Super Bowl Ratings Tank to 9-Year Low

Inspite of a fantastic football game and wonderful finish with the Eagles winning their first ever Super Bowl title, Super Bowl LII was the least watched 'big game' in nine years according to data released by Nielsen  on Monday night. The game garnered a 103.4 million rating, which is down 7.1 percent from last season, which drew 111.3 million people.

The rating was the lowest since Super Bowl XLIII between the Steelers and Cardinals that drew 98.7 million eyeballs.

While the game was still the most watched televised event of the year, it is little consolation. The NFL has been suffering a downturn in ratings all season long with some outlets reporting a 9 percent drop during the regular season. The postseason also saw ratings decline that went into the teens.

There are a lot of reasons for this. Executives have been trumping the idea that people are streaming the content online, but that argument masks a much darker reality for the NFL.  People are just flat out fed up.

Shortly after the Eagles and Patriots stamped their tickets to Minnesota during the conference championships, hundreds, if not thousands of people took to social media to denounce the Super Bowl, promising not to watch. According to the numbers by Nielsen, people weren't blowing smoke.

From the National Anthem protest to horrible officiating, a lack of accountability and pure hubris from commissioner Roger Goodell, and the inevitability of the Patriots success, people are flat out sick of the current state of the NFL.

Earlier this season when the NFL was in the midst of the national anthem crisis, fans began burning NFL jersey's to protest the League's wide response to kneel during the National Anthem after President Donald Trump called out the league for its behavior before Week 2. Across the country jersey's were burned, and thousands of fans refused to return to their couch for Sunday afternoons.

Football has a problem and unless it truly gets politics out of the game, and focuses on making the sport competitive again, people are going to continue to avoid it.