While I agree with Indy in that I will still surreptitiously follow my team for now, while the NFL and my money will stay separated completely.
Here's some snippets from an article on the American Thinker about fantasy leagues in particular.
Roger Goodell and Wokeness Have Ensured the Decline of the NFL
https://www.americanthinker.com/art...ness_have_ensured_the_decline_of_the_nfl.html
"Hey guys. Just letting you know that I'm not gonna run the league this year. My heart's not in it plus at least two guys are done with the NFL in general. Maybe next year all of the BS will blow over but until then y'all take care."
This is how my NFL fantasy football league (established ca. 2005) came to its inglorious end last month. "Sounds good to me!" was one response to the league commissioner's text message. "Same here... I don't even care anymore" was another. There were no rebuttals or arguments in favor of continuing the league, which had long been a highlight of our lives in the fall season.
Back in 2014, Neal Gabler gave the world a firsthand look at how progressives see NFL fans, lamenting at Reuters that the NFL was the "last bastion of white, male conservatives," allowing them to "enjoy their world on Sunday — even if that world may be crumbling around them." He cited an Experian Simmons study that showed that 83 percent of NFL fans were white, "64 percent were male, 51 percent are 45 years or older, only 32 percent made less than $60K per year" — and, sin of sins, the fans were found to be "59 percent more likely to have played a round of golf in the last year."
That's a pretty close description of this group of friends in my fantasy league. It comprises mostly white guys, near or in their 40s, who love their wives and kids, are mostly conservative, and generally have pretty good jobs in various trades ranging from plumber to attack helicopter pilot. And, yeah, most of us play a round of golf here and there, and none of us thinks to ask forgiveness for that.
Goodell knows that recent choices will alienate the core fan base. "We're supporting our players," he says, continuing, "We look at this as an opportunity to grow our audience with different segments of the population to make sure we're reaching more people on more platforms."
Rush Limbaugh translates Goodell's comments to be an acknowledgement that the NFL is in trouble. Goodell knows, Rush says, that that the NFL has "angered a large segment of the traditional National Football League audience."
If the NFL can just be woke enough, Goodell seems to think, maybe the kids will be prompted to tune in for the political messaging, and maybe they'll even stick around for the game and take an interest in it. Goodell seems to be imagining a world in which the NFL's popularity grows by alienating its massive, traditional fan base while seeking to replace that fan base with a younger and more ethnically diverse fan base who didn't grow up having witnessed the NFL's marvelous ascension to having become "America's sport," and who also have a million other things vying for their attention that haven't captured mine, such as YouTube, Fortnite, and TikTok.
If the NFL issued stock, managerial decisions this stupid would prompt shareholders to sell at any price.