Bre Payton’s report at the Federalist website echoes the recent argument from Jon Pritchett and Ed Tiryakian: It’s bad business to mix left-wing politics and sports.

Americans are so sick of football athletes protesting the national anthem, they’re watching fewer NFL games on TV. A recent poll by J.D. Power found that national anthem protests topped the list of reasons why fewer Americans are watching less football these days, ESPN reports.

Twenty-six percent of those who watched fewer games said they did so because of NFL players, like Colin Kaepernick, who refused to stand while the national anthem is sung at the start of each game.

This should come as no surprise to anyone whose paid any attention to the increasing politicization of sports coverage. ESPN has been hemorrhaging viewers over the past year, due in no small part to its decision to push political messaging every chance it gets and minimize its conservative-leaning talent.

The network also told its staff to get more political in response to Donald Trump, then sidelined one of its hosts — a black, conservative woman — after she spoke out against protestors for making a ruckus at airports in opposition to the president’s travel ban.