More Evidence That Colin Kaepernick’s Anti-American Protest Hurting the NFL

The Associated Press
The Associated Press
Warner Todd Huston

An article at SportingNews.com warns the National Football League not to ignore the growing number of NFL fans who have checked out over the constant anti-American protests indulged by San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick and other NFL players.

In his December 13th piece, Sporting News writer Michael McCarthy highlights fans who have grown sick and tired of the anti-Americanism infesting their national pastime.

“This has left such a bad taste in my mouth,” one 46-year-old elementary school teacher and now former football fan told McCarthy. “I don’t know if I can ever forgive them to tell you the truth. I don’t know if I’ll get the opportunity to find out. But it’s not looking good. They may have lost a fan for life.”

McCarthy goes on to focus on a Twitter hashtag campaign NFL fans use to express their outrage over the protests infesting their entertainment.

“Using the hashtag #BoycottNFL,” McCarthy wrote, “a small-but-vocal group of NFL fans have lodged their own protest against Kaepernick’s protest by refusing to watch game telecasts.”

McCarthy goes on to point out that the NFL has seen a double-digit plunge in ratings over the numbers seen in 2015, a drop that “has puzzled the league,” McCarthy writes. The sportswriter reminds readers that NFL officials and TV executives have steadfastly refused to accept the idea that Kaepernick’s anti-American protests play any part in the ratings crash.

But McCarthy warns that this penchant to dismiss fans who oppose the protests is likely a big mistake.

“All along,” McCarthy writes, fans have found themselves “mystified by why the NFL (which clamped down on the Cowboys for trying to honor slain police officers in Dallas) passively allowed Kaepernick to hijack its name,” and use the NFL as a platform to slam the country, our troops, first responders, police and everything the U.S.A. stands for.

“They’re voting with their TV clickers and their wallets,” McCarthy says ominously.

Indeed, a poll of NFL fans shows that many believe the league’s TV ratings have cratered because of the now-ubiquitous, anti-American national anthem protests happening each week across the league.

A recent Seton Hall Sports Poll found that fully 56 percent of respondents felt that ratings fell because of the constant protests against the country indulged by players during the anthem.

Further, in October a Rasmussen poll found that 32 percent of adults surveyed said that they have stopped watching NFL football because of the protests while only a scant 13 percent said they were more likely to tune in because of the anthem protests.

Along with the polling, fans have their say on Twitter using the #BoycottNFL hashtag:

https://twitter.com/NatalieFaulk/status/808087559448367104

https://twitter.com/Kekapukainohea/status/807730883830710274

Follow Warner Todd Huston on Twitter @warnerthuston or email the author at igcolonel@hotmail.com.

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