The Effect of NFL Protest for TV Viewership

Two things have significantly impacted the National Football League (NFL) in the last year: First , there was a decrease of viewership of around 9.7% in the last Nielsen ratings of 2017 (Rovell , 2018). Second , the protests during the national anthem started by former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick , ultimately involved over 180 players in the 2017 season (Breech , 2017). There has been much speculation regarding why viewership has been down and many discussions regarding the impact of player protests. The purpose of this research is to see the effect of NFL player national anthem protest on TV viewership of NFL games. This protest , of course , has a short history and limited research has been conducted on it. In order to better understand the role of the protests this project first reviews the actions of Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf in the NBA. The NBA's restriction of his protest. And the viewer responses to the protest. This background is used to inform the discussion on player protests and guide the construction of a Qualtrics survey to learn about viewer attitudes regarding the NFL , Colin Kapernick , and the ongoing protests during the anthem. Through the self-report responses I was able to develop a preliminary assessment of how viewer's opinions and viewing behaviors have changed. From a email link that brought responders to a online survey that was powered by Qualtrics. The results showed the impact of race and political affiliation on how people view the protest. The results also showed that people opinion's of protest did not always affect their viewership of the NFL