Concussions and Protests: Football’s popularity drops

In a divided America, Super Bowl Sunday holds a special place in the national psyche. Even people who don’t like the New England Patriots or Philadelphia Eagles will tune into the game tonight, more than 100 million in total.

And yet, poll numbers show the National Football League and, more broadly, the game of football itself facing some real questions coming into 2018, according to the January NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll. The number of people following the NFL closely and the number who want their children to play football is declining.

Overall, the poll found, the number of people who say they follow the NFL has declined sharply since 2014. In January, 49 percent of those polled said they follow the league closely. In January of 2014, the “follow closely” figure was 58 percent. That’s a 9-point drop.

But look closer at the numbers and there is a strong racial component to the decline: it’s being driven by white Americans.

Since 2014, the number of African Americans and Hispanics saying they follow the professional football closely has remained flat, according to the poll. But among whites, the number is down 12 points from 59 percent in 2014 to 47 percent in 2018.

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