{"id":14769,"date":"2018-02-04T14:11:03","date_gmt":"2018-02-04T14:11:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/associatednews.us\/content\/2018\/02\/04\/knees-domestic-violence-and-cte-why-you-stopped-watching-football\/"},"modified":"2018-02-04T14:11:03","modified_gmt":"2018-02-04T14:11:03","slug":"knees-domestic-violence-and-cte-why-you-stopped-watching-football","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/associatednews.us\/content\/knees-domestic-violence-and-cte-why-you-stopped-watching-football\/","title":{"rendered":"Knees, Domestic Violence And CTE: Why You Stopped Watching Football"},"content":{"rendered":"

By James Doubek<\/a><\/span> <\/p>\n

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\n Quarterback Carson Wentz of the Philadelphia Eagles drops back to pass against the Los Angeles Rams on Dec. 10 in Los Angeles.<\/p>\n

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Jeff Gross\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

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Jeff Gross\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

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A lot of people watch the Super Bowl every year. <\/p>\n

You know that. Last year about 111 million people watched. The game three years ago became the most-viewed ever, with 114 million people watching. <\/p>\n

But football ratings overall have dropped in the past couple years. Numbers for the 2017 season were down 9.7 percent,<\/a> continuing a decline from the year before.<\/p>\n

To be clear, the audience for football is still enormous and dwarfs almost everything else on TV. <\/p>\n

Football is still dominating, but just a little bit less so.<\/p>\n

There are a lot of theories about why the decline is happening \u2014 including the distraction of the 2016 presidential campaign and President Trump’s disparaging tweets, games being too long to keep the attention of younger viewers, or a lack of star players on the field.<\/a><\/p>\n

We asked Weekend Edition<\/em> listeners to tell us about why they stopped watching recently.<\/p>\n

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Stephanie Norman from Kansas City, Kan., says she was turned off by NFL players “taking a knee” during the national anthem in recent months to protest police brutality and to protest the president.<\/p>\n

“I don’t really care to support it,” she tells NPR’s Lulu Garcia-Navarro.<\/p>\n

“I think to incite a political climate in your stadiums when we’re there to be entertained is just inappropriate.”<\/p>\n

Norman says the NFL needs to be clear about exactly why<\/em> the national anthem is played at games. <\/p>\n

“I think if you’re playing it to salute the troops, it’s the wrong time to be … grandstanding basically,” she says. <\/p>\n

“My grandfather died during World War II. I saw the pain and suffering that inflicted upon my family. It’s the least we could do, just one time, to celebrate American victory and our heroes. <\/p>\n