Why Sports Viewers Aren’t Watching Sports This Year
The last year and a half to two years has been rough on everyone. There hasn’t been a person that I have talked to that has said the last years have been somewhat of a struggle. Some businesses struggled through much of the last year, due to Covid-19, but there is one industry that has suffered but doesn’t want to admit it, the sports industry. Many people have stopped watching sports. Now part of the reason there has been a drop in viewers is because of the lockdown and pandemic, but in 2021 everyone is back to playing sports and the fields are ready to be played on, yet the viewers haven’t bounced back like we predicted they would.
Many people actually opted not to watch sports this year just because sports are getting too political. There is way too much political talk between the comentators and just in the sports in general. For example, in 2020 the Red Sox put up a flag saying black lives matter on the side of Fenway Park. That was when I decided to stop watching the Red Sox, which is the team I love watching play. They were getting too involved with current events going on and I didn’t like that. The same thing happened with basketball, they got too involved with the current events. They would wear pins on their jerseys promoting things such as people who had been killed by police brutality and things like that. Now with things like cancer and alzhiemers awareness I don’t mind because those are nobel causes and ongoing epidemics in our world. If those are pinned on the jerseys I don’t mind, but there is a line that needs to be drawn, and I draw it at the police brutality. There are also many teams in the NBA that had black lives matter installed on the sidelines of the court. That just wasn’t okay for me and I completely boycotted anything that had to do with basketball. Same thing with baseball, I just didn’t watch it because it wasn’t enjoyable anymore.
Back to the whole things ruining basketball discussion. I think the thing that was really the nail in the coffin for me was Lebron James. He just has too big of a mouth and is kind of a crybaby. He just doesn’t think before he speaks and he is just looking for attention. He is the thing that really just killed basketball for me, I was okay with it before, now I want nothing to do with it. Also completely unrelated to that, Lebron I also think is too old for the sport he plays. Basketball can be pretty grueling on your body, Lebron is currently 36 years old, and I just think that he is overstaying his welcome in the NBA. If he was playing a different sport like baseball then I would have less of the problem seeing him play, but he’s gotten old and isn’t the player he used to be. In my opinon, he went down hill when he went to play for the Lakers. But that part doesn’t matter that’s just my opinion.
Back to what I was originally saying, that’s the main reason people aren’t watching sports because it is getting too political. Everyone, even some of the players, are trying to get people to affiliate with their party/views. They know that they have the ability to spread those views due to social media followings and the TV popularity. People are just sick of hearing about it. It’s not rocket science, people have heard all of this politics nonsense for years, and they are tired of it. That’s why many people are boycotting sports.
There is also one big change that just kills me when it comes to sports. The NFL has announced that it will play the black national anthem before games. I have not a porblem with black people, but do I think the race should have its own national anthem? No, I don’t think they should. We are all Americans no matter what color our skin is. We should all be united by one National Anthem, not divided over two of them. The thing that really gets on my nerves about the NFL is that since I have decided not to watch professional football, the Browns finally start winning. Being a Browns fan it breaks my heart that I have decided not to watch them win. Then again, with the Browns track record, they could promptly lose and crush all of their fans hopes like usual.
The point is, once sports start to become less political and they stop with all of the current event talk during downtime, then I will start watching again. When sports become enjoyable again I will start watching again. If the major sports networks want my, and many other peoples, views then they need to drop the political nonsense and get back to what makes sports, sports. Play the game, not politics, talk about the plays in the game, don’t talk about the people who made the plays in our government. Make that all go away and you will gain your viewers back, at least some of them.
