People all across America opted out from watching the NFL all together, leading to the biggest dip in it ratings the league has ever seen. For the opening weekend, the NFL aimed for a social justice themed beginner but it was very apparent that “fans” didn’t see it as necessary. Instead of watching, fans chose to isolate themselves on other actives.

A powerful official rating drop of 16.1% was applied to the, September 10^th, 2020 season opener.

However, could this be the new standard/norm considering the new regulations of live sports in the era of COVID-19. With the 16.1% drop in its rating the NFL recorded it as a 10-year low for the NFL and NBC. According to msn.com, “NBC was first in ratings with a 5.2 rating/29 share in the advertiser-coveted 18-49 demographic and in total viewers with an average of 16.4 million, according to preliminary numbers, which include both the 2020 NFL Kickoff Game and its pre-show.” Then went on in stating, “CBS was second in ratings with a 0.6/3 and in viewers with 2.5 million. At 8 p.m., “Big Brother” earned a 1.0/6 and 3.9 million viewers. “Love Island” at 9 got a 0.4/2 and 1.7 million viewers. A drama repeat followed.” Finally, “Univision was third in ratings with a 0.4/2 and fourth in viewers with 1.3 million.”

Average age viewership is ages 18 to 49, but that didn’t stop people from booing players. Fans in Kansas City were not pleased with the NFL’s ‘Moment of Unity’ before the opening night kick-off. Reports of fans apparently booing the players as they linked arms were made from Thursday night’s game. Now this is where we consider should we even have this in the NFL? Many say no and many say yes, but in retrospect past things like this never ended well for the NFL. The NFL should see that prompting or dis-prompting, politics, social justice events, etc. isn’t what they should be doing. Keep it to football and football only if you want many viewers and not lose any. I’m sure that the number of 16.1% would’ve been higher if no actions of “Moment of Unity” were to occur. Now this isn’t saying its wrong or right, its just simply saying that the NFL should just stick with airing/prompting football and football alone. Obviously the “fans” of the NFL are trying to communicate something with this drop in ratings.

A comment made my Deadline Hollywood could sum it up the best in saying, “The stellar numbers of last year’s opener, the Green Bay Packers’ grinding 10-3 victory over the Chicago Bears, kicked off a tightly run season that seemingly had reversed years of weakening numbers. Now it could be a case of déjà vu all over again.” However, in my own words, “I think people have loved sports for so long because it gave them the chance to get away from real world issues, and just have that time to forget and relax while watching athletes play at high levels of skill.”