I'll also add that NFL viewership ratings and attendance were in decline before the national anthem kneeling started. I think there are two main causes - CTE and saturation. It used to be I had my local team on one network on Sunday, and no other game at that time, and then the national game at late afternoon. Then the Monday Night Football game. That was it. NFL was true appointment viewing. Now there's a Thursday night game, a second game on when my local team is playhing (or every game if I get the Sunday Ticket), the a Sunday night game, then Monday Night Football, and then after the college conference championships are over, a couple Saturday games. Complete saturation. The casual fan isn't interested in that. The serious fan has now been offended by the kneeling. And then you've got CTE. A lot of casual fans, mothers, etc, won't watch because of that. Now a new leading study has come out saying concussions are irrelevant. It's the repeated hits to the head, whether a concussion results or not, that matter. The XFL will be just more football saturation and the casual fan won't tune it. The XFL is just another opportunity for casual fans to watch men develop CTE. They won't tune in.
College football largely remains appointment viewing. Sure you can tune in to a Maction game on Tuesday or some AAC game on Thursday, but for the most part it is appointment viewing on Saturday. CTE is still an issue, but maybe to the casual fan it seems like college is trying harder to do something about it (ejecting players, changing how and how many days/hours teams practice, etc.)
Too much of something isn't always a good thing.