With Super Bowl LVI just days away, a new poll shows that Republicans are losing interest in the NFL, in part because of the league’s efforts to improve conditions for Black players.
The poll, conducted by the Los Angeles Times and Survey Monkey, found that nearly half of people who identified themselves as Republican or right-leaning said their interest as fans had declined over the past five years, compared with just one-quarter of Democrats.
Some 45% of people who identified as Republicans or right-leaning said they believed the NFL was doing “too much to show respect for its Black players.”
The Rooney Rule, which requires NFL teams to interview minority candidates for head coaching and other high-level positions, also came under fire, with 52% of Republicans saying they did not support it. (The larger poll showed that Americans approve of the rule by a roughly two-to-one margin.)
Among the full swath of poll respondents, 22% said they felt the league was doing “too much” to improve the treatment of Black players.
The poll’s results follow a long-standing debate about NFL player protests, one that drew in Donald Trump in 2017 and 2018. And it comes as former Miami Dolphins head coach Brian Flores has sued the league, accusing it of pervasive racial bias. Flores says he was instructed to lose as many games as possible in the 2019 season, with the team owner offering him a $100,000 reward for each loss.
Flores also says he had hoped to lead the New York Giants, but learned he wasn’t in the running owing to an errant text message from New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick.
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