Charts From the MorningConsult.com, September 10, 2020
“I am not going to stand up to show pride in a flag for a country that oppresses black people and people of color. To me, this is bigger than football, and it would be selfish on my part to look the other way. There are bodies in the street and people getting paid leave and getting away with murder.”
NFL Player Colin Kaepernick after taking a “knee” during the National Anthem, August 26, 2016
Well, the Super Bowl has come and gone. Advertisers tripped all over themselves for an expensive spot. Millions of U.S. viewers watched the event on NBC, joining a few million overseas fans. Football is one of those iconic, all-American pastimes, uniting the nation in its extravagant centerpiece. Or that’s what it seems. But a closer look reveals some serious undercurrents that reflect demographic changes and the general right-left polarization that plagues the rest of the country. While the majority of NFL players are Black, the above charts tell you that the overwhelming majority of fans of professional football are white. Understandable given the relative representation of races in the general population.
But scrape the surface of these statistics, focusing on the above political affiliations as well as age numbers, and you learn some interesting trends, some of which impact professional sports in general: “Sports leagues, especially Major League Baseball, are seeing declines in younger viewership… The change comes as people turn away from traditional TV viewing and toward social media, video games and streaming TV, a trend that has only grown during the Covid-19 pandemic, reports The Wall Street Journal.
“The New York Mets’ new owner is attempting to reverse the trend by doing a marketing overhaul with ideas that include updating technology at the ballpark, creating sponsorships that grow its brand on social media and building its ‘cool factor.’… Other leagues are trying things, too. The NFL will air a playoff game this postseason on Nickelodeon and has a new weekly show called ‘NFL Slimetime.’” Phillip Molinar, writing for the October 8th San Diego Union-Tribune. As for live, in-person attendance, the astronomic rise in ticket prices has pushed younger attendees even farther away. Housing affordability and student loan repayment are their priorities.
But the stunner is the harsh reality that an increasing number of Republican football fans are turning away from their once-favorite sport… and it is all over the struggles the NFL has experienced and continues to experience over racial justice. David Lauter, writing for the February 10th Los Angeles Times, hammers this reality home: “The nation’s relentless culture wars appear to have taken a toll even on the NFL, with a large number of Republicans saying they have soured on the league and expressing disapproval of its efforts to improve the treatment of Black players, a new Los Angeles Times/SurveyMonkey poll shows…
“[The NFL] popularity has eroded somewhat in recent years, the poll found… About one-third of those surveyed nationwide said they are less of a fan now than they were five years ago, compared with about 1 in 8 who said they are bigger fans now.
The poll can’t conclusively say why that decline has occurred, but two questions about the NFL’s handling of issues involving race provide some strong hints: … People who say they are less of a fan now than they were five years ago are more than twice as likely as everyone else to say the NFL is doing ‘too much to show respect for its Black players.’
“They’re also significantly less likely to approve of the league’s Rooney rule, which for the last two decades has required NFL teams to interview minority candidates for head coaching positions and certain other high-level jobs.
“By contrast, another controversy involving the NFL — its response to the risk of long-term brain injuries among players — shows no such pattern. Overall, 62% of Americans say the league has not done enough to respond to that risk, compared with 27% who say it has done enough and 5% who say it has done too much. Those numbers don’t vary significantly between those who say they are lesser fans now and those who do not.
“The group of people who say they are now lesser fans is disproportionately Republican, the poll found. Nearly half of those who identified themselves as Republicans or independents who lean to the GOP said their interest as fans had declined over the last five years. By comparison, only one-quarter of Democrats and independents who lean Democratic said that.” It is sad to watch this nation tear itself apart with polarization creeping into every segment of our society. Even events meant to unify us… don’t anymore.
I’m Peter Dekom, and we are unraveling into incompatible political factions; it’s not just red and blue; it’s just as much Black and White.
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