Why fewer people are watching NFL on TV
Re: “Why the NFL TV ratings are crashing. And how they might rebound,” Dec. 4 sports story.
An average NFL game has 120 plays. From snap to whistle, the average NFL play lasts 5 seconds. So there are 600 seconds, or 10 minutes, of action on the field in a game. Only 8.3 percent of TV time is actually playing time. Ergo, more than 90 percent of TV time is not a football game. At $900,000 per minute for advertising, I can see why it takes three hours to show 10 minutes of a sports event. The fans pay lots to watch whatever media they choose, and the businesses pay more to show their wares. Pro football makes a few people, besides the players, lots of money.
Steve Fickler, Wheat Ridge
In the article describing reasons for the drop in NFL viewer ratings, the authors neglected to include one that seems to be worsening: the irritating need for players to almost do a minidance after many plays like a sack, blocked pass, or even a simple tackle. It’s refreshing to occasionally see an interception, touchdown, etc., and the player simply hands the ball to the official or places it on the ground without folderol. Terrell Davis’ simple salute was classy and enough. The showboating and nowroutine excess celebration has almost taken over the game.
Bill Maniatis, Greenwood Village
Greed has crashed the NFL ratings. In an attempt to get viewers to pay for the better games, the networks have given the regular viewers truly bad choices for games. For example, in Denver, we see the Broncos and then games between teams that don’t matter for the Broncos’ playoff run. We rarely see the Chiefs, Raiders or Chargers, except when they play the Broncos. How many Jaguars games can we watch?
Tom Carberry, Bailey