The NFL is continuing to have decreased viewership as they have embraced players kneeling for the national anthem or teams refusing to leave the locker room until after the anthem was played.
The 2021 Super Bowl had 3.5 million fewer viewers than the Super Bowl from the previous year and 18 million fewer viewers than its peak in 2015. Average viewership of regular-season NFL games decreased drastically this year after NFL commissioner Roger Goodell said ahead of the season that he would “support” players that kneeled for the national anthem, and that the NFL was “wrong” for not initially supporting kneeling.
We, the NFL, condemn racism and the systematic oppression of Black People. We, the NFL, admit we were wrong for not listening to NFL players earlier and encourage all to speak out and peacefully protest. We, the NFL, believe Black Lives Matter. #InspireChange pic.twitter.com/ENWQP8A0sv
— NFL (@NFL) June 5, 2020
The drop in viewership reflects the disapproval by NFL fans of not supporting the national anthem. According to a Washington Post poll, 42% of Americans believe it is inappropriate to kneel during the national anthem.
Former NFL player Rep. Burgess Owens (R-UT) voiced his viewpoint on the subject during an appearance on “Just the News AM”, Owens said that politics in football is “something I just don’t have a tolerance for this point. … I’m one of those guys who has decided I’m done with the NFL for a while.”
“Use another venue, or use another time. What we don’t do is we don’t attack those things that do bring us together,” Owens added. “If we’re teaching our kids to do nothing but look at the worst of ourselves, then we don’t move forward. … For any of us to look back on the worst things we’ve ever done, focus on that and only think about that, we will never move forward. We’ll never risk-take, we’ll never think it will be better.”
