{"id":325,"date":"2025-05-01T11:39:15","date_gmt":"2025-05-01T11:39:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/calexis.com\/?p=325"},"modified":"2026-03-01T20:40:54","modified_gmt":"2026-03-01T20:40:54","slug":"sports-and-loss-of-spontaneity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/calexis.com\/index.php\/2025\/05\/01\/sports-and-loss-of-spontaneity\/","title":{"rendered":"Sports and Loss of Spontaneity"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/calexis.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/Catch-or-Not-Catch.jpg\"><\/a>Ratings seriously are off for NFL games this year and there are lots of theories why.&nbsp; The tumultuous US election is one reason being offered.&nbsp; That&nbsp;was a wilder reality show than the average NFL game.&nbsp; And people love the spontaneity of those reality shows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But could that be the only reason?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>One of the reasons we like sports is that they play based on rules and we never really know what the outcome will be.&nbsp; That spontaneity sustains our attention.<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"alignleft size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"202\" src=\"https:\/\/calexis.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/Catch-or-not-Catch-football.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-326\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Was It a Catch&#8230;or Not?<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p>At the same time as the ratings are sagging, we have seen the intrusion of referees and instant replay to take a lot of the spontaneity out of the games.&nbsp; This has happened in other sports as well as NFL.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The stops in action are aided by a very thick rule book, penalties, replays and challenges.&nbsp; They all take the emotion out of the flow.&nbsp; Replays are looking for fractions of inches, freeze framed, in a game of yards.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>You could probably add penalties for celebration as well, another emotion deflating rule.&nbsp; What\u2019s competition without a little chest thumping? &nbsp;And what other factor drives greater ratings more than emotion?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>There are also more choices of channels and more games in a week thanks to Monday and Thursday TV games.&nbsp; Leagues and teams have also established streaming packages for customers.&nbsp; All of this dilution of the product.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Plus at the beginning of this year there was a sudden lack of stars.&nbsp; The season opened with no Tom Brady or Peyton Manning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>One thing that has helped baseball is the strength of big market teams like the Yankees, Dodgers and Cubs.&nbsp; These super powers can carry a lot of rating strength.&nbsp; <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Such is not the case right now with NFL football.&nbsp; The league also might be accused of being too greedy adding Thursday Night Football and moving mid season games to non-US markets such as London and Mexico City.&nbsp; These may put lots of bums in seats of big stadiums but seem to lack interest for those back in the US, especially when time zones interfere.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The off field antics also harm the image of the game.&nbsp; Concerns about concussions and the after effects of playing football may be discouraging families from getting their kids interested in football.&nbsp; And off field players having domestic violence issues and suspensions due to drug use are also hurting football\u2019s image.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>All these distractions are happening in an age of attention deficit.&nbsp; We are watching people at professional sports events sitting in the stands with their smartphones out\u2026 or only looking up when there is a need for a replay.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Pricing has also risen steeply.&nbsp; Player salaries and expensive new venues have meant that the cost of tickets reaches well what is affordable for the average citizen.&nbsp; Corporate seats may be filled but that\u2019s not where the mass ratings come from.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>One could argue that the constant replays and resorting to officials is just following US culture which seems to be committed to a legal dispute over anything.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Will the NFL recover and regain its ratings?&nbsp; It will depend on what other rule tweaks and stars emerge.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Ratings seriously are off for NFL games this year and there are lots of theories why.&nbsp; The tumultuous US election is one reason being offered.&nbsp; That&nbsp;was a wilder reality show than the average NFL game.&nbsp; And people love the spontaneity of those reality shows. But could that be the only reason? One of the reasons\u2026 <span class=\"read-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/calexis.com\/index.php\/2025\/05\/01\/sports-and-loss-of-spontaneity\/\">Read More &raquo;<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":326,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-325","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-life","category-media"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Sports and Loss of Spontaneity - Calexis<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/calexis.com\/index.php\/2025\/05\/01\/sports-and-loss-of-spontaneity\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Sports and Loss of Spontaneity - Calexis\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Ratings seriously are off for NFL games this year and there are lots of theories why.&nbsp; The tumultuous US election is one reason being offered.&nbsp; That&nbsp;was a wilder reality show than the average NFL game.&nbsp; And people love the spontaneity of those reality shows. But could that be the only reason? 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