One of America’s biggest sports leagues is on the decline. According to Statista, NFL attendance has declined every year from 2016 to 2019. In 2020 it was less than 10% of what it was last year, but that was due to COVID-19. And in 2021 and 2022, the numbers did bounce back but that was because people were “revenge spending” and getting out as much as they could to compensate for last year. Viewership tanked as well from 2015 to 2018. Even after the league’s concerted efforts to get more people to enjoy football, average viewership this year has been trailing behind last year’s numbers. What explains this?

5x SB MVP Tom Brady was recently in the news for ‘exposing’ what he thought was the main reason why football is not able to generate the same passion among fans as it did years ago. And his words will be a bitter pill for the NFL to swallow.

The NFL’s current state is neither helping fans nor players

While speaking to Stephen A. Smith, Tom Brady dropped some truth bombs. “I think there’s a lot of mediocrity in today’s NFL. I don’t see the excellence that I saw in the past,” Brady said during the interview. His reason for saying that? He believed that the rules had become too restrictive, making it tough for defensive players to make any big moves without incurring a penalty. For the offense, however, things had become easy. It was now the defense’s task to not only protect themselves but the offensive player as well and ensure there were no “hard hits”.

This takes us back to the NBA and how a revolution in the playbook actually provided a boost to the offense. It rained points on the hardwood court, making games much more enjoyable for fans. But in the case of the NFL, these new rules have somewhat sucked the life of the game. At least that’s what another GOAT of football, Aaron Rodgers, seems to think.

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“I think people want to see football be a collision sport. And not, you know, to where guys are getting mangled on the field, but they enjoy the big hits.” These changes are no doubt taken by the NFL to improve player safety, but “Have we gone too far in other areas? 100%.” But some are already fearing the worst. Are these just symptoms of a much more malignant disease that is haunting the NFL?

Will football, as we know it, cease to exist in the coming years?

First, football fans had to give way to the NFL’s excessive (as Travis Kelce himself called it) coverage of Taylor Swift. The camera would pan to her reaction every time a big play happened on the gridiron. This was part of Roger Goodell’s grand vision to make the NFL a $27 billion revenue organization by 2025. By leveraging Taylor Swift, the league hoped to attract at least some of her 100 million and more admirers to the game.

And now, football is slowly transforming into its diluted cousin – flag football. In fact, in the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics, football is going to be a part of the games in its flag football avatar. “That is an exciting development for us, one that we think will bring a lot of momentum and excitement for fans to participate in the game on a global basis,” NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said. But is it really that big of a deal? Tom Brady thinks otherwise. “Maybe football goes to flag football over a period of time.” Brady said.

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In an extensive survey by SurveyMonkey, 10% of the people surveyed said that they avoided watching football for the sake of the players’ health and how physical the game was. But the NFL is in a dilemma here. To reduce the rate and severity of concussions among players, they’ll have to address the act of tackling. But here’s the catch: more than half of the people said they would stop watching football if tackling isn’t allowed.

The league is, therefore, faced with an irony. The means employed to attain the very goal, of getting more viewers, that they hope to win will end up eroding its viewership. Will the NFL be able to “tackle” this existential crisis?

Editorial Disclaimer: The views expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of EssentiallySports. 

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