According to ESPN's Mark Fainaru-Wada and Steve Fainaru, the NIH decided not to renew its agreement with the NFL "following a bitter dispute in 2015 in which the NFL backed out of a major study that had been awarded to a researcher who had been critical of the league."

"The NFL's agreement with [the funding arm of the NIH] ends August 31, 2017, and there are no current research plans for the funds remaining from the original $30 million NFL commitment," the NIH said in a statement, per ESPN.

anrst wrote:it's gotten so much more boring over the past couple years too.

I do think the lost entertainment value is a least partially linked to head trauma... I have heard college coaches describe their game as "basketball on grass." I'd rather just watch basketball if that's the case...

as for pro football, teams are starting to spread it out too - probably to a detriment. The Giants played that (low scoring) spread type of offense, and didn't carry a fullback last year... football used to be about brute strength and sheer will - now it's all about 4,000 or 5,000 yard QBs, and that used to be very, very rare

The problem is the product. In 3 hours and 20 minutes you get about 12 minutes of actual football action. I still love the Giants, but I never sit down to watch the start of a game anymore. In fact I purposely do things that force me to watch later. Then I watch the DVR, and FF through the dead periods until I am caught up with real time.

The NFL's ratings were down last year, but that happens historically when there's a presidential election and last year's election was the craziest one in my lifetime. This year the league won't be competing against that and ratings will go up.

The CTE issue is there (although it is greatly overstated) and will cause some changes in football (and some really good ones, like changing the way kids tackle at the youth level).

y2zipper wrote:Reports of the football's demise are greatly exaggerated IMO. It still represents the two most popular sports in the USA (pro being one and college being 2), still has huge event power, and is still the number one show on every major network. In fact, training camp just opened and NFL teams are getting 17 to 20 thousand people for drills.

The NFL's ratings were down last year, but that happens historically when there's a presidential election and last year's election was the craziest one in my lifetime. This year the league won't be competing against that and ratings will go up.

The CTE issue is there (although it is greatly overstated) and will cause some changes in football (and some really good ones, like changing the way kids tackle at the youth level).

Cartman718 wrote:

y2zipper wrote:Reports of the football's demise are greatly exaggerated IMO. It still represents the two most popular sports in the USA (pro being one and college being 2), still has huge event power, and is still the number one show on every major network. In fact, training camp just opened and NFL teams are getting 17 to 20 thousand people for drills.

The NFL's ratings were down last year, but that happens historically when there's a presidential election and last year's election was the craziest one in my lifetime. This year the league won't be competing against that and ratings will go up.

The CTE issue is there (although it is greatly overstated) and will cause some changes in football (and some really good ones, like changing the way kids tackle at the youth level).

overstated....there was only one case where CTE was not the cause of death.

Correction: There was only one case where CTE was not found.