News You Can't Use: Tom Brady on NFL Ratings: I Don't Follow the NFL Like I Used To

Primetime television ratings for the NFL declined by nearly 10% on average last season, after declining the previous season as well.

Extremely rich and completely awful human beings might be slightly less rich as a result. Concerned?

The dip prompted a national debate over the causes: bad games; too many games; Trump’s angry tweets; outrage over players kneeling in protest; domestic violence scandals; or too many injuries.

There were so many games, they were all bad, our President was on Twitter, everyone is hurt...time to turn off the electronic toilet.

On Tuesday, New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady, arguably the biggest current active star in the sport, gave his take when asked by interviewer Jim Gray at the Milken Institute.

I guess we could have talked to some of the fans that tuned out, but Brady has this really cool mansion and we got to hang out in it.

“There’s so much for us to consume, as we all know,” Brady said. “There’s so much happening… I hate to say it: I don’t follow it like I used to, because, so many other things to follow."

I nominate "There's so much to consume" as America's new national motto.

There’s a lot more competition today than there’s ever been, I think, especially with social media, for people to consume information or to consume content.

This sentence doesn't make much sense, but consider all the buzzwords and pandering to current fads.

The NFL has had a great product, people love watching the game. I think it’s still doing better than every other program out there. But compared to a time when there was less things to do, it doesn’t live up to those standards.

I mean, Americans are so active now. Everyone's exercising, exploring nature, reading books, spending time with their children. I'm not serious, of course.

Of course, Brady has been at the center of a number of NFL public issues over the last few seasons, first for his role in “Deflategate,” the league’s investigation into whether Brady had Patriots employees remove air from footballs for him, and then for his public friendship with Donald Trump, who railed against NFL team owners last season for allowing players like Colin Kaepernick to kneel in protest during the national anthem.

Being friends with a mainstream politician who got elected to the highest office in the land is now a "public issue."

For Brady to say that he personally follows the rest of the NFL less than he used to is sure to grab attention—perhaps especially at league headquarters, where Commissioner Roger Goodell and other execs are eager to quash any notion that interest in pro football is on the decline.

Please ignore the objective statistical data that clearly shows this decline.

You might think the NFL won’t be pleased to hear one of its biggest stars say he follows his own sports less than in the past. On the other hand, Brady’s comment blames the ratings dip on a phenomenon that is hurting all live sports, rather than blaming the NFL itself.

Tom Brady isn't watching the basketball either.

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Aaron Zehner is the author of "The Foolchild Invention" available in paperback and e-book format. Read free excerpts here and here.