Photo Credit: Andrew Weber/USA TODAY
In the past couple of years, the NFL has been the number one ranked sport in America. The sport gets its own shows on ESPN and endless coverage, even during the offseason, on SportsCenter. There are dozens of sportswriters who focus solely on the sport throughout the entire year.
Last year’s Super Bowl live stream on FOX Sports was the most watched live streamed sporting event in the United States ever, with an average audience 528,000 viewers per minute. Even on local radio stations, its local football teams get the most attention. And why is that? The fans, that’s why. Fans of the NFL and its teams are so invested and so widespread that it requires all of this attention.
But how much attention is too much? Starting after the Championship games on January 18th, ESPN started advertising that there would be a total of 85 hours of coverage the week leading up to the Super Bowl. Between a scandal surrounding the New England Patriots and the Seattle Seahawks making it for the second year in a row, air time hasn’t been difficult to fill.
But there needs to be a line drawn somewhere. Starting in 2011 with The Black Eyed Peas, Super Bowl halftime performers have been getting their own press conferences. While performing at halftime of the Super Bowl is the gig of a lifetime for artists, their own press conference is taking it a bit too far.
Halftime performers are great for getting non-football fans to watch the game and boost ratings, but avid fans who wait all season for this are the ones watching all the coverage. From now on, the media should just keep the fans informed of what is going on with the SuperBowl teams.Â
