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“Fans Forum on NFL on TV”

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NFL television ratings fell 9-percent this season across CBS-Fox-NBC-ESPN and the NFL Network.

In San Diego, the ratings dropped an amazing 42% from last season, after Chargers owner Dean Spanos moved the team to Los Angeles.

I asked the fans why the ratings have dropped, and why they may or may not watch any longer.

The responses from my website readers”

..There’s too much NFL on TV-over saturation.

..Drop Thursday night football.

..Monday Night Football games no longer important-stop guaranteeing each team they can be part of the MNF rotation.

..NFL has alienated its fan base.

..NFL problems are serious-MLB-NHL-NBA don’t have them.

..The National Anthem issues have turned me and all my friends off.

..The owners have given us every reason to label them as greedy.

..Moving teams after years of loyalty have offended fans everywhere.

..This is a saturation problem-too many games on television.

..Games and teams are unwatchable more times than not.

..Boring commentators-there are no Cowell’s-Maddens.

..Remember when Monday Night Football was important to watch.

..NFL is a heartless corporation about its players health-why support them.

..NFL games have become a barbaric sport.

..Look at the list of NFL problems and you want me to support Roger Goodell and the owners by watching games.

..Taking all that extra money from Direct TV and the streaming companies have taken fans away from traditional watching habits.

..Do they count people who watch on Direct TV as part of the normal Neilsen ratings.

..The violence of games on the field…the incidents with players off the field have turned me off.

..Roger Goodall is no different than Paul Tagliabue…it’s all about money, not the quality of the sport, nor the health of the players.

..Stop complaining. We can pay what we want and watch the team we want. The fans are not being forced to view.

..Bad teams in New York, Chicago, San Francisco and the controversy in Los Angeles have turned fans away.

..NFL is just like college football, so many games on television, it is no longer ‘must see’

..Is NFL becoming like NBA, the only games important are the playoff games now, not the in season games. How often do you want to watch LeBron vs Curry, Cavs-vs Warriors in November.

..See you when the AFC-NFC championship games are played, and then at my Super Bowl party.

..I am no longer a Chargers fan after 25-yers of season tickets. When the owners allowed the Spanos family to move, I decided to no longer be an NFL fan either.

..How many NFL teams were below .500 this year, more than half. How many bad quarterbacks are there in the league. Why watch that.

..I watch the key games each weekend, probably three a week, and don’t care about the ret. Why should I watch that.

..You used to say on your Chargers radio broadcasts, that the ‘world stops at 1pm on Sunday afternoon for the NFL….it doesn’t any longer. The games are unimportant.

..Jerry Jones-Bob Kraft-Stan Kroenke have the fans money. They don’t care.

..What goes around comes around, NFL greed. This is payback.

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“NFL-TV Ratings-Problems”

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The NFL season is over and so is the dominance of NFL games on television.

Bad teams…bad quarterbacking…bad matchups….over saturation…the National Anthem crisis….Violence on the field…..Ownership greed….Teams leaving cities and fans behind to move.

You name it, these are the scoreboard tallies:

..Chargers TV-games in San Diego…down 42% from this year to last…down 47% over a 5-year span.

..2017…(14.2 Rating) LA Chargers
..2016…(24.4 Rating) San Diego Chargers
..5 Y……(26.7 Rating) 5-Year Average 2012-to-2016.

..NFL TV ratings-down in every category
..NBC Sunday Night….(22.5M-drops to 18.1M) viewers
..ESPN Monday Night.(12.8M-drops to 10.7M)
..Thursday Night……….(12.4M-drops to 10.9M)
..CBS-Fox-Sunday…….(Dropped 9% for all games.

Why have ratings dropped so much. I invite you readers to Email me your thoughts: hacksaw5555@gmail.com

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“Chargers-Year 1-How’d that Go?”

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There will be football played next weekend in the NFL, and it will involve an LA team…the Rams-not-the Chargers.

It was a strange Sunday to say the least as the season ended. The Chargers buried an underachieving Raiders club, but at the Stub Hub Center, you’d thought it was a Raiders win, by the way the fans carried on.

Give the Chargers credit, they went (9-7) playing 16-road games this year. That’s the end result of ticket brokers buying up ducats and selling them to out-of-town fans, and whatever Chargers fans were out there doing the same thing.

