A poll shows that NFL fans are following the sport less closely than they have in the past even among key demographics. Just 51% of men aged 18-49 follow the NFL closely, compared to 75% who said they did four years ago. A drop that is not just precipitous, but one that is among a core constituency.
“You watch the guys playing college ball, and I feel like they are trying a lot harder and you get a better game. I don’t hear the talk about [pro] football as much as I used to.” said Tim Muzzy, 29, of Upstate New York.
The drop in interest comes after a troubled year for the NFL. The best players got hurt, team owners fought and the league became engaged in a public quarrel with the president over players kneeling during the national anthem to protest social injustice.
While the drop in interest spanned political ideologies – the percentage of Democrats who follow the NFL closely dropped by 16%, for Republicans, it was 14% – watchers believe the protests were a contributing factor.
“You can’t have this very specific movement and look at the last year and say all that protest and kneeling stuff didn’t have an impact. It really has, and it really has affected the viewership,” said Micah Roberts, a Republican pollster who helped conduct the poll along with Democratic pollster Fred Yang.
Another major concern for the NFL is the health of its players. A surge in information about the dangers for football-related brain disease has a spurred a decrease in youth participation. In 2014, 40% of mothers said they would encourage their children to play sports other than football due to heath concerns. That figure has now climbed to 53%.
“When participation erodes, the likelihood of a kid becoming a big fan doesn’t necessary go away, but it lessens,” said NBC Sports Chairman Mark Lazarus.
The NFL points out that interest in the game is still at a very high level. Prime-time ratings have dropped across the board but the NFL notes that it still had thirty-three of the top fifty most-watched programs of 2017. Fox also won the rights to broadcast the league’s Thursday night games next year with a bid that was a big increase over the league’s previous contract.
Still, Roberts says, the data contained in the poll is a “flashing yellow light” for the NFL. “It’s certainly disturbing data for the NFL, but it’s nothing they can’t recover from,” Roberts says.