A new Fox News poll showing increased viewer rejection of the National Football League also revealed that the National Rifle Association is more popular than a collective of protesting players.
According to the poll, which was conducted Oct. 22-24, just 46% of respondents found the league in a favorable light, down from a strong 64% just four years ago.
At the same time, the NRA was seen as more favorable than the NFL, with 49 percent favorability. That may be music to the ears of Second Amendment activists, but Capitol Hill anti-gunners probably won’t care for it.
Worse for the NFL, the new poll reports 41% of people surveyed had an unfavorable view of the NFL, and that number is much higher than in 2013, when only 19% of people viewed the league negatively.
One of the reasons why fans have been jumping ship has been the continued protests by players during the national anthem. According to the Fox News survey, 52% of respondents found the kneeling and other actions by athletes during pregame anthem ceremonies to be inappropriate, to just 44% who agreed with those actions.
As if things weren’t bad enough for high-paid athletes, there’s now another reason that outdoorsmen and recreational shooters, who often listen to NFL games at hunting camps, stop supporting the league: teams advocating against your gun rights.
According to the San Jose Mercury News, the San Francisco 49’ers, winless on the season at 0-6 and whose former quarterback, Colin Kaepernick, started these anthem protests last season, announced Thursday that they have partnered with police unions in several cities to back gun control measures including banning bump stock devices that have been in the news since the mass shootings earlier this month in Las Vegas.
Participating cities include San Jose, Oakland, and Santa Clara, where the team’s stadium in located in the South San Francisco Bay area,
According to the Mercury News, team owner Jed York told reporters at a news conference, “It seems insane to me that a citizen can buy something like that,” adding, “I’m not anti-Second Amendment. This is something that is common sense.”
As part of the efforts, the newspaper reported the ‘Niners pledged $500,000 to a public outreach campaign which will include television and radio public-service announcements.
The Fox News poll sampled the views of just over 1,000 voters, according to Fox, and was jointly conducted by two polling firms, one aligned with Republicans and the other aligned with Democrats. The poll’s margin of error was plus or minus 3%.
