JUDY WOODRUFF: Now, for many Americans, the traditions of Thanksgiving week include food,
family and very often football.
But this year, the sport is, at least for the moment, struggling to find its footing.
Jeffrey Brown has the story.
JEFFREY BROWN: The national football league finds itself mired in a number of controversies
this season, most prominent, player protests over police mistreatment of African-Americans
and the reaction from President Trump and other critics about taking a knee.
There are also continuing concerns over player safety and the status of a concussion settlement
with retired players and, topping it off, a recent civil war of sorts between two of
the most powerful people in the league, commissioner Roger Goodell and Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry
Jones.
In the meantime, the games do go on, but ratings have fallen.
Seth Wickersham covers the NFL for ESPN and joins us now.
Thanks for joining us, Seth.
So, let's start with the player protests.
How are players and teams dealing with it now, and is it still boiling or do you see
things calming down at all?
SETH WICKERSHAM, ESPN: It's largely faded.
I think that the number of players that are kneeling as a protest are down to two now.
And, you know, I think that it's been an interesting moment to look at the NFL as this has happened,
because a lot of the owners of teams and a lot of league executives want a mandate that
would force the players to stand.
And Roger Goodell, who has been accused by the players of often serving as a puppet for
the billionaire ruthless owners, has backed them in their right to protest and has not
backed a mandate.
And so it's been a really interesting issue to watch unfold, especially going back to
a story that I wrote a month ago with Don Van Natta where we quoted Bob McNair, the
owner of the Houston Texans, in an owners meeting, saying -- quote -- "We can't have
the inmates running the prison."
JEFFREY BROWN: Right.
SETH WICKERSHAM: And that caused all kinds of trouble, caused a lot of stress between
players.
But I think that largely right now the anthem has faded as an issue.
And, fortunately, for people like me, there are plenty of other things to write about.
JEFFREY BROWN: Yes.
Well, one of them of course, is this question of the violence and the concussions.
So, it's interesting, because there's what happens on the field, where there seems to
be more attention to concussions.
There's that long-term settlement with former players.
And then there's this question of how much it's affecting fans, you know, how much people
are maybe turned off to the game because of it.
SETH WICKERSHAM: Where you're seeing the biggest effects from head injuries, more than concussions,
I think just generally, it's head injuries, is on the youth levels.
And that is a real problem.
I think, in the NFL, its ratings drop, I don't think, has a lot to do with the violence of
the game.
And I think that there is a war right now within the NFL that's kind of playing out
where there are owners who think that fans come to the NFL for violence, and they don't
actually want the game to get to much safer, because it would sort of end up in this weird
middle ground that would end up entertaining and pleasing nobody.
JEFFREY BROWN: Where are things with that settlement?
Because that's been that's been going on a few years now.
SETH WICKERSHAM: yes, it's going on a few years, and it is not going to end anytime
soon.
I think that, like, right now the settlement is mired in litigation, and even the players
who won settlements are being targeted by certain kinds of attorneys that, you know,
can promise more and aren't delivering.
This entire thing has been -- it's been a mess.
JEFFREY BROWN: You think about people wanting perhaps fans who want to come and see the
action, and including the violence.
But we also have seen a number of big stars injured, right?
I mean, this is a -- it always happens every year, but this year especially, Aaron Rodgers
and others.
And that really affects the quality of the games, I would think.
SETH WICKERSHAM: There is no question that, you know, so many of these big stars going
down has had a huge impact on the game.
And I think that, in a weird way, it's what's elevated this battle going on right now between
Jerry Jones and Roger Goodell and a few other owners over who is going to serve as commissioner
next, and whether that will be Roger Goodell, because the games themselves have been kind
of flat, and not as many people are watching them.
And yet this stuff that's going on in the executive suites is really fascinating.
JEFFREY BROWN: Explain that a little bit, especially for those who don't follow especially
the internal side of this, Jerry Jones, a very sort of familiar figure to football fans,
a very powerful owner, in a very unusually public spat with the commissioner.
SETH WICKERSHAM: Yes, Jerry Jones, during Roger Goodell's 11-year tenure, has been one
of his most ardent supporters.
I mean, he supported Roger Goodell as they have gone from crisis to crisis to crisis,
from head injuries, to the Ray Rice domestic violence dispute a couple of years ago, to
all of the gates, you know, Spygate, Bountygate, Deflategate.
And now we're seeing this huge public civil war breaking out, with Jerry Jones leading
the charge, with not many people behind him.
And what he wants out of this is unclear.
It's clear that he doesn't want Roger Goodell to continue being commissioner of the NFL
under the current terms, and he doesn't want him to get much more money to do it.
And that raises the question, does he want someone else to do it?
JEFFREY BROWN: So come back finally to this question of the impact on the game, and particularly
the ratings being down.
You said earlier you don't think it's because people are being turned off by the concussions
and the violence.
Does anyone know what is going on?
SETH WICKERSHAM: It's a problem.
And even people within the NFL aren't able to get clear answers on it.
Clearly, a lot of it has to do with viewer habits changing.
I think that a lot of it has to do with people being turned off by the NFL, maybe not totally
because of head injuries, but because of the way that they have handled things.
A small percentage of them may be these anthem protests.
But college football ratings are up.
So, America is not losing its appetite for football as much as people seem -- as people
seem to think.
But there is a problem with the NFL.
And it's a perception problem, and I think that that's what Jerry Jones, on top of everything
else, is worried about, is that there are these systemic forces that are coming at the
NFL right now.
And he's asking, has Roger Goodell shown the ability to navigate the league through these
things enough to the point that we trust him to navigate the league going forward and end
up in a stronger place?
JEFFREY BROWN: You know, it's still worth saying, though, that the NFL is still America's
biggest and most lucrative sport, right?
That hasn't changed.
SETH WICKERSHAM: It hasn't changed a bit.
You know, baseball sets their records in World Series ratings, and the NBA has said NBA finals
ratings lately, and, you know, look, the Super Bowl still draws well over 100 million people
a year.
That's multiple, multiple times the amount that those other sports draw at their peak.
JEFFREY BROWN: All right, Seth Wickersham of ESPN, thanks very much.
SETH WICKERSHAM: Thank you.