Home team advantage? Never ever for the Bolts.

But as Sunday wore on, you got the sense, the only people rooting for the Chargers were those families of players, those related to the Spanos family, and people who work in the building.

“Beat LA-Beat LA” bounced all over that stadium. “Defense-Defense” was another favorite chant. And a few times we heard “Spanos sucks.”

Of course there were boos too, so much so, that the club wouldn’t-couldn’t introduce Chargers players before the so called home game,

And Chargers icon LaDanian Tomlinson was booed at halftime as he tried to interview Dodgers-World Series manager Dave Roberts.

The Chargers defense tried to pose for a picture in the end zone after a big play, and were pelted with garbage.

There were tarps still on upper deck seats, and bunches of seats at the 40-and-50 yard line unused-maybe unsold.

How tough was it for the QB-who had to go to a silent count to get off snaps while playing at home…again.

The heroics of Philip Rivers, driving his team to 9-wins in the final 12-games, were lost by all the Silver and Black shouts. His (4,515Y) passing season seemingly ignored. The same for the nearly (1,600) all purpose yards of running back Melvin Gordon, the 102-catch campaign of Keenan Allen, and an improving Joey Bosa-Melvin Ingram led defense that got better as the year went on.

And then to drive home the point, the season long history of ugly crowd turnout, planes flying overhead lambasting the greedy owner for what he did to San Diego, and the woeful home market-record setting low TV ratings.

In retrospect, hard to believe, Dean Spanos turned his back on 55-plus years of San Diego loyalty, had to borrow 650M to pay territorial fees, then has to put up with all this abuse on a Sunday-by-Sunday home game event. Think of what the interest was on that loan so they could play and get booed in LA.

NFL sources say by playing in the much smaller stadium, the team took in 30-M less in revenue than they would have, had they stayed in San Diego.

The rich man, an outcast lots of places, is a prisoner in his own skybox, not wanting to be even shown on television. Must be some nice way to live a life.

In 34-years they’ve owned this team, they’ve been to the playoffs just 9-times. Rivers, a likely Hall of Fame nominee, has just 1-playoff win in the last 9-years of his career dating to January 2008.

And on Monday, the day after the season ended, you had to turn to Page 6 of the LA Times, the newspaper of record, to get the Chargers game stories.

And Times columnists Bill Plashke and Dylan Hernandez had lots to say about the team, the owner, the move to LA.

The quotes included:
“Borderline disaster”
“It is a Raiders town”
“Visitors own the home town”
“Chargers remain an outsider”

The Rams won their division and recaptured the hearts of fans from Hollywood to Orange County.

The Raiders showed up and delivered again the knowledge they are a national brand who draw fans everywhere.

The Chargers, an afterthought, still unwanted, in their new home.

So you tell me, how year one went? Not very well, and it may be a longtime before things ever get better.

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“College Football Playoffs–Wow-Pow”

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Georgia and Oklahoma had never met, ever, in college football, despite the greatness for decades of programs led by Bud Wilkinson and Vince Dooley and more.

No one will forget the first meeting ever, especially in the Rose Bowl. The Bulldogs won a heart-stopper over the Sooners.

Alabama and Clemson met in a rematch, many hoped would equal last year’s National Championship game., in the other playoff game.

The Sugar Bowl turned sour. The Crimson Tide defense rolled like a tidal wave over the Tigers.

Name it and you saw it in Pasadena.

Baker Mayfield throws for 200-yards in the first half and the Okies jump out to a huge lead. Georgia takes over in the 2nd half with its power run game and big boy defense, and changes everything.

And then 2-overtimes of slugfest football for each before Georgia won it on a wild “Wild-Dog” run play.

The mood swings were everywhere. Mayfield came out throwing to anyone-everyone. The Georgia defense look stun-gunned and could not react, couldn’t cover, couldn’t take it. ..as they fell behind by 17.

Then Georgia went to a 5-man front and called blitz packages, and unleashed its fierce power ball run game, featuring Nick Chubb and Sonny Michel.

When it was over, it was a (54-48) Bulldog win. Chubb and Michel combined for (326Y) rushing, bulldozing their way to victory.

The heroics of OU running back Rod Anderson (201Y) couldn’t save the Sooners, neither could Mayfield-the Heisman Trophy king..

It was a spectacular game, with 4-hours worth of offensive thrills.

