I am going to tell a story about my weekend...
On Saturday, I woke to the seeing a small flag placed on the front of every lawn in my neighborhood by the local Veterans association within our sub-division.
At 9am I joined our neighborhood Veterans Day 3.1K Run/Trot in our sub-division with chilly 34 degree temperatures. Attendance this year was down to 600 people -- smaller than last years event which was over 1000 in much nicer 65 degree weather. We walked/ran past all the houses, including my own, proudly displaying American flags.
Several veterans organizations had tents at the event. One of them was urging a boycott of NFL games at their booth -- also asking people to sign a petition to send to the NFL commissioner over the disrespect of veterans by players in the NFL.
Later in the day, our neighborhood clubhouse hosted a Veterans gathering and honoring event. Attendance was up over last year. It included a local choir and food that people brought to the event.
My extended neighborhood of over 2000 homes is a mix of retirees in one section and families in another. It is very typical of North Carolina including a neighborhood pool, clubhouse, tennis courts, etc. that we all pay homeowner association dues to support. We regularly host events and have lots of sponsored clubs started by homeowners (everything from a knitting club to a motorcycle club). Our state has over 775K veterans, and many active military and reserve members.
North Carolina has a sizeable military presence and our communities tend to strongly support our military. We may be different than other "blue" states in respecting the views of members who serve in our armed forces --- including the perspective held by the huge majority of military members and veterans that the NFL players are disrespecting their service to our country.
The bottom line is that the NFL has a significant problem and they need to fix it -- no matter the insignificant weekly attendance variations at their games.