It's not kneeling that's ruining football.

[Pappy13]

Its the officiating. I can't even watch it anymore as the officiating is so horrible. 90% of the flags are just unnecessary as they have no bearing on plays whatsoever. Let the players play football. This isn't football. The game has become boring to watch and is decided mostly by the refs. The NFL is a joke. No wonder ratings are down.

[MyGodWearsAHoodie]

I disagree with the premise that football is somehow "ruined".  But the national anthem is a non-issue football wise.

[masterfins]

I disagree with the premise that football is somehow "ruined". 

Tom Brady disagrees with you, he thinks the refs were partly responsible for their loss to Carolina.  Poor Tom.  lol

[masterfins]

Its the officiating. I can't even watch it anymore as the officiating is so horrible. 90% of the flags are just unnecessary as they have no bearing on plays whatsoever. Let the players play football. This isn't football. The game has become boring to watch and is decided mostly by the refs. The NFL is a joke. No wonder ratings are down.

Colin Cowherd agrees with you.  The conspiracy theory is that the refs are throwing more flags to keep scores low, and games close until the end.  I agree the Miami-Saints game was terrible to watch, but it probably kept Brees from hanging 45 pts on the Fins.

[MyGodWearsAHoodie]

Tom Brady disagrees with you, he thinks the refs were partly responsible for their loss to Carolina.  Poor Tom.  lol

That is not what he said at all.  I love how people who don't even listen to the interview make these claims.

[Pappy13]

Colin Cowherd agrees with you.  The conspiracy theory is that the refs are throwing more flags to keep scores low, and games close until the end.  I agree the Miami-Saints game was terrible to watch, but it probably kept Brees from hanging 45 pts on the Fins.

Well I can't say that I agree with Colin because I don't think the refs are purposefully bad, they are just that bad. Maybe the NFL should start replaying all penalties like they do scoring plays. I think we would see a lot of reversals. I must have seen at least 3 penalties that it was clear they got the call wrong and handful of others that are basically meaningless penalties. The NFL is somewhat to blame as the rules have become ridiculously complicated and hard to officiate, but the games are hard to watch these days with flags on every other play, TD's turned into completions, fumbles turned into incompletions etc etc etc. The game barely resembles the game I fell in love with in the 70's.

[Dave Gray]

It's also the style of play.  Everything is a 3 yard out.

[CF DolFan]

I think college football is ruining things as the NFL is watered down. How many teams have offensive line issues, QB issues etc? They aren't getting enough talent to fill all of the teams so we get a much weaker product and it shows up all over the field.

[masterfins]

Well I can't say that I agree with Colin because I don't think the refs are purposefully bad, they are just that bad.

Clarification - Cowherd wasn't saying that the refs were bad, he was implying that it was more of a dictum from the NFL that the refs should be calling more penalties to keep scoring down, and to keep one of the teams from running away with the game, and thereby losing viewership and ratings.  More of the old "parity" between teams, ala helping the weaker team through the use of penalty calling.

[Phishfan]

It's also the style of play.  Everything is a 3 yard out.

That's just the Miami games Dave. 

[Phishfan]

I think college football is ruining things as the NFL is watered down. How many teams have offensive line issues, QB issues etc? They aren't getting enough talent to fill all of the teams so we get a much weaker product and it shows up all over the field.

Do you have an improvement suggestion? College football is the only feeder system to the NFL (and one I actually prefer to football on Sundays at this point).

[DaLittle B]

Deleted long winded explanations and went with this....
IMO..
Immediate gratification society/fantasy football mentality about the game (They suck get rid of them,Coaches,GMs,and players)+Lack of development=Not as good of NFL Football

College football is ruled by the athleticism,better athletes can dominate,weaker competition.The majority of College players will never even sniff an NFL football field.

[CF DolFan]

College football is ruled by the athleticism,better athletes can dominate,weaker competition.The majority of College players will never even sniff an NFL football field.

That's also why the US sucks at soccer. Countries like Spain train kids without keeping score as they are trying to teach the game and not focus on winning. In the US the fastest little Johnny is passed the ball and he scores while everyone else watches.  There are so many schools now that they all have minimal talented kids and it becomes a throw it up to the big fast receiver or the running back no one can stop.  Steve Spurrier struggled mightily when talent was equal ... as does many coaches.