NFL Ratings Are Down, Blame the Jets and Giants

We assumed back when COVID-19 first hit and we had all our sports taken away that the ratings for sports when they came back would be up. Well, that's not exactly the case. Both the NBA and NFL ratings are down. You can consider a reaction to Black Lives Matter, but there are some other factors involved. Namely, in the NFL, it's the Jets and Giants sucking.

The Jets are 0 and 2 for the second year in a row, and the Giants are 0 and 2 for the fourth straight season, and for the seventh time in eight years. This leads to poor ratings because New York is the largest television market in the country and those fans don't want to watch crappy football. And that's pretty much what we're getting out of the Jets and Giants at this point. And it's not going to get much better as each team has been hit with injuries. Saquon Barkley is out with a torn ACL, Sterling Shepard is also hurt for the Giants. For the Jets, they're without Le'Veon Bell and Jamison Crowder.

Sports Business Journal took a look at the NFL's ratings for week 2 and here is what they came up with:

The Jets' rating for the New York DMA was shockingly low — one of the team’s lowest on record. Competing against the U.S. Open at nearby Winged Foot, the team’s blowout loss to the 49ers registered a 3.9 local rating on FOX, which is closer to a regular-season Yankees rating than a normal NFL number. During Week 2 last year, the Jets pulled a 10.5 for its Monday night blowout loss to the Browns.

The 0-2 Giants pulled a 7.4 rating in New York for its loss to the Bears, which was carried on CBS. Last year in Week 2, the Giants had a 10.0 local rating for a loss to the Bills.