It’s been one of the crappiest months in NFL history, which really hurts because the league really has reached new plateaus in terms of popularity.
However, with so many high-profile domestic violence debacles leaking from the NFL world into mainstream news and the public sphere, it’s fair to wonder if a seemingly infallible, $10-billion-a-year league could be in danger of losing fans.
There’s a new NBC News/Marist poll gauging that, and the headline of a story on the poll results on the NBC News website reads: “America Shrugs Off Scandals Plaguing NFL, NBC Poll Reveals.”
Here’s the key paragraph:
And a whopping 86 percent of fans say the domestic violence news hasn’t changed the amount of professional football they watch. That’s compared will 11 percent of fans who say they’re less likely to watch, and 3 percent who are more likely to watch.
This is where the media really screws up. In a situation like this, 86 percent is not whopping, as NBC’s Mark Murray states. Not at all. In fact, if indeed the NFL is in jeopardy of losing more than 10 percent of his viewers, that’s the whopping number.
We’ve seen this type of flawed analysis in regard to the Redskins name. Polls show that 90 percent of fans aren’t offended by their name, but that means one in every 10 people ARE offended…by the name of a bloody sports team!
Ask anyone involved in business and marketing at the NFL head office how much it would hurt if a double-digit percentage of fans truly started watching less football. It would absolutely make an impact on the bottom line, and when you’re as big as the NFL, that sort of momentum is dangerous.
