Apparel and shoe giant Nike’s revival of the Colin Kaepernick racial division and white-shaming narrative apparently didn’t ring well with potential NFL viewers as audiences declined again in this week’s televised broadcasts. NFL ratings are dropping. Again.

In the wake of Nike’s selection of Kaepernick as the new poster star for their line, television ratings numbers from this week’s season opening games on Thursday and Sunday show further declines in viewership, with both sides of the Colin Kaepernick, Nike, Take a Knee controversy jockeying to spin the numbers to support their chosen narrative. Regardless of political distortion, there’s no denying Thursday’s game between the Atlanta Falcons and Philadelphia Eagles hit a nine year viewership low for the NFL with 19-million viewers. Sunday night’s primetime NFL showcase on NBC showed similar softness. losing 13% in the ratings compared to the same prime time game on Septembrer 10, 2017.

The NFL’s latest bad news is just the newest aftershock of the Kaepernick controversy, which has seen across the board decline in valuations for NFL television rights, franchise values and team merchandise sales, which are all down in comparative numbers since before the ‘Take a Knee’ movement took center stage.

President Donald Trump was quick to jump on the decline in viewership, suggesting a direct link between the anthem-kneeling players and the dramatic pullback in NFL interest by American audiences. Trump tweeted the picture of a young boy in a wheelchair attending a parade, straining to lift himself to a standing position as the American flag passes by.

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On the Monday immediately following the Kaepernick ad launch, Nike’s stock hemorrhaged $4.25-Billion in market capitalization. Nike fought back last week claiming internet sales numbers had risen substantially, though intelligent observers would rightly note that momentary blips in merchandise purchasing pale in comparison to the lifeblood of any publicly traded corporation: stock price, market capitalization and profitability.

Kaepernick himself meanwhile took to the twitterspace to express gratitude and appreciation for NFL players who are still adhering to his dumpster fire protest example, praising his ‘friends’ who continue to damage both the league and their own earnings potential via the virtue signaling nonsense.

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