Poll: 19% of us say we’re not coming back if lockout persists

Nineteen percent of Americans say they're less likely to watch NFL games if a lockout ends up delaying part of the season. The stat comes to us from an Adweek/Harris poll conducted among 2,125 U.S. adults Details:

When Americans were asked how much more or less likely they are, if at all, to watch football when the season begins, two thirds report that they will not be any more or less likely to watch (67%) yet one in five say they will be less likely to watch (19%) with 11% much less likely.� Very few Americans will be more likely to watch (4%) and 10% are not sure.

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Americans who earn less than $35K per year are least likely to say they will be less likely to watch football when the season begins (16%) and those who earn $35K-$49.9K are most likely to say so (21%).� About one in five say so among those who earn $50K-$74.9K (18%) and $75K or more (20%);

What's it mean for the NFL?

Absolutely nothing is my guess. If the results of this poll found their way across the desk of someone in the league office this morning, I'm guessing they were glanced at, elicited a chuckle and were discarded faster than that one memo that read, "Maybe it's time we became genuinely concerned about player safety."

Related: Petition on Yahoo! Sports Facebook to bring back the NFL

Is it news to the NFL that a lockout makes fans angry? Indeed not. That's part of the reason that this whole thing is happening -- the league is betting on the fact that it can jerk us around all it wants, but as soon as games are happening again, we'll be back in front of our televisions and back in its stadiums.

It is�right, too. I suspect that a large number of those 19 percent are fibbing, or at least not very good at predicting their future behavior. We're hooked on NFL football, it knows that, and it�uses it against us. It's�been doing it for years in the form of outrageous ticket, concession and parking prices. It's�also pretty sure we're not going to change the channel during that commercial/kickoff/commercial sequence either. And it's been right.

I'd be all for it if I thought the league was going to lose 1/5th of its viewership, at least temporarily, because it absolutely deserves to. It won't, though. The only way a greedy owner's actions will keep me from watching football when it returns is if Jerry Richardson, Dan Snyder and Zygi Wilf break into my apartment and steal my television.

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