title: TV EXECUTIVES In Discussion About CANCELLING Thursday Night NFL Games
text: Capitalism at work. It s funny how the loss of real money has a way of helping to remind NFL owners and the networks who support them, who are writing the checks. One hint it s not the guys disrespecting our flag.Network executives are scrambling to solve the growing problem of crashing ratings for the National Football League, by cutting games to end the perceived  over-saturation  of football on TV.To put an end to the sliding ratings, the executives are proposing that fewer games may be the ticket to stop that  over-saturation,  with one idea being to cut Thursday Night Football by a whopping ten games.The idea to trim Thursday Night Football from 18 games a season to only eight was first reported by Sports Business Journal and was part of a plan to reverse the ratings crash that also includes pulling games played in the U.K. back to 1 PM eastern time (6PM London time).Indeed the amount of football on TV has exploded in the last decade.Ratings are still down despite the small rise seen in Week 7. NBC Sports is off 21 percent from 2015, CBS Sports is down 14 percent compared to 2015, and ESPN s Monday Night Football has sunk 17 percent over 2015. -BreitbartRasmussen reports that nearly one-third (32 percent) of adults say they re less likely to watch NFL game telecasts because of the Kaepernick-led player protests against racial injustice. The telephone/online survey of 1,000 American adults was conducted Oct. 2-3.This letter from a die-hard Pittsburg Steelers fan hits the nail on the head, as it relates to how NFL fans feel about the players who continue to disrespect our flag: I want to thank you for freeing up my Sundays. Some of the earliest memories of my life are watching Steelers games with my dad. I was once a season-ticket holder. I have occasionally missed a few games on TV through the years due to scheduling conflicts, but I can honestly say in my 44 years of living, I have never intentionally turned off a Steelers game. That changed today. As I sat down to watch the Steelers-Bears game today, I learned from the sideline reporter that the Steelers chose not to participate in the national anthem. I realize that there is a lot of injustice in our country. I realize that there are a lot of people upset at the current administration. I realize that we live in a free country where people have the freedom to not participate in the national anthem. I also have the freedom to not spend another minute or dollar on your product. I am of the opinion that this is quite possibly the worst way to go about  protesting.  If you want to hold a rally at Heinz Field to allow your players to voice their opinions, that would be fine. If you want all the Steelers and NFL players to march on Washington D.C., fine. But to not participate in the national anthem is an insult to every serviceman who has served or has passed away defending this country. If you are truly that unhappy with the country, feel free to play for the CFL. So thank you, Steelers and NFL, for freeing up my Sundays. I will no longer waste my time or money watching your product. The weather today the in Pittsburgh area is beautiful and I can not think of a better day to spend it outside, away from the TV.   Jim Coletti, former fan 