About an hour ago

Sports have nowhere to go but up.

That’s as in up in the ratings. Actually, they could go down a little bit and become lower rated than the pharmaceutical industry and the federal government.

We’re not talking about TV ratings here. We’re talking about Gallup’s annual survey of Americans’ views of various business and industry sectors.

Sports had the biggest drop from last year and finished ahead of only the drug companies and the federal government.

Farming and agriculture is No. 1 for first time in the 20 years Gallup has been doing the survey. The grocery industry was second, and restaurants were third.

Sports finished 23rd, below lawyers and the oil and gas industry.

Industries were ranked total positive, neutral and total negative. Farming is 69% total positive, 19% neutral and 11% total negative for a score of plus-58.

The sports industry ratings dropped more than any other in the last year. The positive rating dropped 15 points from 45% to 30%. The negative went from 25% to 40%.

So sports now have a minus-10 rating.

What happened?

Maybe mixing politics with sports wasn’t such a good idea.

There were no sports being played for about three months, and when they returned, there was a major emphasis on sending a message, almost to the point of making the games secondary.

When the Houston Texans and Kansas City Chiefs locked arms in the middle of the field in Kansas City before the season opener Thursday night, many of the 16,000 fans who were allowed to be there booed.

That raised the question among most of the media, “Who boos unity?”

But maybe they weren’t booing unity. Maybe they were saying, “Just give me some football.”

It has been a tough six months for everybody because of the pandemic. Sports are supposed to be an escape. That doesn’t mean the various platforms the leagues and the players have can’t be used to send a nonsports message once in a while, but does the Gallup poll show the point has been made and the messaging has risen to the level of overkill?

If you play politics, then expect politics to be in play.

Democrats view of the sports industry hasn’t changed much in the last year. They went from a plus-16 to a -plus-11, a five-point drop.

Republicans went from plus-11 to minus-35. That’s a 46-point swing.

As Michael Jordan said about shoes, Republicans buy tickets, too. They also watch sports on TV. Or not.

Independents went from plus-26 to minus-10, a 36-point drop.

White Americans dropped from plus-4 to minus-35.

Nonwhite Americans stayed positive but still dropped from plus-51 to plus-16.

If you owned a company with numbers like that, would you be looking for a new marketing director?

It’s only Week 1 for the NFL, and the league didn’t have preseason games to roll out its message so the messaging was expected to be heavy this weekend.

The numbers from Gallup’s survey would seem to indicate it’s time for the NFL and all leagues to get back to focusing the games.

CBS has the right idea. Here’s what CBS Sports chairman Sean McManus said about his plan for onsite game announcers this season: “They are certainly allowed to talk about what’s happening on the field, whether it’s the national anthem or something else with a name or phrase on a player’s jersey or on his shoes.

“They’re free to talk about that, but we’re going to do so objectively. They’re not going to interject their opinion or their philosophy. They’re there to cover the game. But if something else happens to be part of the story, they’re going to tell that story.

“Our announcers on site at the games are not going to condone. They’re not going to condemn what’s going on. They’re going to report it, and they’re going to move on.”

Move on. What a concept.

John Steigerwald is a Tribune-Review contributing writer.

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John Steigerwald Columns | NFL | Sports