Why are ratings of all sports down? Is it possible that viewers do not want to see racist players get paid to promote their political views?

Why are you so stupid that you would accuse a victim of racism of being a racist? It's ALMOST as if you're projecting your own failures upon others much like your failed leader trump does. 

Watching the game with a group of friends, with fellow fans, is a lot more compelling than watching the game at home. When there are significantly fewer people going to 

"watch the game together" gatherings then there is significantly less interest in the games themselves. 

Maybe the fans are like my dog and they finally got tired of watching a ball being thrown around?

I suppose that is a possibility.  I doubt very much it is the actual cause.  Not all sports have such overt displays of political ideas related to race relations, yet all sports appear to be suffering loss of viewers.

We should drop out of the Olympics. Americans hate each other.