NFL Teams Play Before Empty Stadiums As Fan Backlash Spreads

AP Jeff Chiu Levi
AP Photo/Jeff Chiu
Dylan Gwinn

It’s not necessarily news, that no one watches the Cleveland Browns. After all, Cleveland has lost 22 of their last 23 games and seems determined to set new marks for organizational futility. So the fact that the Browns can’t draw flies, shouldn’t necessarily cause alarm bells to go off.

However, because emptying stadiums seems to be the one thing the Browns do well, let’s give them their due by showing the “crowd” that assembled in Cleveland for the Browns-Titans game this Sunday:

Okay, now that we’ve paid homage to the team that wrote the book on sports futility. Let’s show some teams that are slightly less familiar with fan alienation. Here’s Soldier Field on Sunday, as the Bears took on the Panthers:

Granted, the Bears came into this game with a 2-4 mark, and were by no means lighting the world on fire. However, they have a 1st round draft pick making his second start, in quarterback Mitchell Trubisky, and the Panthers coming in with a 4-2 record. To be clear, no way would this game ever get America’s Game of the Week treatment, but that’s a better game than the crowd size would suggest.

Likewise, look at the scene in Miami on Sunday:

Both the Jets and the Dolphins came into this game with records of .500 or over. Both teams are also in the same division, making it a rivalry game as well. Yet, look at the vast emptiness of that stadium. There’s no way that stadium should be so empty:

Normally, the Cowboys coming to town means you pack your stadium. Well, not in 2017:

Here’s another glimpse from an unsurprising, yet severe example of the fan backlash against the NFL:

The NFL has a serious attendance problem, one with no end in sight.

 

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