WASHINGTON, D.C. (AP) — American football, which has been under fire from critics in recent years, has seen some of its popularity wane, but it remains the most popular spectator sport in the United States, with 37 percent of adults in the country naming it as their favorite to watch. Basketball and baseball are the next most popular sports, with 11 percent and 9 percent, respectively, of the population supporting them.
The 9 percent of Americans who say baseball is their favorite sport to watch is the lowest percentage for the sport since Gallup started asking the question in 1937, according to the most recent data available. Baseball was the most popular sport in the United States in 1948 and 1960, but football surpassed baseball as the most popular sport in 1972 and has remained the public's choice ever since.
Soccer is becoming almost as popular as baseball, if not more so. Seven percent of those polled said it is their favorite sport to watch, the highest percentage for any sport at any time. At least 7 percent of Americans have previously picked a sport other than football, basketball, or baseball as their favorite — and that was motor racing in 1997, according to the Pew Research Center. (Auto racing has dropped to a mere 2 percent of all mentions.)
Despite the fact that football continues to be the most popular sport, its popularity has declined since peaking at 43 percent in 2006 and 2007. When the topic was asked again in 2013, the result was 39 percent, which was the last time the question was posed prior to the December 2017 poll's 37 percent result.
The following are some of the likely explanations for the decline in recent years:
An elevator video showing National Football League running back Ray Rice assaulting his wife and carrying her comatose body out the building stunned the nation in 2014. It brought the already-simmering problem of NFL players' domestic assaults to the forefront of public attention, spurring demonstrations and calls for NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell to be removed from his position.
There have been numerous studies conducted on football or basketball legends players at all levels dating back to the 1990s that have demonstrated the physical and mental toll that concussions have had on them. One of the studies served as inspiration for the film Concussion, which was released in theaters across the country in 2015.
President Donald Trump and conservative pundits were outspoken in their condemnation of NFL players who demonstrated during the pregame playing of the United States national anthem in 2016 and 2017.
An October Gallup poll revealed that the NFL was suffering as a result of the national anthem dispute, which was still ongoing at the time. 57 percent of Americans declared themselves to be supporters of professional football, a decrease of 10 percentage points from the previous time this topic was asked, in December 2012. During the same five-year period, support for the vast majority of other sports, including college football, had remained essentially unchanged.
Football is the most popular sport among all age groups, yet some enjoy it more than others.
The fact that women were less likely than men to choose football as their preferred sport existed even before the issue of players' assaults on women erupted in 2014, and this continues to be true today. However, despite the national-anthem demonstrations of the past two years, conservatives are only somewhat less likely than moderates to support football, and they are significantly more likely than liberals to do so. Parents with children under the age of 18, who could be thought to be the most influenced by the attention surrounding the concussion risks football players face, are about as likely as the rest of the population to choose football as their favorite sport, according to the National Football League.
Meanwhile, the age group most likely to support football is that of 18- to 34-year-olds, who are those who influence the future of spectator sports in general. However, even among these, football outperforms all other sports by a significant margin. Soccer and baseball exhibit significant disparities in attraction based on age, with soccer being more appealing to adults under the age of 55 and baseball being more appealing to individuals 55 and over. Implications
For the past half-century, football has been the most popular spectator sport in the United States, surpassing all others. Even the difficulties it is currently experiencing have had only a minor impact on the chance that Americans will consider it their favorite spectator sport. Despite the fact that Gallup's October poll revealed a decline in the percentage of Americans who say they are fans of professional football, the drop-off did not occur among college football fans, and it is possible that the poll did not include the hardcore NFL fans who consider it their favorite sporting event.
However, the fact that the sport has survived the attacks against it thus far does not imply that it will continue to do so in the long run. Football's relatively low popularity among younger Americans, along with mounting evidence of the physical and mental harm that the activity causes even at the high school level, could imperil the sport's long-term viability in the coming decades, according to experts.
There is one more sad statistic to ponder in relation to all spectator sports in the United States. From 8 percent in 2000 to 15 percent today, the percentage of Americans who say they do not have a favorite sport has increased more than for any other sport during that time period.
