With the Super Bowl LIX matchup set to feature a title game rematch between the Kansas City Chiefs and the Philadelphia Eagles, football fans from around the country are threatening to boycott the NFL’s premiere broadcast. Questionable calls and poor officiating were the main focus of this year’s playoffs. With many of those calls seemingly favoring the Chiefs, fans are less than pleased to see the team make its third-consecutive Super Bowl appearance.
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Whether their complaints stem from poorly timed roughing-the-passer calls, or the inclusion of Taylor Swift in NFL broadcasts, the outcry from fans to boycott the Super Bowl is seemingly louder than ever before. However, some have already been willing to call the fans’ bluff, specifically former player and current ESPN personality, Pat McAfee.
“What are you gonna do?” McAfee challenged. “We will be watching the Super Bowl… I think it got real loud there about the Chiefs [but]… we live in a hater’s society.”
Regardless of what their potential gripes may be, the former punter for the Indianapolis Colts asserted that “At the end of the day… football is the greatest thing on television.” Citing the ever increasing viewership numbers, McAfee believes that “Everything for the NFL is still up and to the right” for a reason.
To McAfee’s credit, he mentioned that the AFC Championship, which featured the Chiefs taking on the Buffalo Bills on January 26, was the second most-watched non Super Bowl game in NFL history. Averaging 57.7 million viewers, it is officially the most-watched AFC Championship game since 1988. Implying that the noise online doesn’t reflect in the viewership numbers, the challenge has officially been laid out for fans to make good on their threats to boycott this year’s game.
Last year’s Super Bowl, which featured the Chiefs going up against the San Francisco 49ers, totaled 123.7 million viewers, making it the most watched broadcast in American history since the moon landing, McAfee highlighted.
After taking a vote amongst the other cast members of the Pat McAfee Show, the crew predicted that this year’s viewership numbers will dip below last years total while maintaining the average of 120 million viewers.
They also concluded the addition of Swift’s attendance at the event will likely lead to an increase in viewership, as it has in the past. However, any additional viewers gained by Swift could be somewhat offset by the aforementioned absence of fans who are disinterested in seeing the pop-music star’s reactions to the game.
As the NFL continues to produce record-breaking viewership numbers and monumental ticket prices with each and every passing Super Bowl, some are beginning to wonder if the event is no longer intended for the “true” football fans who routinely support the league throughout the regular season.
As pop stars and sportsbooks partnerships continue to dominate the conversation, it is likely that those who want to watch simply for their love of the game feel increasingly displaced. Then again, as McAfee questioned, “What are any of us gonna do? We’re gonna not turn on the Super Bowl? Okay.”
