Boyer' open letter to Kaepernick

I've said it before; if an employee is costing your company money for reasons unrelated to the business then the business has a right to take action.

 

I don't think anyone has disputed the NFL's right to stop the protests. The question is whether they should. That is a multi-faceted decision, and the league is struggling to make the best decision for itself.

Personally, I don't care what they do before or after the games, so long as it doesn't impact the product on the field. As soon as the protesting (or the response to the protesting) impacts the game itself, I'll worry.

 

I just wanted to be clear because we hear a lot of talk about freedom of speech. Yes there is; but as we know that is only supposed to protect you from being jailed over it. So to me the argument is this: does the NFL wish to donate money to the cause in the form of lost revenue and fans. What they can't get their arms around is this: Is the lost revenue temporary with the chance to win these fans back and how many are permanently gone? How easily are they replaced and will the permanent fan loss continue to grow if the league agrees to the protests.

I personally think the cat is out of the bag and even raising a fist or kneeling before or after the anthem will send a negative message to a percentage of the fan base who will just see the change as a disingenuous compromise driven by money. In other words, we're still protesting and we're still getting paid.

 

I think the league has already shown their cards. They are more concerned about disharmony with the players than the fans taking issue with the protest. NFL owners care only about $$$ and they've apparently made their own calculation that forcing the players to stand for the anthem would cost more than weathering the fan defection.

 

How do you explain Jerry Jones line in the sand? Was it public BS to take the heat off the players like he allegedly told them behind closed doors? And do you expect a Cowboy to eventually kneel or raise a fist during the anthem?

 

NFL Thursday Night Football ratings this week hit a season low

Last night’s Week 8 match-up (which had no World Series conflict) ... fell 15% from the early numbers of last week’s previous season low matching TNF. ​

http://deadline.com/2017/10/ravens-...ight-football-ratings-low-cbs-nfl-1202195977/

 

The owners had a meeting Oct 17. Apparently there was a presentation showing how "fan outrage" is "eroding many of the league's key business metrics." If the owners were not already aware, they were made aware at that meeting that the flag/anthem "protests" are driving fans away. By the millions. Word is Jerry Jones expressed shock at the meeting that his local ratings were off nearly 20% for the Cowboys.

Increasingly, that part of the public who watches football regularly has begun to see pro ball as just a "thug" league full of "BLM racists." There is anger on both sides. The owners were split on whose anger they should care more about. Not surprisingly, they misjudged the situation. It was a fatal error. The question now on the table is whether the owners and players have permanently broken the bond between pro football and its fans.

The NFL used to be alot about tradition and unity. It has long been deeply embedded in holiday tradition -- just take a moment and think back on watching games together on Thanksgiving, Christmas, maybe New Years. Then there were all the annual Super Bowl parties. Watching sports together like that is one of the greatest American bonding experiences that has ever existed. There was patriotism too, see the giant flags, the sharp dressed military, military flyovers and, of course, those surprise family reunions on the field with long away service folk. The league was as good at celebrating American traditions as anything on television. Until right now, NFL games have never been about attacking and criticizing American tradition.

I think owners had been looking at this as a crisis they could solve or at least manage. But it appears to be more than that now. What seems to be happening is a fundamental breach of trust between fans and league. In this respect, its like what an affair can do to a marriage. The primary question is usually -- can trust ever be fully restored? If so, it is not easy. From my perspective, the owners blew it. Even more than the players. And I am not sure if there is anything they can do at this point to get it back. And I think its going to get worse.

 

Good take. In my view, the owners have always had an acrimonious relationship with the NFLPA and by extension the players. There have been strikes, scabs, lock-outs, CTE and accusations of collusion (before Kaepernick). So what's the difference now? It's just another thing to fight with the players. But the fans are the revenue stream and they should have kept their eye on the ball all along. If you're willing endure lock-outs/strikes then you keep fighting for what you believe in. The owners can't change the behavior of the police. And on top of that they hire the police to help keep order don't they? So what are they supposed to do; paint the broad-brush on them as BLM does and take the revenue hit all for Kaepernick? It seems to me they did make a huge mistake.

