The headline in the Chicago Tribune, which reads "Hurricane Irma Delays NFL's TV Ratings", probably portends more bad news for the NFL in the form of another season of declining fan interest which will manifest itself in lower television viewership, smaller in-stadium crowds and the corresponding list of excuses from the league office. The fact that the offices where NFL television ratings are compiled and reported is - or was - in Tampa, which was evacuated ahead of the storm, will only delay the inevitable.
Last year it was the election. This year, NFL spin doctors suggest, it's the weather. Ratings for The Weather Network are way up as some football fans (even those in areas not impacted by the hurricanes) apparently are now more interested in the weather than in whatever the NFL has to offer for their viewing pleasure. What will the league offer up as an explanation for the ratings drop once the hurricane season is over? Will there be another major news story which they can claim has drawn attention away from their product? Anything, I guess, to not address the fundamental issue of declining participation in junior football programs and the alarming number of high schools across America (and Canada too) which have scrapped their football programs due to player/student safety concerns.
The New England Patriots have won the Superbowl in two of the past three seasons (the 2014 and 2016 seasons). The winner of the big game from the previous year earns the right to host the league's opening regular season game on the Thursday night of Week 1, three days before the rest of the teams open their schedules. On that opening Thursday in 2015, the Patriots game was watched by an average audience of 27.4 million viewers. Two years later, average viewership for last week's game dropped to 21.8 million. A year ago, the Denver Broncos (the 2015 Superbowl winner) opening Thursday home game drew an average of 25.2 million. See a pattern here? Make no mistake: the NFL is still a ratings juggernaut and no other sports league or television program even comes close to the numbers that the NFL can draw but the downward trajectory is clear and I am confident is saying that the Golden Age of Football is now behind us. Sure, I'll still watch on television and I'll still make the pilgrimage to Orchard Park once or twice each season (or more if the Bills are competitive in December) but I am less confident now that I will still be doing so 20 or 30 years from now than I would have been five years ago.
But the Bills won in Week 1 and I still feel good about that. I like the attitude and demeanor of the new head coach Sean McDermott. I like the defence, the offensive line and the running game. I remain concerned about the quarterback and the lack of big play receivers which the team will need to get back into games where they fall behind. Like they probably will in next week's trip to Carolina.
I saw only a bit of the Jets game as I was focused mainly on rebuilding our pump house after we replaced our entire water system this summer at the cottage. I watched part of the Patriots game on Thursday night and I was pleased to see the Chiefs dominate in the 4th quarter and hand them a home loss. With the Dolphins idle due to the hurricane, the Bills find themselves alone in first place in the AFC East. This will likely only be a week-long phenomenon but I like the look of the standings in the newspaper right now.
If the Bills can pull out a road win in Week 2, then prospects for the 2017 season will definitely seem brighter in what still feels like a rebuilding year. We are rebuilding our pump house and the Bills are rebuilding for the future. I am confident that our pump house will last 30 years or more. The NFL will still be around in 30 years too but it could like quite different that it does now.
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