NFL Viewing is down 7.5%. Do you watch the Bengals as Much? Causes of this?

[BengalD]

(10-18-2017, 10:25 PM)CJ2etc Wrote: Buddy and I have season tickets - 3 club level seats.  We served together in Desert Storm.  The CK thing was bothering us but it was one stupid, ignorant spoiled brat.  Then another joined, and another, and it just isn't something we can ignore anymore.  We always tell the story of how we woke up in the desert in January of 1991 at 2am and listened to the win on shortwave armed forces radio. Anthem and flag are sacred to us and I know quite a few others who feel the same way.  We haven't attended a home game since and haven't watched them on TV either.  We were huge NFL fans and when we weren't at the Bengals games we were texting with each other and a few other veteran friends for the other Sunday, Monday and Thursday night games.  We are done, we won't be renewing and we were talking earlier today about it - the bond is gone, the passion we felt has been replaced by a sense of betrayal.  It's one of those things that if you haven't experienced what those symbols mean to people like us you just can't understand it.  Too many have lost too much and that is the time we reflect and pay respect to those who paid the ultimate price. The older I get the more sentimental I get when I hear the anthem and I always start running through my mental list of those I served with who are no longer with us.  And to take a knee or disrespect that 2 minutes is just not something we are not only willing to ignore, but to pay money to participate in.  Just can't do it and I assure you there are a lot of us out here.  The NFL will never get people like us back.  Ironic that these people protest the police while surrounded and escorted on and off the field by police.

(10-19-2017, 11:33 AM)Johnny Cupcakes Wrote: You'd think that military veterans wouldn't have such thin skin.  

Serve in a combat situation against people that want to remove your head from your body?  Handled.

Watch someone peacefully protest for a cause that they believe in?  Falls apart.

(10-19-2017, 11:53 AM)sandwedge Wrote: You have no clue what you are talking about unless you have had to hold a dying friend, or write that god awful letter to his parents or wife.

I'm a retired military vet and I haven't watched a game since after week 2. I called and received a refund for my unused portion of my Sunday Ticket.
I really never gave the one or two morons that were disrespecting the salute to our nation much thought because: a.) As a career military man I realized early that we were all one team.  When you serve you don't have to like everyone you serve with but when push comes to shove we all serve together and we have each other backs. And therefore we don't really care much what anybody else thinks as long as the team is successful.   b.) when you serve you learn that you sacrifice some of your freedoms for the betterment of the team and over all the betterment of the nation and therefore we know that street civilians could never understand that.   c.)  Part of the reason we serve is to insure the rights of everyone - whether we like what they do or not.
However, as the issue escalated and after some reflecting I realized by virtue of the fact that I watch the games and go to a few,  I was supporting the very same individuals and organization that would turn their backs on the flag in favor of more notoriety and still make their millions.  And therefore have decided to not add to their paychecks anymore.
If these guys want to make a difference, they can start by taking a page out of Chris Longs playbook (dude is giving all his weekly pay checks to charities to fund scholarships).  I was always told early in my military career by my superiors (before I became one) "If you come to the table with problems you better be bringing some solutions with you"  The solution is not to publicly show disrespect for the country which enabled you to play American football to start with.

Thank All of You Who Have Served or are Serving!