NorthHawk wrote:I'm not sure boxing is an apt comparison.
In boxing, there are too many champions and it became sort of like pro wrestling
where it was a bit of a joke in that anyone could be named champion of the world.
It would be like the NFL having a world champion for each division. That just turns
people off. But there might be something to the idea of too much exposure.
That may be true in today's world, but it wasn't back in it's heyday, ie the post war up to the early 70's. Even up until the mid 70's, most people could correctly name the current heavyweight champion. The common threads between boxing's demise and the current dilemma the NFL faces are safety, a decline in grass roots participation, and over exposure.
Here's a graph that shows the recent decline in participation in football in the United States. It's gone from 8.4 to 5.2 million in just 12 years:
https://www.statista.com/statistics/191 ... ince-2006/