[ot-caption title=”Roger Goodell has repeatedly botched disciplinary situations in the NFL. (Photo by Andrew Burton/Getty Images)”][spacer height=”10px” id=”2″]

In an era of DVRs and On Demand TV, live sports and the NFL in particular, have always been a reliable source of revenue for television networks. So reliable that, in fact, ESPN has extended their the NFL contract to 15.2 billion dollars for the rights to show Monday Night Football through to 2021. [spacer height=”10px” id=”2″]

They extended their contract under the impression that NFL games are the among the highest rated programs on cable television. However, this does not seem to be the case anymore.[spacer height=”10px” id=”2″]

The Monday Morning Quarterback Newsletter has said, collectively, NFL ratings are in decline. Monday Night Football is down 24%, Sunday Night Football is down 19%, and Thursday Night Football is down 18% in comparison to the ratings from last year.[spacer height=”10px” id=”2″]

The questions is, what has changed so drastically for viewers in just a year’s time?[spacer height=”10px” id=”2″]

Sports fans have listed multiple reasons why they are uninterested in the 2016 football season. There are many factors that contribute from outside the game. Politics have taken too big a role in the sport. A Yahoo Sports poll in 2016 shows that 40% of fans who are watching less football are doing so in response to Colin Kaepernick protests.[spacer height=”10px” id=”2″]

Additionally, 31% of people have said they see a lack of opportunity within the NFL, followed by 29% of people who had lost interest in the NFL. Lastly about 17% of people watched the election coverage in place of a football game.[spacer height=”10px” id=”2″]

Pine Crest’s varsity football quarterback Jordan Schulefand validates this idea.[spacer height=”10px” id=”2″]

On the recent decline in NFL ratings, Jordan said, “It’s an election year, and especially with such a close one like we [saw] right now, the NFL [was] bound to lose some ratings to news stations that [covered] both campaigns. [Commissioner] Roger Goodell isn’t helping the situation either. He holds the league to very low standards, and it’s hurting the league in a very big way.” [spacer height=”10px” id=”2″]

Jordan addressed some of the problems outside the game, but within the game, there are still many issues.[spacer height=”10px” id=”2″]

NFL games are on much more frequently. For example, a fan can watch a game Sunday morning at 9:30 am, Sunday afternoon at 1:00 pm, 4:00pm, and later at 8:00 pm. There’s more. You can also watch on Monday night and Thursday night. This over saturation of games makes viewers feel less inclined to watch more. [spacer height=”10px” id=”2″]

Games are also lasting up to an hour longer than in previous seasons. The new rules that Goddell has proposed to the sport have referees calling more penalties to prevent concussions and video review of controversial calls make the game significantly longer and less entertaining. A lack of competitive games is also hurtful to NFL corporate. [spacer height=”10px” id=”2″]

With all of this said, American football is still the most popular sport on television, and despite these setbacks it will continue to be for a very long time. The league simply has to rebound fix these complications. [spacer height=”10px” id=”2″]

Sources: Fox, MMQB [spacer height=”10px” id=”2″]

Photo Source: Getty Images