Los Angeles hosts the Big Game between the L.A. Rams and Cincinnati Bengals on Sunday at SoFi stadium. In the lead-up to the Big Game—that shall not be named because of trademark infringement—The Los Angeles Times commissioned a poll on attitudes toward the NFL and wokeness. And the news for the league is not good.

The Times’ poll asks about attitudes about the NFL from five years ago and now.

Gee, five years ago. Let’s think.

Five years ago, Colin Kaepernick and his 49ers teammate Eric Reid began kneeling during the National Anthem because they reasoned that the country is unworthy of honor. Kaepernick wore socks depicting police officers as pigs. He said, “I am not going to stand up to show pride in a flag for a country that oppresses black people and people of color.” He knelt on principle, because “to me, this is bigger than football and it would be selfish on my part to look the other way. There are bodies in the street and people getting paid leave and getting away with murder.”

Kaepernick intended to convey the idea that police were purposely hunting black men to murder. Black Lives Matter exploded in popularity.

Since then, the league has fallen all over itself to prove itself woke enough to gain the approval of the BLM crowd.

Holy crap, they made $$$$ off from this??

Terms of the settlement, which could include monetary payments to Kaepernick and Reid, were confidential.https://t.co/92TiC4G4Rs

— Sara Ari Huizenga🌷🇺🇲 (@HuizengaWest) February 8, 2022

The poll shows that, in the last five years, interest in the league has fallen off by more than a third. As many as 38% of men and 29% of women became less enamored of the woke league. People also watched fewer games this season, but 52% of those polled plan to watch the big game on Sunday.

Then the poll asked this question, “Do you think the NFL has done too much, just enough, or not enough to show respect for its black players?”

You’ll notice that 22% believe the NFL did too much “to show respect” to the 75% of the league who are black. The numbers aren’t broken down by political party in the publicly released internal numbers. Apparently, we’re not allowed to see the cross tabs. But this is the headline the LA Times chose to tout the poll: “Many Republicans think the NFL does too much for Black players and are losing interest in the league, poll shows.”

And there you are. The Times tied this increased lack of interest in the NFL not with the anti-American and anti-police messages, but with the color of the players’ skin. Indeed, the feature photo of the story shows Mike Tomlin, the coach of the Pittsburgh Steelers, who is black.

The Survey Monkey poll shows that 45% of Republicans think the NFL has done “too much” to support Black players, while 57% of Democrats say the NFL hasn’t done enough.” You’ll notice that the verbiage has changed from “to show respect” for to “support” the black players, for what that’s worth. The pollster didn’t show their work.

Considering the context, however, it stands to reason that more Republicans than Democrats would be turned off from a game and a league that seems to have turned its back on their country. After all, Democrats were in support of the BLM and Antifa riots after George Floyd’s death in police custody while the GOP and conservatives condemned the violence and generally support police.

Just a few days ago, Kaepernick and Reid settled a lawsuit with the NFL. They “claimed football team owners blackballed them because they had protested racial injustice and police brutality by kneeling during the playing of the national anthem before games.” Reid has been working all along. Kaepernick quit his job with the 49ers and no other team hired him, though he’s had some tryouts.

Terms of the settlement are secret, but the message is clear: the players got a payoff for calling the league racist colluders.

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On a related issue, the poll finds that having to wear a mask and show a vaccine card to see the game in person in L.A. is a major disincentive for going to the game.

And the vast majority say their plans to watch the game haven’t changed due to the pandemic. They’re watching the game from home or a friend’s house and local autocratic rules be damned.

Oh, and one more thing not highlighted. It turns out that 45% of the men and 32% of women think Joe Biden is doing a bad job.

No wonder the L.A. Times tried to depict the people answering the poll as racist.