The NFL’s regular season officially kicked off on Thursday night but the controversial protests that have accompanied the league appeared muted.
No players from the Philadelphia Eagles or the Atlanta Falcons were seen kneeling during The Star-Spangled Banner at Lincoln Financial Field in Pennsylvania, which was pushed back due to a rain delay.
Defensive end Michael Bennett — who spent the national anthem of a preseason game last month sitting on the bench — repeated his action Thursday, by again sitting on a bench.
Safety Malcolm Jenkins, who raised his fist in protest weeks ago, didn’t appear to repeat the gesture Thursday night.
The preseason opener comes days after Nike reignited the controversy by revealing that former 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick was the face of a new ad. – READ MORE
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Ratings for the NFL’s season opener on Thursday night fell 8 percent from last year’s opener — to their lowest level in a decade.
The decline came even after the TV audience for last year’s opener declined 19 percent from 2016’s opener, statistics out Friday revealed.
The Thursday Night Football telecast on NBC, delayed 45 minutes due to severe weather in the Philadelphia area — averaged a 13.4 overnight rating.
That made it the lowest season-opener in 10 years, according to Sports Media Watch — and breathed new life into fears about the NFL being unable to extricate its game from being in a structural decline. READ MORE:
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