Whaddya know — the NFL Players Association and NFL management actually agree on something.

Like the league itself, NFLPA executive George Atallah said that his union believes the decline in television ratings this season stems more from election-related curiosity siphoning viewers from games rather than a growing rejection of the product itself.

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"Most of the people we’ve spoken to say it’s not a major structural issue," Atallah told co-host Brad Hopkins and me Saturday morning on SiriusXM NFL Radio. “We are in an election year. We certainly know — and thankfully it will all be over on Tuesday, we hope — that we’ve entered into a campaign season now where a lot of the primetime games have been suffering because people are tuning into the news coverage.

"If we’re to take the league at face value at what they’ve written to the owners and the executives, that explains the majority of it."

The trend of declining interest continued Thursday night with the Falcon’s 43-28 win over the Buccaneers. According to sportsmediawatch.com, the game drew 35 percent lower ratings (3.6) and 34 percent less audience (5.8 million viewers) on NFL Network than last season’s Week 9 Thursday night matchup between the Bengals and Browns. Ratings for ESPN’s Monday Night Football telecasts are down significantly as well.

As chronicled in multiple stories by SportingNews.com this past week, there may be a myriad of reasons why fans are tuning out. National anthem protests, declining star power among players, new technology to follow games besides traditional television and oversaturation are among them.

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The NFL, though, is contending that the decline is more cyclical than anything else by pointing to other ratings declines in election years. For example, the contentious campaigning between presidential nominees Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton has become a far hotter water-cooler topic than Patriots quarterback Tom Brady’s return from a four-game "Deflategate" suspension.

Atallah said the NFL hasn’t approached his union about joining together to study the ratings decline but “certainly we’d like to learn more.”

"We’d love to sit down with the league and work through any issues they see to make sure we rebound strongly once the elections are over and into next season," Atallah said.

More of the SiriusXM NFL Radio interview with NFLPA executive George Atallah can be heard here.