The NFL’s ratings are being brought up once again, this time it’s from NFLPA director DeMaurice Smith. The director sat down with Dan Graziano of ESPN this Saturday and they discussed some issues including the NFL rating decline.
DeMaurice Smith thinks the NFL should look to their basketball brother for some solutions. “I think that it’s important to take a look at what’s going on in basketball because for the most part, I think they are the only sport that more and more people are watching,…They do, I think, a great job of marketing their individual players, sometimes at a time when the (NFL) looks for ways to take their star players off the field,” said Smith.
The facts cannot be ignored and Smith did acknowledge that the NFL still holds a great spot in the American media but it could be better. Smith pointed out aspects of the season that could be tweaked with a remodel.
“You look at the ratings, and you see that marquee matchups buck the trend on declining ratings,” Smith said. “And you also know that there are groups of games, and let’s just say preseason games to start with. … It’s hard to find a fan that wants to buy a preseason ticket or wants to watch a preseason game. So to me, you’re being intellectually dishonest if you don’t want to look at both of those issues.”
One thing Smith touched on was a shorter preseason and regular season in order to incorporate an extra round of playoffs. I’m sure some fans would enjoy the extra playoff football and it would give teams that rarely make an appearance extra opportunities to play in. On the other hand, many football purists will say it’s diluting the product of playoff football.
One of the most exciting things about the NFL postseason in the exclusiveness of it. For example in the NBA the playoffs take 16 of the 30 teams make the playoffs leading many to think the regular season doesn’t even matter because a majority of the league makes it anyway.
