I am a long-time nonfan of NFL football and of televised college ball. Most years the only game I'll watch on TV is the Super Bowl, if that.
I loved live college football when, as a graduate student in Oregon, I had free access to high quality Pac 10 games. During three years in Eugene I only missed attending one home game.
Given my lack of involvement, I haven't felt compelled to comment on the tempest concerning player protests during the national anthem. I deplore it but, as a nonviewer, it doesn't much affect me.
On the other hand, as a lifelong business school prof, I am finally moved to comment on the poor business sense of NFL owners. Don't those yahoos have even a primitive understanding of their customer base? Of who their modal viewer is?
Unlike the owners, I haven't seen the survey data to be certain. My horseback guess is the typical NFL viewer is a white male patriot, a gun owner, and likely to favor nachos and beer over brie and chablis. In short, he's a Trump voter.
Knowing this, how in blazes did NFL owners think allowing a watered-down Black Lives Matter protest to spread through the league wouldn't be disasterous for their attendance and viewership? I suppose they, and their players, believed the game was immune to market forces, a true cultural icon.
Now the owners know better. They have to hope it's not too late to turn it around.
The owners' dilemma is that roughly 70% of NFL players are young African-American men who discover having plenty of money and fame doesn't automatically gain them favorable treatment or high status. Player anger won't just go away; perhaps owners can insist players indulge their free speech rights on their own time, not during games or in uniform.
