Death of a thousand cuts:
Free agency.
Too many penalties.
Too many rules.
Too many commercials.
Too many replays.
Too many head injuries.
Taking to long to resolve replays/challenges.
Market saturation.
Too much emphasis on passing game.
Shortage of quarterback talent.
Decline in announcer talent.
Lower level of play due to ignoring football fundamentals.
Player protests.
Too much ugly showboating/taunting, poor player behavior in general.
IMO replay is destroying ALL sports.
Hockey and college basketball now are encountering more and more delays as officials go over to an iPad and run the play back and forth....back and forth....back and forth....
The other night there was a seven minute delay in an NHL hockey game. A sport that prides itself on nonstop action.
The most important thing is to get the call right? NO IT’S NOT! The most important thing is to maintain the flow of the game. Officials were getting calls wrong for decades, and sports were GREAT! The blown calls even out over time.
It’s so refreshing to tune to ESPN Classic and find an old game on there where there are NO delays to review officials’ calls.
“Too much emphasis on passing game.
Shortage of quarterback talent.”
Good list, but I’d also add that there is too much dependence on the QB position. If you have a good QB, you can win, if you don’t, you can’t. Long gone are the days when a team like the Vikings could go to the Super Bowl with Joe Kapp as the QB.
It’s almost as if a team must have a QB and the other players are simply an add on.
Too much fabric on cheerleaders’ uniforms.
I think the protests are the main reason for the drop in audience, but I bet QB situations could be a cause on some specific teams.
I wonder if anyone has compared the TV audience for Broncos games before and after Peyton Manning's retirement? I know, not being in NFL metro area, I've always picked teams to follow mostly based on favorite QBs.