NFL Football Ratings Drop: It's Not Colin Kaepernick's Fault

When the TV ratings for NFL football dropped rather suddenly, nearly everyone in the media who covered football pointed to Colin Kaepernick and the many players who refused to stand for the national anthem. I don't doubt that many fans who were turned off by these protests then turned off their TV sets. And let's not overlook Ray Rice and the parade of domestic abuse incidents that preceded the player protests. But these aren't the only reasons or even the most important reasons for the ratings decline. The most important reason strikes at the very heart of what makes sports so entertaining and uplifting. It's that many lifelong fans have begun to openly question the integrity of the game. There are simply too many ridiculous penalties and other baffling calls and non-calls to keep dismissing them as inconsistent officiating.

In this year's playoffs, for just one example, the Chiefs' Derrick Johnson sacked the Titans' Marcus Mariota for a game-changing fumble recovery (see it here)- only the league assured us it was neither a sack nor a fumble and awarded both the ball and forward progress as a runner to Mariota as if we hadn't just watched the play with our own eyes. At least one call like this happens every week. The refs seem to drop a flag almost every other play then conference with each other to decide on which team to call the penalty. Or, if the league likes the outcome of the play, the flag is picked up and there's no foul called on the play.

Pass interference is enforced so differently from game to game that it seems it can be called almost anytime a big chunk play or a first down is needed. On most of these calls, it seems both the receiver and the defensive back could be called for the penalty - or maybe neither of them - since no one seems sure of what is pass interference and what isn't. See this call penalizing the defensive back for elite level coverage.

Just as no one seems to know how to assess pass interference, no one knows when a catch is a catch. The written rule seems to change almost every year. What's a football move? How long do you have to hold the ball after obviously catching it for it to be a catch? What if the point of the ball grazes a blade of grass? Dez Bryant made this spectacular catch to beat the Packers in the playoffs - only the league assured us he really didn't as if we didn't see it with our own eyes. Since replays and challenges were added, the league seems to want as many calls determined in New York as possible to ensure there's always an opportunity to achieve a desired outcome. But penalties can't be challenged. Until coaches can challenge penalties, it will be difficult to believe the league is focused on determining the rightful call.

As a Steelers fan, I can't help but mention one of the more outrageous examples of strange officiating ever seen in any sport. I'm referring to the overtime coin toss when Jerome Bettis said "tails" and the ref insisted he'd said heads, giving the ball to Detroit. Then the Lions won the game. Listen for yourself here.

Then there's the famous play that started the Tom Brady era. In the 2001 playoffs, when the Raiders' Charles Woodson forced a fumble from the Patriots' quarterback and the Raiders recovered, I simply thought the refs made a dumb call, ruling Brady's pump fake and fumble was really just an incomplete pass under the so-called tuck rule (did that rule even exist before that play?). But given the overwhelming amount of miscalls, missed calls and blatantly biased calls I've seen in the years since, it's hard to watch the tuck rule play today and think anything other than the Raiders were being screwed. If the league really did want the Patriots to win, or just wanted to keep the game close, then how can we watch Super Bowl LII or any NFL game without feeling as if we're being duped the entire time? It's certainly not scripted to the point of WWE wrestling, but it's become difficult to be sure it's 100 percent sport.


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