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I agree that the optics here are terrible, but a game between the 49ers and Rams is simply not representative of the league as a whole. There are a whole host of reasons why nobody wants to sit in a stadium and watch either team right now, and it has nothing to do with Colin Kaepernick.

A bigger concern for the NFL -- to the point that they are probably very alarmed over it -- was the multitude of empty seats last week in Washington for the first game of the season between two long-time NFC East rivals (Redskins and Eagles) from cities only three hours apart. Up until a few years ago there's no way in hell you'd ever see empty seats at a game like that.

I'm going to (politely) disagree with you here. Before the NFL had so dramatically degraded their entertainment product and offended their loyal fan base, there was a certain social component to attending/watching games regardless of individual team performance.

It is the erosion/destruction of that social cohesion that poses the greatest danger to the league. Without any compelling reason to engage in the hassle, time & expense of attending/watching a game, masses of fans are in essence waking up from a long dream.

It's almost like leaving a cult: why the heck was I rooting for a private enterprise that simply attached the largest city/metro region in the area to its name? What does it actually have to do with me, my family & friends? Why do I care? In fact, this game is pretty boring - why am I sitting here why I'm bombarded with commercials? Do they really think I'm this big of a fool for being played like this?

It's this national awakening that is going to pose the greatest peril. How do you put the genie back in the bottle? The league in many ways has already lost the youngest generations. They no longer care about, pretend to play, or fantasize about being a pro while safely ensconced indoors playing video games, watching HD pron, or wasting time on social media.

Even worse, the core now has something else to root for: the demise of the NFL. Now, we can apply our emotional energy to a real game, with real winners & losers - the league itself.

I haven’t been able to afford an NFL game for a long time. I can’t afford to take my family to a mediocre college team most of the time (Iowa State).

When tickets cost to much, I will find other ways to spend my weekends. When the people providing the spectacle openly hate me, I won’t bother to support them.

If Nebraska keeps tanking (likely) this might be the year I cut the cord completely and get rid of the Dish. That means I will probably never see another game.

It’s all because of the anti-white atmosphere around the NFL now. There is a lot more to this than the kneeling in the anthems. There is the constant denigrating of white players by the announcers and media — white players are always “unathletic” and seen as second rate place holders until a “real athlete” can be found for the position. The fact that several positions have a near blacks only policy where whites are let go from rosters even when they perform well at certain positions. It’s the constant commercials which show white male dads as fools. It’s the hatred of the best and whitest team in the League from the entire media.

I know many people IRL who have tuned the NFL out over this stuff since 2015.

By the end of this season, it’s going to be clear this is not a blip.