Seems like a different point of view between you and Seattle; you say taking the side of the players is costing more money and Seattle said taking the side of the players was costing them less than if they took the side of the fans. Or did I misread that?

 

It's been reported that Jerry Jones gave $1M to Donald Trump's campaign and had 3-4 private conversations with DJT after Trump decided to bastardize this issue with his infamous Alabama speech. Jones decided to play politics but then again he enjoys the media exposure which is different then most of the NFL owners. Jones is the exception which is also why he was the most vocal owner to raise this issue in the most recent owners/players meeting.

 

It was a 40-0 blowout, but I'm sure that had nothing to do with it.

 

Which leads me to my next question; how do they track viewership these days?

 

That's part of the problem with the ratings these days. That game was also shown on Amazon Prime or SlingTV. The more traditional Nielsen metrics are very poor at accounting for viewership in these other platforms. Last night wasn't streamed live on Twitter but 10 Thursday night games are. Some have a political motive to make the story much worse than it is but there are many reasons the NFL ratings are dropping of which the anthem saga is only one.

 

Of course

This, IMO, is the most interesting question. How did they get this so wrong? Two responses.
First, some of the owners actually agree with the players on the social politics at issue. At one time, I took the time to look through ownership and made my guesses for each. I figured about half of them. Maybe a little more than half.
Second, Goodell hired a senior person from the failed Clinton Campaign. This person had his ear on how to manage the kneeling issue. This person created a false reality for Goodell and the owners on this issue. And they bought it. It was a huge mistake. And now they are suffering for it.

Exactly. It's not their job. They are running a business. Attending to that business is their job. They lost sight of this. And, as I allege above, were persuaded by a very good persuader, that they should get the league into politics. Pick a side. Pick a fight with their customers.

How dumb was this? I would say about as dumb a decision as they could possibly make. They managed to screw up what was, up until this specific moment in history, a foolproof business. The NFL is a golden economic goose; a giant ATM machine. But they did it anyway. They did the impossible. They proved this foolproof business was not really foolproof. The financial losses are kind of hard to fathom at this point. But they will be large.

I dont know. I dont see his posts as I had to block him. He kept trying to have me censored/removed from the board.

 

You guys make excuses for each ratings decline

 

Other theories and considerations about the falling ratings:

Football ratings are sliding more slowly than TV as a whole.

The decline is because the football TV market is over-saturated.

In fact, Mark Cuban foresaw the decline 3 years ago.

The game isn't what it used to be (more flags, more commercials, mediocre teams, etc.).

Polling shows that few fans have left football due to protests.

The last link shows that only 12% of people say they are watching fewer football games than they used to. Of those, only 26% say it is because of the protests. Thus, a very small fraction (3%) of football fans are skipping games because of the protests.

Interestingly, the polling shows that people are watching more games than they used to -- but they aren't watching the entire game as often, and thus they count less in the ratings. People used to watch a game -- now they tune in for part of a game. That's a fundamental shift that has been coming slowly but surely for a long time. It has nothing to do with the protests.

 

As I have no doubt you are already aware, there is plenty of polling that shows fans are not watching specifically because of the kneeling on the flag stuff
It's so easy to find them too. This one says "62% plan to watch less pro football in response to the anthem controversy." https://finance.yahoo.com/news/exclusive-poll-62-nfl-fans-plan-watch-less-football-163908368.html

But is polling even really necessary in this case? Assuming it is not considered "hate speech" to mention "common sense" anymore, doesnt your own common sense tell you what is happening here? Fans dont want pro football politicized. Period. Full stop. Even fans who might agree with some of the issues the players are raising, still dont want the games politicized. Keep politics out of it. Not just your politics but all politics. Knowing this used to be considered common sense.

 

Here is the article I was relying for the part above about Jerry Jones
http://www.espn.com/espn/otl/story/...l-players-forged-anthem-peace-league-meetings

" .......... Morale was bad inside the league office, and the pressure was not letting up. There was the looming notion that sponsors would leave the NFL -- not just because of the protests but because of an array of challenges confronting the league, including the continuing decline in TV ratings. Nearly all of the league's longtime sponsors, from Papa John's to USAA, were rattled, and fissures within the league offices and teams, to say nothing of the players, were starting to expand.

