It seems crazy to say a professsional sports league that drew 25% of the country’s eyes this past Sunday is in “crisis,” but it’s true that NFL ratings are dropping faster than Tony Romo’s chance of getting his job back.
To stop the slide and justify charging $700,000 per 30-second ad during primetime games, NFL broadcast partners like CBS, NBC and ESPN have been kicking around ideas to shorten games to retain millennial viewers with short attention spans, the Sports Business Journal reported.
While none of these reported ideas will be implemented until next season, if at all, here are the five proposed fixes ranked by how effective I think they’d be:
- Too Many Broadcast Windows: Football is only for one Thursday a year: Thanksgiving.
- Fewer Ad Breaks: The commercial/kickoff/commercial segment has always been brutal.
- New Replay Review System: Challenging the spot of the ball on second down must go.
- Have PA Speaker Announce Penalties: It’ll be tough, but Ed Hochuli will get over it.
- Shorten Halftime: Drinking two beers in 12 minutes instead of 10 won’t be a problem.
The options are all solid, but we also suggest hiring full-time refs who know to only blow the whistle after a player steps out of bounds. And yes, DeAndre Hopkins is on my fantasy team.
Main image courtesy of Patrick McElhenney/FX
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