Pro Sports and Protest: Players Put Their Mouths Ahead of Their Money

For the National Football League (NFL) -- the world's richest sports league -- the 2017 season was supposed to be restorative. Last year, the organization saw a precipitous 8 percent drop in television viewership, a relatively steep decline that was blamed on several factors. Some have argued that fans have been increasingly frustrated by the league's poor handling of off-field issues, especially those involving domestic violence incidents. Others noted that viewers were tuning out in response to the damning evidence of the relationship between football and traumatic brain injuries players suffer. But according to several polls, the politicization of the game has soured many fans, as the action on the field took a backseat to debates over pregame national anthem protests....