* * *

THE NIGHT BEFORE that meeting, Jerry Jones stood in a suite at Yankee Stadium, watching the Yankees play the Houston Astros in the ALCS but also, perhaps, catching a terrifying glimpse into his future. The Cowboys are what the Yankees once were: America's most iconic team in America's most iconic -- and patriotic -- sport. Jones was a man at the pinnacle of his profession that chilly night, the Hall of Fame owner whose power among his peers is drawn from a relentless skill at growing the NFL's total revenues and the guile to outmuscle everyone. But those who have spoken with him sense a dull panic, as if so much of what the NFL has built -- what he has built since buying the Cowboys in 1989 -- is eroding. Jones and his fellow owners had arrived in New York that day like heads of state, setting up shop at the Four Seasons and in their own apartments with a clear agenda: Stop Trump from attacking our business. Find a way to persuade players to stop kneeling. Get the focus back to football.

But the owners had far different ideas about how to accomplish such difficult goals, according to nearly two dozen interviews Outside the Lines conducted with owners, league and team executives, players and lawyers briefed on the two days of closed-door meetings. For one thing, this was not the usual scandal or crisis the league could fight in the court system or the court of public opinion and then march away from. The game itself had come under a monthlong attack by the president of the United States, with no letting up. It was also a prickly regional problem. The players' protests and the president's criticism played far differently in New England and California than they did in Texas, where Jones and Houston Texans owner Bob McNair were fielding an avalanche of complaints from outraged fans. This time, Goodell didn't have to simply manage owners' bruised egos and simmering feuds; this was a national political crisis threatening the league's business and its brand, seen through a different lens by each owner depending on his or her own political leanings and each team's fan base. It would require leadership, diplomacy and, most likely, a little luck.
* * *
A recent Morning Consult poll revealed that the NFL's net favorability has dropped to 11 percent from a high of 56 percent in May. Jones was furious that local TV ratings in Dallas were down, especially a 19 percent drop for this year's game against Green Bay, compared with last year's. "There is no question the league is suffering negative effects from these protests," he would tell reporters after the Cowboys routed the 49ers. "All times, I want to do the right thing by [NFL sponsors] and their customers. I have a great responsibility to the people who support us. ... We all get great benefits from having a lot of us watching our games. All of us do."......"​

The article goes on and on, see the link above

 

You'd think they'd learn their lesson when it comes to listening to a liberal. They fail at everything they do.

That made me laugh. Liberals tend to try to silence people that don't think like them. They are so predictable.

Every year there's blow outs. Overall the ratings have dropped and it's because they crossed the line messing with our flag and anthem. I had a guy the other day that I wouldn't have guessed to be a big football or political guy. He told me he wrote the league to inform them that he dropped his NFL Network and will not be buying any of their merchandise anymore. That he is done with them.

The NFL needs us way more than we need them.

 

Like of a lot of what he says...it ain't true and he knows it. Must be the "snowflake" syndrome he mentions often.

What is funny is the attempt to try to tie everything wrong with the NFL to this singular issue. Why? Because the dog whistle that is our POTUS. I'd argue that Concussions/CTE and the "thug" stories (i.e. Ray Rice) have had as much if not more impact on NFL support as the articles link above point to. Of course, those don't have an easy political angle to grab onto nor support an agenda so like anything that falls into this category are discarded, this time without much attempt to even discredit them. Par for the course though for the alt-right crowd.

 

I think sometimes you think you are proving Joe wrong about things while ignoring the facts.

Your attempt to put the NFL all on Our Great President is humorous. The death spiraling of the NFL started last year before President Trump ever chimmed in on it. Your use of the word “Dog Whistle” and you placing the blame on everything but the ignorance of multi-millionaire players that play a game for living that kneels during the National Anthem is “par for the course for the alt-left crowd.”

They are trying to bring attention to a cause that’s not even an issue. An innocent black man without a gun is more likely to get struck by lightening than killed by a police officer. You and your party will once again be on the wrong side of history when it’s looked back on.

