Pretty wild end to the Lions/Falcons game.

Ratings are down for those reasons and also because of these protests. I know a lot of people that have quit watching the NFL specifically because of the protests. And there are sites and groups with large support that are boycotting the NFL because of the protests. To argue otherwise is ludicrous and absolutely inaccurate.

Small factor....

NFL game attendance dropped slightly from 2016 to 2017, and rose from 2015 to 2016.

As for political motivation, there’s little evidence to suggest people are boycotting the NFL. Most of the professional sports franchises are dealing with declines in popularity.

We rate this claim Mostly False.

Source: http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter ... -way-down/

How many of these people who are boycotting were huge fans to begin with?

The protests have temporarily brought me back. The Browns sucking and the head trauma had put me off. I wish more was being made about Trumps comments about player safety.

and how many of those people were already starting to be tired of 3+ hour games, constant calls that no one understands (like the ending to the lions game) the horrible quality of play, and so many other things, and are just using the protests as their reason. The whole thing is stupid. Not to mention, if the protests, truly were the reason for the decline in ratings, the TV stations, WOULD NOT SHOW THEM!

Follow. The. Money.

if those people really enjoyed watching football, things like that wouldn't matter, tbh.

It was, it was. There are going to be a lot of people tending to wounds after that game. The hitting was vicious.

As a casual observer I believe the right call was made on that final play. I would be furious if I was a Lions fan though.

what happened?

I'm more annoyed than furious. I was in the car for the first 59:52 of the game, checking the score on my phone every 10 minutes or so. I had this game chalked up as a loss anyway so I was grateful for the opportunity to miss it. We pulled into the driveway within seconds of Tate scoring* and I turned on the TV just in time to see it reversed, which ruined the next hour or so of what had been a fantastic day. That's life as a Lions fan: even if you try to avoid them, they will find a way to inject misery into your life in the most creatively efficient ways possible.

Welp.

Skol baby

Lions drove down the field after the 2:00 warning down 4 to the Falcons. Eventually down inside the 15 I believe, with 8 seconds left Stafford threaded a pass inside to
Golden Tate, it was towards the ground but Tate lunged forward to the endzone and in real time it looked like he crossed the plane. The refs called a Touchdown and immediately reviewed with the clock at 0:08. Unfortunately for the Lions, Tate was actually down by contact (Bryan Poole) with the ball approximately 1-2 inches from the goal line. Again unfortunately for the Lions, if the clock stops in that situation that would have resulted in a running clock there is a 10 second run off by rule (because we can't make everyone find their exact positions just after the play again) Because there were only 8 seconds left, the 10 second run off meant the game was over and the Lions lost by 4 with the ball at the 1 inch line.

It was a pretty incredible drive, and they came up just short.

They also had about 10 chances to score inside the 25 after penalties so I don't feel too bad for them.

I don't think the "quality of the game" line of thinking actually bears out. There is a ton of horrible football every year and there always has been. I go back and watch old games fairly often and I don't see a huge difference, and if anything a lot of times things look faster and more precise nowadays. I'm also fairly certain that the current pool of active players contains a possible GOAT candidate at most positions.

If you mean things like replays, replacement refs, games early in the season being rough, I can see that, but again, I think it's somewhat overstated. My main beef is the commercials and they've already had to scale them way back.