I think the NFL has past the point on equilibrium and now is into the realm of diminishing returns due to oversaturation. The Thursday night games in it's infancy late in the season when college football was essentially over was a breath of fresh air for something to watch on Thursday. Starting last year the quality of the product by having a game every Thursday really decimated the product, when before it seemed the games were tallied up to produce good games with those either in the hunt or rivalry games now it's mainly games no one has interest in seeing unless they're fans of those particular teams. The games have become a debacle, it's just plain bad, you lose viewership that way, you don't gain it. The London games don't bother me so much, I enjoy a 9:30am kickoff regardless of whose playing, kind of when I get to watch MNC on Saturday mornings, its fun and different but again those games are on Sunday. It's rooted in our brains that Sunday is football. The NFL's aggressive attempt to dominate tv all week imo is hurting itself, the players don't want to play Thursday and hell if I know anyone who wants to watch it either.
Another thing, staying away from reasons already stated as I find validity in them all but for me is TACKLING, this is the worst era of tackling I've ever seen, it's atrocious and we could try to decipher whether players are trying to avoid injury, lack of practice, rule changes but there's almost no good tackling teams anymore. I'm not talking about big hits, I'm talking wrap the player up, take the right angle and stop the play. I know it has driven a few of my friends from watching at all anymore.
On a side note, Philly can eat a big fat dead decaying rhino phallus, HTTR !!!!