Tom vs. Patrick -- Super Bowl LV thread

A pirate looks at 75.

 

Seriously, how long until Nantz just takes his Bruno Magli off and just starts beating him over the head with it?

 

Nantz wears OJ shoes?

 

I can see how this would've been a weird Super Bowl, viewership-wise. It was a strange year and a strange season. I'm not at all sure that everyone who would've normally followed the NFL all season, actually did so. There was definitely less run-up, publicity-wise, and excitement-wise, to the Super Bowl this year than there probably ever has been before. I know from working in my store that a lot of people barely even knew it was Super Bowl Sunday, or who was in it. I know we had nothing, merchandise-wise, in terms of Super Bowl-, or even football-themed inventory this year, and that's unusual.

I have to admit that even I barely followed the football season this year. And yet, I was really happy to just sit down, sit back, and watch a good football game. And I did, and I really enjoyed it, despite the relative one-sided-ness of it. It just felt good, and I even sat there, thinking just that to myself. Maybe that was just because I appreciated it, and had maybe missed football more than I realized. But there probably weren't as many people as usual who did that this season. Football -- sports -- is just not what people have been thinking about, or following, lately.

 

Viewership is down for every sport across the board since the start of the pandemic. There is zero point into reading into those numbers as some sort of cataclysmic change. To JC's point, it will still be the most watched show in television by a mile this year. I have no idea if the numbers will stabilize once people are actually allowed to gather and watch the games in person again. They will probably never reach the levels they were even five years ago because as had been noted, kids these days don't grow up obsessing over sports like they did when I was young. What the hell else did you do in the 1980s? We watched sports. We went outside to play sports. We didn't have a million channels or streaming options. We didn't have social media. We had video games but nothing like we have today. Everything has changed in that regard, so those who write about sports ratings would be wise to find different ways to define sports viewership.

I wonder how much the widespread proliferation of sports gambling will change things. How long ago was it that you could only go to an actual casino in Nevada to bet on sports? I didn't do a deep dive on the regional SB numbers but I wouldn't be surprised if Virginia was way up there just with the recent emergence of legalized sports gambling in the state.

 

No wonder Millennials don't have any wealth. They're always buying shit.

Millennials own less than 5% of all U.S. wealth

 

Same as every other generation in human history.

 

As did every CBS affiliate that had a news show right after the game.

 

Excellent post.

And not only has technology changed, sports fans' attention spans have, too. I can't think of the last time I watched an entire baseball game, from first pitch to final out. It was before I lived here in the Northwest, and we moved here in 2009. I used to be a huge baseball fan.

Even when my wife and kids "watch" sports, they're looking at their phone for at least half the time, or getting up to check on/do something. When you add the sharp decline in socializing around this year's Super Bowl, it would be shocking if viewership WASN'T down a great deal.

 

Was there anyone on the board who didn't think the game was over when Andy Reid and the refs gave Tampa Bay that free TD at the end of the first half? Well, I bet many millions of viewers came to the same conclusion and found something else to do. Look, watching the tube or computer screen or phone is ALL the entertainment option we've had for almost a year. We're both sick of it and jaded. If the show ain't boffo, off it goes.

 

I thought it was Kaepernick's fault.

 

The Tampa Bay receivers need to get a little more exposure to Division II and III quarterbacks, because they were in awe of what Mahomes was doing out there. Dummies.