note, the average NFL stadium will hold at least 75,000 fans).
• YouTube is being flooded with clips of former fans burning their NFL jerseys and hats.

I don't think Donald Trump was shooting from the hip with the lip. I think he knew exactly what he was doing in taking on the Social Justice Warriors keen on emasculating the NFL.

 

My own view is that playing national anthems at sporting events is something that normally should not be done. Consider the case of major league baseball. I guess at least 40% of the players are not U.S. citizens. But, like good guests, they stand with respect when the anthem is played. If an American is playing ball in Japan I suspect they are fully expected to stand when the Japanese anthem is played. If it were up to me I'd end the practice of raising the flag and singing the anthem.

That said I do understand the outrage among those red blooded American men and women who are fed up with a bunch of pampered, wealthy youngsters who get to pretend that their political views matter one damn bit to the fans. Most fans don't want their sports experience served up politics. Spare us the posturing. Perform great feats of physical skill. Entertain us. But don't lecture us.

That is the message I think Donald Trump understood and is playing to.

Comments

[Fred]

AEL,

If you stand for the flag, you stand for injustice? I guess that explains why some in the NFL couldn't stand Pat Tillman.

[notlurking]

PT again hits another grand slam .....no anthem playing in any sport except in international venues like the Olympics...

[jesse]

Thanks or your service Pat and the analysis of Donald which I think is spot on. I like your view on the anthem too. But if any NFL player is a "simpleton", should we consider what responsibility we have in that, giving them money and attention, encouraging a sport that is literally damaging to the brain? Perhaps the real reason to abandon the NFL:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_NFL_players_with_chronic_traumatic_encephalopathy

[DC]

No acknowledgement that the POTUS got on stage and named an NFL player (and impliedly those like him) a "son of a b*tch"? No insight that black NFL players and their white teammates would be insulted and compelled to stand in solidarity at that insult? Tacitus, that is what you call "tone-deaf," and imo is proving the protesters' point. Both perspectives are correct -- but your failure to acknowledge the other reveals why you should inspect your perspective for unconscious bias more than you have.

[shepherd]

You have to look at the declines in context and in terms of overall media mix. NFL games still took the top two prime time viewing slots in the country last week (third was America’s Got Talent). An insane number of Americans watch the NFL, which makes its death unlikely.

There is also an important problem with the way NFL viewership—and TV viewership in general--is measured. The stats that everyone is using are Nielsen stats for Primetime Broadcast TV. We know that these are very problematic. The reason is that they do not include a large range of streaming devices that are not broadcast TVs but can play NFL games. Rabid fans, for example, often purchase OTT services that allow them to watch a huge number of games. They go unmeasured, and they’re the people who watch the most games.

Unless you combine the streaming numbers with broadcast numbers, which we can't do right now, you don’t have a true picture of ratings—you merely see a decline across the board, with football declining less than broadcast TV in general.

[turcopolier]

lars

"... in the end, he lost his war and then lost his presidency." The US completed its phased withdrawal from VN in '73. I was on one of the the last scheduled charter airlift flights out of Tan Son Nhut airport completing the withdrawal. VN was completely quiet at that point under the terms of the armistice. Nixon was forced from office in '74 over his part in the Watergate cover-up. That had nothing to do with VN. Congress forbade by law any further assistance to South Vietnam in '75. The NVA then broke the armistice and over-ran the country. Very sloppy Lars, very sloppy. pl

[Ivan]

Subramaniam Chandrasekhar the famous astrophysicist who originated from India, could pass for a relation of Sydney Poitier. He said that he faced racial discrimination for the first time (back in 1930s) not in Great Britain where he spent his early professional years, but the US where he received an appointment at University of Chicago.

[Chris]

The real threat to the NFL is declining TV ratings. At this point actual live fans in stadiums are an afterthought. With most stadiums now featuring incredibly overpriced tickets and PSLs that only corporations can afford (or high level employees of those corporations,) the NFL is probably thinking they are playing for the coastal elites who run TV networks like ESPN.

However, ESPN itself is losing subscribers and revenue. The bulk of the NFL money comes from huge lucrative TV deals with networks like ESPN I believe. If that trend continues, there is going to be a big reckoning when the current contract is up.

[Publius Tacitus]

You are misrepresenting what Trump actually said. He made no reference to any particular player or team:

“Wouldn’t you love to see one of these NFL owners, when somebody disrespects our flag, to say, ‘Get that son of a bitch off the field right now. Out! He’s fired. He’s fired!’”

At least get our facts right.

[Laura]

Well said. Anyone remember the days when the entire stadium would stand and sing the National Anthem together? Now we outsource that to a "designated singer"....bet 9 out of 10 o0f those rabid patriots in the stands don't even know the words.

[David E. Solomon]

Good for you Nancy,

But better yet, throw out the television.

We did so a number of years ago.

Regards,

David

[Laura]

May I just say we are all a bunch of snowflakes. Dear merciful -- it is a song and, although, I love it...THE OATH OF OFFICE FOR ALL SOLDIERS AND OFFICE HOLDERS IS TO PRESERVE AND PROTECT THE CONSTITUTION. Remember that document? That is where our outrage should be focussed...Trump is a shallow man with shallow tastes and shallow understandings. We can only all get through this by revering our Constitution and holding each other accountable for all of its provisions -- including the exercise of free speech by people we disagree with and who are disagreeable..

