Drop in NFL ratings solely due to no Peyton Manning
For the second straight year, the NFL ratings are down. It’s time to blame it on one thing above all else: the absence of former Vol Peyton Manning.
Last year was the first year that the NFL ratings dipped since the 1990s. It was also the first year that former Tennessee Volunteers quarterback Peyton Manning didn’t play on a team since the 1990s.
A great article by the Denver Post in January, the hometown paper of Manning’s final NFL team, the Denver Broncos, detailed just how significant the ratings drop was.
It was panic mode. However, fans and analysts were able to explain away last year’s ratings by blaming it on the election season. After all, when a debate is on Monday night, what chance does Monday Night Football have?
Well, now there’s this year.
According to a recent article on ESPN, the NFL ratings are down 7.5 percent from 2016 through Week 6. So they dropped again.
The issues behind the National Anthem, starting with the Colin Kaepernick protest last year, culminating with him not getting a job this year and numerous protests in games, reaching all the way to President Donald Trump getting involved, has been cited for the drop.
After all, people on both sides of the debate called for a boycott of the NFL, and it created a huge mess.
But that would only make sense as a season if the NFL ratings didn’t drop last year.
No, what’s clear is that the lack of Peyton Manning is the reason for the drop in NFL ratings. Let’s call it what it is, Manning alone created a huge market for fans.
People who followed other teams loved Manning enough to watch him play after their team. Ask Tennessee Titans fans.
The Nashville market spent 13 years tuning into the Indianapolis Colts, and nine of those years came when the Colts and Titans were supposed to be division rivals.
Then, when Manning went to Denver, the Nashville and Indianapolis markets spent four years tuning into the Denver Broncos.
Increasing hatred for Tom Brady, the allure of shattering records, fantasy football stats, and the narrative behind Manning’s career and his haters only increased the fan interest in him over the years.
And then there are the two biggest things: The excitement of watching him run his offense for nearly two decades and his personality in interviews and commercials had everybody interested in him.
All of this is gone without Manning, and the NFL ratings are suffering. There’s no doubt at this point that in terms of popularity, Manning towers over every NFL player ever the way Michael Jordan did in the NBA.
The league changed its rules to allow other offenses and quarterbacks to look more like the Colts/Broncos and Manning.
Now fans may refute this by pointing to the 2011 season. Peyton Manning missed that whole year due to injury, and NFL ratings still continued to rise.
However, that ignores a few crucial things. For starters, Manning never was declared out for the season. It was a week to week thing, and he just never played.
On top of that, fans took interest in seeing how bad the Colts would be without Manning. That alone drew NFL ratings.
The concerns behind the future of the NFL are legit. Anger at their handling of numerous things is valid.
But that was all there before Peyton Manning retired. Now, with Manning gone, the NFL ratings were inevitably going to take a clear dip. Nobody, not even Tom Brady or Aaron Rodgers, could draw viewers the way Manning could. He took his legendary status in Knoxville and shared it with the entire NFL. Without it, both the Vols and the NFL appear to be struggling.