Hey NFL, you’re welcome.
The 2016 NFL Regular Season has come to a close an…23j23sdfasfd.
Whoa! Sorry. I was blown off of my desk by the huge sigh of relief that Roger Goodell breathed, my hand tried to hold on to the edge of the keyboard. I’m back and firmly strapped in. AS I WAS SAYING-
The 2016 NFL Regular Season has come to a close and with it one of the biggest problems the NFL’s faced – no not Josh Brown, he was a New York Giant so the NFL didn’t care – is seemingly behind them. It’s no secret that ratings were down across the NFL in 2016, especially early on when the United States Presidential Election was happening, but somewhere along the way they found a cure for that problem – the Dallas Cowboys.
The Dallas Cowboys saved the NFL from even worse ratings this season https://t.co/CFDutlpqqS pic.twitter.com/1YHzGy4imu
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) January 5, 2017
Five of the six most-watched (including the top three) games during the regular season featured the Dallas Cowboys – America’s Team – as the featured guest. The five Cowboys games were Thanksgiving, Pittsburgh, Green Bay, and both games against the Giants.
Sunday Night Football as a whole was down almost 10% in viewership this season. Monday Night Football was down 12%… except for, of course, the Cowboys. The Dallas/Detroit MNF matchup was – as I incorrectly speculated on OchoLive – the most watched MNF contest since 2014 (which was another game featuring the Cowboys). America loves the Cowboys.
The Story Of The 2016 Cowboys
NFL Network’s Rich Eisen once said something that has always stuck with me… “The NFL is the greatest reality show on television.” This is true in every element as we are all completely tuned in to a “program” featuring people competing in real life.
Ratings are driven by stories, and the reason they were boosted by the Cowboys this season was because the Cowboys were the most intriguing story the NFL has seen over the last five years. When you factor in the drafting of Ezekiel Elliott, Tony Romo going down, Dak Prescott stepping up, Zeke rising, and then consider that this all happened to the Dallas Cowboys… it was exactly what the NFL needed.
The Dallas Cowboys Will Always Be America’s Team
We all have that one friend/family member that is so stubborn that they repeatedly suggest someone else is America’s Team. All of those… are lies.
There is only one America’s Team… the Dallas Cowboys. This is a team, an organization, so powerful in every capacity that they carried an NFL season that saw significant dips in ratings in their most potent spots. This is a team that, despite their America’s Team mentality, has gone from most-hated to most-likely-Cinderella-story. Something like this could only happen to the Dallas Cowboys.
People like to say that there’s nothing bigger than the NFL in America. They say that it’s the most powerful sports organization in the country. While that may be true, there is indisputably something bigger than the NFL – the Dallas Cowboys.
You’re welcome, Commissioner.
