The NFL's No. 1 rush to judgment when it comes to the weakened weekend TV ratings this season has to do with the country's fractured focus on the bizarro 2016 presidential election. But that has come to pass.
Going forward, unless grief counselors are needed for these Week 10 games on Fox, CBS, NBC and ESPN _ and we still may not have gotten over the psychological damage of how the NFL Network required Al Michaels to describe a Thursday night exclusive telecast of the 0-9 Cleveland Browns advancing to 0-10 _ we are secure in the belief that this League of Extraordinary Appraisement anticipates a ratings reversal of fortune with its November-December-January product rollout.
We have tried not to become too obsessed with all the over-thinking on this topic so far, actually we are more amused by those who are armed with survey data to declare the NFL has reached a TV tipping point and has nowhere to go but a flat line. Take it with a grain of salt-water taffy.
History reinforces that the NFL goes through this ratings roller coaster in national election cycles. It's just that, with all the 2015 record-breaking hubbub, any hint of a recession with the '16 Nielsen stats will easily lead to over-reaching theories that range from fans turned off by Kaepernick protests to a crackdown on celebrations.
The league and media partners tend to live in denial of some of those issues and instead want to focus on the quality of the game. Yet, when sorting through the cards in the complaint box, we are far more curious about how the media itself plays a role with splintered ratings.