 

Why would you have to block him? People choose to block people, but I've never heard of anyone having to block someone as though they had no choice in the matter. Seems weird.

 

This is a ridiculous quote, because it suggests that the Yankees are has-beens compared to the Cowboys. The Yankees made the playoffs and reached the ALCS - the baseball equivalent of the NFC championship. The Cowboys likely won't make the playoffs and sure as hell won't be in the NFC championship. The Yankees have won 5 World Series since the Cowboys last won a Super Bowl.

I hate the Yankees, but if anybody has fallen from dominance, it's the Cowboys.

Yeah, I watched that game and wanted those 4 hours of my life back afterwards. I was in Texas at the time, and it was the first Cowboys game I'd watched in six years. Their second half performance was less inspiring than Hillary Clinton's 2016 campaign, and they pissed the game away like she pissed the Presidency away. Maybe that had something to do with the ratings. I was probably the only viewer they had for the 4th quarter, and that might have accounted for the drop.

 

Yankees winning five championships since the Cowboys last SB title is as comparing apples to oranges as it gets. Two words...salary cap.

If Dallas was still allowed to buy the best hired guns like the days of swiping Haley and Sanders they'd be major SB contenders nearly every year.

"Instead of a salary cap, Major League Baseball implements a luxury tax (also called a competitive balance tax), an arrangement in which teams whose total payroll exceeds a certain figure (determined annually) are taxed on the excess amount in order to discourage large market teams from having a substantially higher payroll than the rest of the league. The tax is paid to the league, which then puts the money into its industry-growth fund".

Luxury tax paid (fines for exceeding payroll limit) from 2003-15...

Yankees: $297.6 mil
Dodgers: $81.6
Red Sox: $20.6
Tigers: $1.3
Giants: $1.3
Angels: $0.9

"The New York Yankees have paid 73.78% of all luxury tax collected by MLB."

If buying Super Bowl titles was allowed like the early 90's and still exists in MLB, Dallas would've purchased several more over the last 25+ years.

Certainly not defending Dallas' lame failure to produce Super Bowl seasons under the salary cap structure.

Just saying if NFL teams were only limited by a luxury tax for excessive payrolls, the richest sports organization in the world would dominate on a regular basis.

 

It seems to have worked - I have had no more intra-agency communications since I did that.
Why argue with success?

 

You made that look like I wrote that quote. But you know I did not write it. Nor did you post a trigger warning. Your fake news hurt my feelings. Which makes you a Fascist. I may have to report you to management about this trickery and deception.

See how it works?

You guys keep trying to make up new excuses for the overall downward trend in NFL ratings, willing to discuss every possibility for that decline except the elephant* in the room. Here, while blaming the Cowboys performance for ratings, you admit watching the entire game yourself. It's almost like you have just now discovered for the first time in your life that half of all NFL teams lose every week (byes excepted). They always have. Yet ratings have been high all this time. Seems weird.


*edit - I originally wrote "800 lb gorilla" instead of "elephant" but later I realized that may have veered close to a Bob McNair misstep, so I changed it.

 

Joe Fan,

They're not going to grasp the implications of what the NFL has done to its loyal fanbase. Those that were not heavily invested in the NFL before the protests don't quite get what's taking place.

I know the seriousness of the change that has occurred firsthand. I love football with a passion and even more so on the pro level.

I've been an avid NFL viewer since early childhood and was absolutely hooked on NFL football ever since.

Now in my early 40's I even began to dread summer because it was like watching paint dry waiting for football to start.

It was that big of a deal and excitement for me. Unless it was a night game between two really bad teams, I was watching.

This season I've watched all six Dallas games and not a single other. And even that is required as I write for a Cowboys website. In a typical past season I'd have watched dozens by now.

It's not out of anger or seeking revenge, I just don't feel the passion anymore. The disrespecting of fans by protesting America and pouting like unappreciative spoiled children completely ruined the purity of the battle and feeling of escape the game provided. If Dallas is not involved, there's just no interest left.

