There is no denying the NFL is troubled by its sagging television numbers, with viewership showing double-digit declines as the 2016 season approaches the midway point.
Through the first six weeks of the season, "Thursday Night Football" was down 18 percent compared with last year, "Sunday Night Football" had dropped 19 percent and "Monday Night Football" had slipped 24 percent. Although game telecasts are still reaching as many people, the ratings indicate fans aren't sticking around as long.
Among the theories for the swoon are a heightened interest in the contentious presidential election, fan fallout from San Francisco's Colin Kaepernick and other players kneeling during the national anthem, off-the-field issues of players, and sometimes simply bad games.
"We don't dismiss any theory, if you want to call it that," NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell told Gary Myers on WFAN's Chalk Talk.
Former Fox executive David Hill, among the most influential innovators in the history of sports broadcasting, called the ratings dip "a storm in a teacup" and argued the downturn is not a harbinger of long-term trouble for the league.
"It's still the most popular thing on television," Hill said by phone. "It's kind of like if you've got a Rolls-Royce, complaining that the seats are gray instead of brown. It's still the biggest game in town. Advertisers still want to get in front of eyeballs. Television channels have to have it. The American public has an insatiable appetite for it."
Hill, who oversaw the creation of Fox Sports and ran it for more than two decades, came up with the Red Zone Channel, the virtual first-down line, and the box that shows the score and game time constantly in the corner of the screen.
He said the shrinking attention span of viewers is naturally going to lead to shrinking viewership numbers. He also pointed to methods of delivery other than TV, including the league's streaming deal with Twitter.
"I believe all traditional sports are going to suffer declines because of the audience of millennials who have broken the habit of their fathers, grandfathers and great-grandfathers of sitting in front of the TV," he said. "They're used to far more varied things."
