Sherman

[makena]

Sherm brings up some good points...
Particularly, why hasn't the NFL tried to shut him up...?

What do you all think?

http://sports.yahoo.com/news/seattles-richard-sherman-on-falling-nfl-ratings-league-no-longer-allowing-players-to-entertain-135833587.html

Mak

[NorthHawk]

He's a star in the NFL so he can get away with more than a backup LG. The same thing with a starting QB, sack leader and so on.
Unfortunately that's the way it goes. If you are one of the preeminent players you get away with more than scrubs.

[Vegaseahawk]

I think that one of the reasons that the ratings have declined is the poor officiating, something Sherm didn't touch on, at least in this article. People are tired of bullish*t calls league wide. The league hasn't done enough to rectify the problem. Full time paid officials are a necessity in todays game. As is replay like in baseball. Look at the replay & make a call. 20-30 seconds max. The fact that they get so many close calls right amazes me in view of the speed of the game nowadays actually. But at the same time, we've all seen obvious calls or non calls ignored. The money is there. Maybe the declining ratings will finally spur the NFL to take action & not just give lip service to the problem.

[burrrton]

I think the complaints about the officiating are valid, and not just because they just cost us a game.

We have apparently reached a point where the speed and complexity of the game has overcome the ability of 70yo men standing 20yds away to call a game accurately based both on what they see as well as on their prior biases (aka "human nature").

The players are too fast and too big, the techniques too complex, and (maybe) the rules too 'soft' (is a catch a catch, is a bump a bump, etc) to allow people in that position to call a game accurately.

I don't agree to this opinion lightly (others here and elsewhere have expressed it before).

Years ago, with a few rules I remember saying "Look, it *sounds* subjective, but you watch- when it comes down to it, it will be obvious they're getting it right and they'll be validated." About a year later I had to admit the refs had no idea what they were and weren't supposed to call.

This seems to be another one of those turning points for me.

When we have to deal with multiple games on a single Sunday dealing with OPIs like what NO committed being allowed while calls like what went against SEA being flagged, there's something wrong. NFL teams can't be asked to 'just deal' with things like that when a single game can mean as much as it does in 2016.

[RiverDog]

We had a pretty good thread going (authored by Yours Truly) about the causes of the ratings decline, so i'm going to sound redundant.

The following are all legitimate causes for the ratings decline:

1. Baseball
2. The POTUS election
3. Kaepernick
4. Bad product (poor games, bad officiating, no 'star'.)
5. Over exposure

All of those factors have conspired to bring down the NFL's ratings, at least temporarily.

[savvyman]

Richard Sherman is right on the money......Again.

[Seahawks4Ever]

1. Should be over exposure Thurs. nite FB has to go.

2.Kaepernik/protest

3.Brady/N.E. Fatigue

4.Aaron Rodgers and other "starts" not putting up the stats that fantasy players expect.

5. Fantasy Players League Fatigue??? I don't think so (see #4)

6. Too many B.S. penalty flags, the No Fun League returns in all its boringness. Quit penalizing players for having fun. I too remember the "old school" ways and "act like you have been in the end zone before" attitude but younger fans want something different and there is something exciting about a well executed sack dance (see Dave Pear ex-Husky ex-Raider)

[RiverDog]

6. Too many B.S. penalty flags, the No Fun League returns in all its boringness. Quit penalizing players for having fun. I too remember the "old school" ways and "act like you have been in the end zone before" attitude but younger fans want something different and there is something exciting about a well executed sack dance (see Dave Pear ex-Husky ex-Raider)

The penalties and all the rule changes are making the game much more complicated for a novice to understand. Most of us in this forum played football in our younger days, so we have the advantage of watching the progression of these rule changes. But for so many folks that weren't born in this country and did not grow up with it, the game is almost impossible to acquire a working understanding of when they're learning from Square 1.

Particularly in games where there are a lot of penalties, I find myself trying to "dumb down" a multitude of things so that my foreign born friends can understand it, from a tackle box to clock stoppages in the 4th quarter to the overtime rules and everything in between, that I never used to have to worry about explaining in so much detail (Sudden death overtime: First team to score wins. Pretty simple).

That's one of the reasons why I think that the sport has peaked, that they'll never have a higher percentage of viewers than they have today: They've tapped out the native born fans and unlike baseball, basketball, and soccer, are unable to reach the foreign born folks.