The late game was more methodical, more sledgehammer, typical Nick Saban type football. I guess that sells in Tuscaloosa, where the steel industry and football are the topics of conversation.

Alabama turned two deflected passes into 2-touchdowns, scoring 14-points in 13-seconds to take the heart ouf of Clemson. Of the course the Tigers no longer have DeSean Watson-Wayne Gillman nor Mike Williams, all in the NFL, and had no hope of mounting a comeback..

Poor Kelly Bryant, their young quarterback could not handle all the things the Bama defense did. Hits, pressures, sacks, mad scrambles. When they were done, Bryant had (124Y) passing on an 18-for-36 night of beatdown.

The championship game will be a war of attrition. Big boy Georgia offense, run the ball, against the heavy hammer Alabama defense. It will be all Southeast Conference football.

They would have met in the SEC title game, if Bama had not fallen at the hand of cross state enemy Auburn in the Iron Bowl..

But for 8-hours, it was something. What Georgia did in the fireworks filled early game. What Alabama authored all night long.

Wow-Pow, that’s what New Year’s Day football was.

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“Hello 2018-Goodbye 2017”

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A look back at the top sports stories…in San Diego…

(San Diego)

..Chargers to LA…Leaving 56-years of loyalty behind, the Spanos Family became the Modell-Irsay model by refusing to negotiate with the city and taking their NFL team to Los Angeles. The hurt in losing a team was superseded by the anger of fans, who burned their Chargers memorabilia infront of the team’s Mission Valley facility the night the move was announced.

..Rashaad Penny-Aztecs..A once in a lifetime player, setting rushing, all purpose yardage and kick-punt return records, though getting snubbed for the Heisman Trophy ceremony and the Doak Walker awards.

..Dick Enberg…A man for all seasons, his passing stunned our community and the nation on Christmas week. His broadcast career spanned all the great events. If it was important, Breakfast at Wimbledon, NFL, Super Bowl, World Series, Rams-Angels-UCLA-Padres-he was there to televise it……’Oh My’ has joined ‘Oh Doctor’ (Jerry Coleman) in heaven.

..Aztecs-Steve Fisher…Walking off into retirement-legendary basketball coach-whose next stop should be the Hall of Fame.

..Breeders Cup…A fabulous horse racing weekend at Delmar, though the summer disappointment of Arrogate’s failure to run well here is part of the story.

..Soccer City-vs-SDSU…The dueling stadium proposals will now go to the November ballot to see what becomes of Qualcomm Stadium, who builds, who pays for it, what the land value might be, and how it impacts the San Diego State campus or our chances of getting another NFL team.

..Meb Keflezighi…Our distance running icon ran his final marathons, concluding a brilliant career that included Olympic medals, and wins in the Boston and New York Marathons.

..Hall of Champions…It’s closing at Balboa Park was a sad moment in our history, pioneered and championed by the late Bob Britbard…some of its richness transferred to Petco Park.

..Padres Spending Spree..A new blueprint, the expenditure of 101M and the signing of 91-draft picks and International Free Agents, as the rebuilding of the franchise gets underway, a team that has not seen a playoff game in over a decade.

..Fred Miller…He was here for a decade as the AD at San Diego State, but his impact was forever…the game plans for Viejas Arena….the arrival of the Marshall Faulk-Aztecs era..the upgrading of athletic facilities on campus.

..Mike Dee…The sudden removal-exit-dismissa of the Padres President and CEO without explanation, though the rumors of his demise and the reasons, will not go away.

..Aztecs Football…A quick (6-0) start led us to hope of a Fiesta Bowl bid as the team to represent the Group of 5-in postseason play, but devastating home losses to Boise State and Fresno State on back-to-back weekends snuffed out that idea…A (10-3) season with a highly respected coach in Rocky Long (64-29) who deserves the utmost in respect…

..USD Football..The little engine that could, won 10-games and for the second year in a row went to the 1-AA playoffs and beat a team that gave out scholarships, Northern Arizona. Superb job by Coach Dale Lindsey.

..Gulls Hockey..San Diego is a big city, and hockey pucks and palm trees are part of its landscapes. The Gulls finished 2nd in attendance in the 30-team American Hockey League, and by NHL playoff time, 9-Gulls players were with the Anaheim Ducks for the postseason.

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