NFL football was my favorite form of entertainment I couldn't wait to get to every year...and that desire disappeared overnight. From burning passion to apathy beyond the Cowboys.

It may seem trivial to some, but it changed my way of living. My Sundays are spent radically different than was the consistent norm for over three decades.

This is also the first year in decades I haven't bought $100's in merchandise during the season and at least planned what Cowboys games I'm going to.

Putting politics in sports is universally hated. Nearly every sports forum forbids it. The ban hammer is guaranteed if talking politics in a sports thread.

The NFL broke rule #1 and tainted the reason loyal fans enjoy the escape of the game so much. They'll pay dearly in late Nov when fav teams fall out of the race.

 

As an Oiler fan, I lost much of my interest when Bud moved them to Tennessee. However, I would watch the NFL on Sunday afternoons and Monday night.

The latest drama has me purposefully avoiding ESPN, CBS and Fox on the weekends.

If it were not for fantasy football, ratings would be even lower. People can make all the excuses and explanations they want, but the NFL has "killed the golden the golden goose." That is a play on words, I did not mean to offend anyone.

 

This whole McNair quote is very unfortunate and illustrative of the different worlds we live in. McNair's quote is a phrase that has been around ALL OF MY LIFE and was never considered racial by white people. It is a way of describing things being turned around; a bizarro world reference. If you are going to be sensitive about it and attempt to impute white supremacist overtones then we will never come together. He meant nothing racial and I'd bet all I have on that.

I'm also seeing black posters on ESPN.com call white people racists for arguing that there is no partnership between the players and the owners. The arguments are centered on how we define certain actions.

 

I switched to DirecTV yesterday from Uverse in order to take advantage of better picture quality with the UHD TV I bought. As part of my discounts, etc., I get the NFL Sunday Ticket. I will not tune in. I may, may, mind you, watch the Super Bowl, particularly if in 4K, since DirecTV can broadcast that. Otherwise, nope.

 

Did Ben get some of his ideas from this thread (without accreditation)?

".......... Goodell, in other words, has been a disaster. But the popularity of football made up for his failings as commissioner.

Until, that is, Goodell simply let the players run roughshod over him with leftist politics. In December 2014, as controversy raged over the killing of black teenager Michael Brown, who punched a police officer, went for his gun, and then charged him before being shot, several of the then-St. Louis Rams went on the field in the fictionalized “Hands Up, Don’t Shoot” pose. The NFL did nothing. Instead, the NFL stated, “We respect and understand the concerns of all individuals who have expressed views on this tragic situation.”

Meanwhile, the NFL threatened to fine players who wore 9/11 memorial cleats (they didn’t follow through). The NFL prevented Dallas Cowboys from wearing stickers honoring police officers.

Then, in late 2016, San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick took a knee for the national anthem, supposedly to protest police violence. The league did nothing. This year, dozens of players have followed suit. Nothing.

Imagine if Goodell had treated kneeling for the anthem like any other behavior he deemed unacceptable, and banned it. David Stern — a hardcore Democrat — did that after Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf stayed on the bench after the national anthem. That was the end of that. But Goodell didn’t. And so the issue percolated.

Then President Trump went directly after the NFL for allowing players to kneel for the anthem, more and more players knelt, and the American people got tired of that nonsense. The result: the NFL’s ratings and popularity have dropped precipitously. According to a new Fox poll, only 46% of voters view the NFL positively, as opposed to 41% who view it negatively. Four years ago, that number was 64% to 19%. Virtually the entire drop has been due to Republicans, whose support has dropped 37%, and independents, whose support has dropped 14%.

And it’s going to be difficult for the NFL to remake its image. When favorability in baseball dropped, it was thanks to steroids and labor issues. Ban the steroids, come to labor agreement, and the public could move on. But the NFL’s unpopularity is baked into the cake now: it’s politics and head injuries. Head injuries are a part of the game and aren’t going to stop; politics are now part of the game, and it’s too late for Goodell to step in. If Goodell were to force players to stand for the anthem, the result would be Democrats disapproving of the NFL. Goodell could have stepped in early. He didn’t, and now the league will pay the price.
...."​