A new survey done by J.D. Power and Associates, a global marketing information service company, has answered the much-speculated question has to why NFL viewership was down last season. The company's yearly survey drew more attention than normal this year due to last season's national anthem protests in the NFL.
Information about the survey
The J.D. Power survey polled more than 9,200 fans who had attended at least one football, basketball or hockey game during each league's 2016-17 season. It then asked them if they had turned into fewer games last year than normal and if so why did they.
Of the over 9,200 fans that were polled only 12% of them said that they watched fewer NFL games last year than they normally do. 62% of fans said they watched the same amount of NFL games, while 27% said that they watched more.
Results from the J.D. Power survey on the NFL
The top reason that fans who said they watched fewer NFL games last season gave was because of the national anthem protests, which were started by former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick. With 26% of the vote, the protests managed to beat out all other reasons, although this means that it only represented 3% of the 9,200 total fans polled.
After this, 24% of fans who watched fewer games said it was due to the league's off-field issues with domestic violence.
That same number also cited that it was because of too many game delays and penalties. To round out the results, 20% cited excessive commercials as their top reason, 16% said it was because of election coverage and 5% said it was because they got rid of cable.
Kaepernick still remains unsigned as training camp starts up
Colin Kaepernick started the protest by sitting during the national anthem of the first two preseason camps.
However, his action did not get noticed until the third game. After this debate set the sports world and beyond on fire over the coming weeks and months, with the quarterback getting support and criticism. Kaepernick was also joined by other NFL players through the season in kneeling.
Since Kaepernick opted out of his contract with the San Francisco 49ers in March, he has been a free agent.
This has caused many to question if the protest is the reason why he is still unsigned. This point has been fueled by the fact that quarterbacks many perceive to be worse than him have been signed by teams.
Just the other day Baltimore Ravens head coach John Harbaugh said he would not rule out adding Kaepernick at some point with Joe Flacco being sidelined due to a back issue. However, the Ravens signed arena league quarterback David Olson, which will only fuel the perception some have that Kaepernick is being blackballed by the league.
