The problems plaguing the National Football League’s disastrous 2017 season spilled over into the NFL’s playoff games last week, with 23 million fewer viewers tuning-in compared to this time last year.
As Outkick the Coverage reports, the previous weekends “highly-anticipated” division playoff games posted shockingly low television ratings, with furious fans still tuning-out following months of professional athletes “taking a knee” during the performance of the US national anthem.
“In fact, ratings are plummeting so much that virtually no major media outlets are even talking about ratings at all. It’s almost like the league and its television partners have put out the code red not to acknowledge the collapse in viewership so far in 2018,” writes the author.
Angry football fans continued their boycott of the pivotal games beyond the league’s regular season, despite the fact the highly-publicized head-to-head matchups determine which teams ultimately end up in this year’s Super Bowl just weeks away.
The NFL struggled throughout the 2017 season to appease both furious fans and protesting players as athletes continued to kneel during the ‘Star-Spangled Banner.’ The resulting chaos caused television ratings and sales to plummet throughout the country.
Industry experts say the player protests have caused the NFL at least $500 million in 2017 alone.