ROLL LEFT AND DIE: NFL Ratings Fall at Faster Pace.

The average audience for a game was 14.9 million this season, down 9.7% compared with 16.5 million viewers for the 2016 regular season, according to Nielsen. That is a steeper decline than the 8% viewership erosion last year.

A variety of potential explanations have been cited for the ratings woes. Some viewers have said they were turned off after some players knelt during the national anthem to protest against social injustice. President Donald Trump has also criticized the protests.

Television executives don’t acknowledge that the protests had a part in the ratings decline, but they say overexposure of NFL programming is the primary cause. The NFL has increased the number of Thursday night games in recent years and added early morning Sunday games played in London.

In an interview earlier this season, CBS Sports Chairman Sean McManus said the new games “diluted the Sunday afternoon packages and affected the ratings.”