“Pigs get fat, hogs get slaughtered. When you try to take it too far, people turn the other way. I’m just telling you, when you’ve got a good thing and you get greedy, it always, always, always, always, always turns on you. That’s rule No. 1 of business.” – Mark Cuban, March 2014
Mark Cuban may be a lot of things, but the billionaire Dallas Mavericks owner and Shark Tank star is not stupid. As the news of the NFL ratings tumble circles the interwebs and beyond, we are all reminded of Cuban’s warning to NFL commissioner Roger Goodell and the league’s head honchos.
This week, several media outlets reported that the NFL’s overall ratings are down more than 10 percent this season. The numbers for Sunday and Monday Night Football are down almost 20 percent. SportsBusiness Daily’s Adam Karp reported via Twitter that the 6.5 Nielsen rating in Monday night’s game between the Carolina Panthers and Tampa Bay Buccaneers was the lowest rating for a MNF game since ESPN acquired the series in 2006.
As league executives are scramble to figure out the reason(s), it all points back to the focus of Cuban’s ominous warning: greed.
The league should have been focusing on entertainment value, player safety and fan loyalty. Instead, over the past decade, the focus has remained on player discipline, an arms race to get back into the lucrative Los Angeles market and a strange and mind-boggling war on player celebrations.
The NFL has been so hell-bent on trying to impress potential sponsors for monster money grabs that it has abandoned its players and fans.
When the information about CTE and the impact of concussions came to light, the league turned a blind eye and ignored the problem until public pressure forced them to address it in a meaningful way. When the league finally reacted, it did so in a broad, sweeping way that essentially made all big hits illegal. It turned a once-fluid game into a three-hour flagfest full of commercial breaks.
In terms of Goodell’s love for law and order, if Donald Trump has taught us anything, it’s that you don’t have to be a choir boy to get mammoth ratings. Part of football’s allure over the years has been that it’s a rough and dangerous game with some bad dudes.
While certain heinous criminal offenses certainly warrant fines and/or suspensions, other minor offenses or controversial statements should be left to the team to handle. Fans like to boo as much as they like to cheer. Just look at the astronomical debate ratings, despite fielding two of the most-disliked presidential candidates in the history of American politics. Football needs bad guys as much as it needs lovable stars (and the commissioner doesn’t count).
Another obvious issue, and the one to which Cuban was focused on two years ago, is the one of oversaturation. Think about America’s insatiable lust for Jordans and iPhones. What do they have in common? Limited availability.
When Jordan Brand’s signature shoes are released, only a limited number are made available and people go crazy to get them while they can. When new model iPhones hit the market, Apple stocks just enough in stores to ensure that every store in town will sell out. Dedicated iPhone fans camp out in front of stores days and sometime weeks ahead of a launch to ensure they get their new and fancy phone on Day 1.
The NFL used to be that shiny new iPhone or that fresh pair of 11s. It was only on television Sunday afternoon or Monday night. If you didn’t tune in (or DVR) then, you were out of luck. There was a full week to pontificate and ponder what would happen the next week and that was a recipe for ratings gold.
Now the NFL is on all day Sunday (including some mornings) as well as Monday and Thursday nights. During the playoffs, the league schedule expands to Saturdays. With the rise in cord-cutting and the popularity of streaming video services such as Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime and others, the NFL has more entertainment competition than ever.
Bucs vs Panthers without Cam Newton in prime time or Luke Cage? No competition.
Goodell and the NFL’s other top executives need to take their eyes off the nearly $50B in TV contracts through the year 2022. Instead they need to focus on making the on-field product entertaining to the fans whose eyes the advertisers are buying and to the players on whose backs the owners are riding all the way to the bank.
Kap to the rescue
One reason often overlooked about the NFL’s plummeting ratings is the impact of the #BoycottNFL movement. The boycott features mostly white men who are angry that the league has not punished San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick or other players for peacefully protesting injustice against black Americans by kneeling during the national anthem.
The boycott NFL movement has been growing silently as right-wing media personalities such as Rush Limbaugh and Mark Levin have encouraged their supporters to boycott the NFL and its sponsors as long as players are allowed to “disrespect the flag.”
Just as the story began fading away (like the 49ers playoff chances with Blaine Gabbert under center) from the mainstream media, Chip Kelly announced that Kaepernick will start at QB for the 1-4 49ers in Week 6 against the Buffalo Bills.
Normally a matchup between the Bills and 49ers wouldn’t capture too much attention outside of the two teams’ home markets, however, with Kaepernick back in the spotlight, expect this game to be a badly needed boost in the ratings department.
I have a feeling that Kaepernick supporters (who vaulted his jersey sales to the top of the league while he was a backup) and Kaepernick haters will both be tuned in Sunday afternoon. Both groups will be yelling at the screen, but what comes out of their mouths will be very different.
Follow Ishmael and In the Clutch on Twitter @IshmaelSistrunk
