It’s prime football-watching season, so why aren’t we tuning in?

We’ve moved past Trump-Hillary and the World Series. Colin Kaepernick and others are still kneeling for the national anthem, though their weighty protest isn’t being picked up as much lately.

This is prime football-watching time. So, why aren’t we?

NFL viewership is down — more than 10 percent — from its traditional perch high atop the sports-viewing landscape. And while this topic has been a source of concern for the league office, the networks and other industry insiders, a list of reasons longer than Tony Romo’s concession speech has been offered up as to why.

Chief among them was the presidential election, which did more than divide a country. It subtracted eyeballs from CBS, NBC, Fox and ESPN. At least that’s what the NFL and its TV partners want us to believe.

“It’s something that we’ve seen before, and we generally know that ratings in all of television are down,” Cowboys owner Jerry Jones said last month. “Relatively speaking, it shouldn’t concern you because we’re down less than anything else in programming, and so that’s about all that I can comment on.

“Some say it’s interest in the politics and I understand that. Some say it may be the lack of premier quarterbacks. Maybe some of them that weren’t premier are becoming premier quarterbacks and people might tune in.”

Maybe Dak Prescott can save NFL ratings, too.

The Chicago Cubs’ return to the Fall Classic also diverted the nation’s attention. The World Series delivered monster ratings — the highest in 15 years for a seven-game series.

Off-the-field issues are also cited for fans tuning out. The non-voting Kaepernick created a maelstrom with what began as a one-man demonstration. Continued bad press from domestic violence disputes, drug-related cases, poor officiating and player-safety concerns have made plenty of headlines.

But doesn’t America still love football?

“If anything would have turned me off this season about the NFL, it would be the never-ending rules that keep getting added,” said football fan Shelbie Warr, 21, of Carrollton. “So many little things like touchdown celebrations and special cleats and such have turned into fines. Football is becoming less and less fun to watch at the professional level.”

Mark Cuban called this ... two years ago. The Mavericks’ owner, Trump-basher and ESPN credential-puller predicted the decline in ratings as a byproduct of the league’s greed.

“I think the NFL is 10 years away from an implosion,” Cuban said in March 2014. “I’m just telling you: Pigs get fat, hogs get slaughtered. And they’re getting hoggy.

“Just watch. Pigs get fat, hogs get slaughtered. When you try to take it too far, people turn the other way. I’m just telling you, when you’ve got a good thing and you get greedy, it always, always, always, always, always turns on you. That’s rule No. 1 of business.”

If anything, Cuban’s prediction was eight years premature. The NFL’s desire to “own” most of the TV-programming week led to what many are labeling an over-saturation of the market.

The addition of Thursday Night Football to the viewing palette hasn’t tasted so good. Matchups this season have been generally panned for their lack of appeal. Jaguars-Titans and Browns-Ravens aren’t exactly must-see TV.

“I have passed on the glut of NFL games,” said Jim Holmes, 55, of Aledo. “I can’t get excited about an hour of commercials to sit through a Browns-Jets snoozer on a Thursday night or get up for a crack-of-dawn Sunday game from London to see the Jaguars. Yawn.”

NFL commissioner Roger Goodell said earlier this month that the league is considering reducing the amount of “dead time, non-action” by speeding up video reviews and cutting back on commercials.

“It’s like a bunch of 80-year-olds with prostate issues,” said Glenn Garoon, 67, of Fort Worth. “Not enough competition, although the Cowboys are an exception.”

Technology also is playing its part in tuning away from traditional sports consumption. Smart phones, tablets and social media offer great convenience for our shorter attention spans.

“One huge culprit is the [NFL Network’s] RedZone channel,” said Patrick Rishe, a sports industry expert and president of the market research firm Sports Impacts. “During the regular season the last five years, I turn on the RedZone channel.

“I don’t watch the full-game broadcast on CBS or Fox on Sundays. I have football ADD, and I suspect many younger viewers are worse. But watching the RedZone doesn’t get reflected in Fox or CBS ratings.”

Those ratings are alarming in many cases. Monday night’s Raiders-Texans matchup of first-place teams drew the lowest Week 11 ratings for ESPN since 2007. The Thanksgiving prime-time game (Steelers-Colts) on NBC was down 26 percent from last year.

Then again, the Cowboys’ 31-26 win over the Redskins averaged 35.1 million viewers, Fox’s most-watched regular-season game ever. The previous most-watched game of the season was Cowboys-Steelers on Nov. 13.

Maybe the answer is more of America’s Team. It can’t hurt.

This story was originally published November 27, 2016 at 4:38 PM with the headline "It’s prime football-watching season, so why aren’t we tuning in?."