[Lars]

By 1974, Nixon's base had shrunk to the point that they were unable to protect him anymore and his cover up was used as an excuse to get rid of him. It may have been a somewhat orderly withdrawal from VN, but that was was essentially lost, mainly due to losing popular support.

What is interesting now, is to what extent history will repeat itself.

[River]

If Trump was really smart he should have tweeted "Americans should look to the NFL for what patriotism is. I admire their players genuflecting when the Anthem is played.

The outcome would have been hilarious.

[Stephanie]

I expect the athletes stood for the the British anthem as a point of good manners, a courtesy to the land that was hosting them. However, the black athletes would have had other good reasons to pay their respects to the Queen. Doug has already noted that the British abolished slavery throughout thir colonies in 1833. As early as 1772, Lord Justice Mansfield ruled to give James Sommerset, brought to England as a slave with his American master and later escaped and was captured again, his freedom. In 1775, Lord Dunsmore offered American slaves freedom if they could make it to the British lines. Slaves left the plantations in droves, and after the war thousands of them made it to Nova Scotia. (Dunsmore’s political goal backfired – instead of intimidating white slaveowners, his action merely impressed on them the imperative of winning independence in order to preserve slavery.)

Slaves were of considerable assistance to Admiral Sir George Cockburn in the War of 1812, acting as scouts and guides. A regiment was formed, the Colonial Marines, who embarrassed the Washington militia of which Francis Scott Key was a member, sending them running. (Fortunately, a naval unit made up of free blacks made a stand.) A squad of the Colonial Marines sacked the White House with Cockburn. After the war the planters demanded their slaves back, and Cockburn told them to stuff it.

The knee protests had actually been dwindling for some time. Trump has given them new life, much to the annoyance of NFL owners who are under normal circumstances his natural allies. I think this may well have been deliberate on Trump's part, changing the subject from the failure of the Republican's latest "health care" legislation. However, he's also making life difficult for some rich, powerful and vindictive men, which could come back to bite him.

[turcopolier]

lars

"It may have been a somewhat orderly withdrawal from VN ..." You have a selective knowledge of history. The withdrawal was over a three year period with about thirty balanced trenches. I was in the last trenche. pl

[Red Cloud]

If football fans don't like to have to think about politics when they just want to watch sports, perhaps having a big patriotic charade that was paid for by the DOD and National Guard as part of the pre-game is not a good idea...

[turcopolier]

outthere

"A man I am proud to call my brother, who should be celebrated for his courage to seek change on important issues" Which important issues are those or is this just more hysterical self-pitying BS? pl

[BillWade]

"I was in the last trenche." I was too Col but left out of Da Nang, last day. If I recall correctly we had two "freedom birds" that day but I wasn't on either, left with about 18 others on a small plane for Ubon and then onto NKP Thailand where we provided a huge laugh for the guys there, we were coming out of the terminal when the siren went off, promptly hit the deck and were laughingly told by our new buddies that it was the noon whistle.

[jesse]

Pat, what do you consider more respectful to former and current military service persons, standing for the flag or kneeling for it? And why?

[raven]

"Not only are ratings for NFL games not “way down” as Trump claimed on Twitter early Tuesday, they’re actually up.

The weekend’s NFL ratings were 3 percent higher overall than for the same weekend last year, a league spokesman told HuffPost Tuesday. And ESPN’s Monday night game was up 63 percent, compared with the Monday game at this time last year.

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NFL games constituted seven of the top 10 most-watched TV broadcasts this week, with football sweeping the top five most-watched shows, outranking even the Emmy Awards, in ninth place.

This week’s most-watched show, Sunday’s game between the Denver Broncos and the Dallas Cowboys, raked in 25.96 million viewers.

For comparison, that’s about 6 million more viewers than the average tuned in to watch the first season of “The Apprentice,” the reality TV show that starred Trump. “Apprentice” viewership declined rapidly after that first season, to an average of 4.67 million viewers by the time the show turned 10, making it the 113th most-watched show on basic cable." Nice try though.

[Tom Cafferty]

Trigger warning, trigger warning: sports stadiums are no longer safe spaces for snowflakes. Snowflakes will have to find other places to be safe. Perhaps a government sponsored virtual safe space with robotic sports video.

[DC]

A distinction without a difference. I think you should re-consider the perspective of both sides before castigating one so fiercely. Without doing that, you're just following the piper.

[Eric Newhill]

jonst,
The kneeling is just another of a myriad of symptoms of the degenerate America hating Left's war on our traditional culture.

Taken by itself, you're probably right. However, as a symptom, it is a clear cut case of what is becoming widespread. As a clear cut case, it becomes an opportunity for Trump to address the wider issue in a concise manner that everyone "in the family" recognizes.

We (the family members) all know that Trump is really speaking out against antifas, black lives matter, illegals aliens, elite Hollywood weirdos....the whole crowd that delights in giving traditional culture the finger. Trump's letting us know that he's with us. Smart move, IMO.

Contrast Obama who at best did nothing and at worst fanned the flames while cities burned over the BS "hands up. don't shoot".

[Chris]

Context is important - are those ratings happening with a backdrop of overall stable, increasing or declining tv viewership?

I suspect the latter as there is a reason ESPN is losing viewers and recently had layoffs ... cable cutting is real and therein lies the threat to the NFL; albeit it could be mitigated by having more people watching games directly on their mobile devices or streaming live.