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🎤 QUICK START ✍️

🏈 Aaron Rodgers and the New York Jets are heading to splitsville. One reason why may be new coach Aaron Glenn wanting Rodgers to report to work during the offseason and stop his appearances on The Pat McAfee Show, according to Dianna Russini.

🏀 Brian Windhorst could not believe Stephen A. Smith seriously suggested the Lakers sign Dwight Howard, who last played in the NBA three seasons ago, to fill their center void. What’s George Mikan up to these days?

🏈 Greg Olsen’s outspokenness about losing out to Tom Brady has a supporter in Phil Simms, who knows from experience how hard it is to claim a top analyst job covering the NFL.

🖥️ Vox/SB Nation is enduring more layoffs, this time at their Secret Base sports video platform.

🚨LEADING OFF 🚨

Super Blowout, Super Ratings

The final numbers are in (we think), and Fox set a new American television record with 127.7 million viewers for Super Bowl LXIX, where the Philadelphia Eagles smashed the Kansas City Chiefs 40-22 in a game that wasn’t that close.

The 127 million easily surpasses last year’s previous record for the Chiefs’ win over the 49ers in overtime that garnered 123.4 million viewers.

Given the blowout nature of the game and all the concern about Chiefs fatigue, it might be a surprise that Super Bowl 59 was still able to set a viewership record. We’re talking about a game that was 24-0 at halftime. The only drama left when Kendrick Lamar took the field was whether or not he would actually go all in at Drake with “Not Like Us.”

However, the NFL and Fox are still celebrating despite having a non-competitive Super Bowl, thanks to a few factors that worked in favor of this year’s big game.

Nielsen - The ratings measurement standard boosted the NFL when it expanded its out-of-home viewership numbers to the whole country this year. OOH viewership is a relatively new phenomenon (since 2020) and makes comparing ratings numbers a bit obsolete beforehand. No one benefits from these calculations more than sports and the Super Bowl in particular. Had previous games had the full benefit of OOH measurement, who knows which game would actually have the record.

Tubi - The FAST platform flies under the radar for pretty much all sports media discussions, but it is a popular destination, counting more users than Paramount+, Peacock, or Max. It bolstered overall Super Bowl viewership, with a whopping 14.5 million viewers.

Gambling - When DeAndre Hopkins caught a TD with under 3 minutes left to cut the Eagles’ lead to 40-12, it had no impact whatsoever on the Super Bowl result. But it was IMPORTANT TO SOME, as the saying goes. Combine gamblers sweating the 48.5-point total with millions of same-game parlays and promo bettors out there, and there was still a huge audience locked in until the final seconds.

It doesn’t appear like there will be anything left to juice the viewership numbers for next year, so maybe a closer game will do a bigger number in Super Bowl 60. But the age of exponential increases for the Super Bowl may be coming to an end.

📣 SOCIAL EXPERIMENT 🌟

Austin Reaves is not only taking a starring role with the Lakers; he is expanding his vocabulary as well. He needs to listen to some Knicks broadcasts with Walt Frazier to take the next step forward.

WWE fans are unhappy with the group behind the company’s entrance themes, Def Rebel, saying that their songs are far too generic and forgettable. And now the digs about WWE themes are making it all the way to Pat McAfee on commentary.

We’re not sure this apology from Rockets announcer Ryan Hollins was truly necessary, but we appreciate the extra sensitivity around Gradey Dick’s name.

🔦 IN THE SPOTLIGHT ☀️

Dan Orlovsky has not been shy about his ambitions to either get into coaching or get a top game analyst job. With his time at ESPN now firmly up in the air, Bristol may need to prioritize it to keep their star analyst on board. But with the millions spent on Pat McAfee and Jason Kelce while trying to keep Stephen A. Smith, will they break the bank once again for the former Lions quarterback to give him no other option but to stay?

🏄 CHANNEL SURFING 🌊 

✍️ John Ourand reports the long speculated ESPN-NFL equity deal could be back on with ESPN potentially acquiring NFL Media assets like NFL Network and NFL RedZone. [Puck]

✍️ ESPN and Top Rank Boxing are coming to the end of their partnership of almost a decade, according to Ryan Glasspiegel. Where the boxing promotion goes next is an open question. [Front Office Sports]

✍️ A team of authors at Sportico breakdown the sale of the Minnesota Timberwolves to Fox MLB analyst Alex Rodriguez and Mark Lore, ending a lengthy dispute with former owner Glen Taylor. [Sportico]

🗣️ NBC NFL analyst Cris Collinsworth shared with Kay Adams that he wishes we would have seen a Lions-Eagles matchup in this year’s playoffs. Could that be the 2025 season opener? [Up and Adams]

🔀 Front Office Sports has made plenty of additions recently, but longtime reporter AJ Perez announced on Tuesday that he is departing the company. [AJ Perez]

📺 WHAT TO WATCH 📺 

YouTube is not just for streaming on phones, tablets, and computers. In YouTube CEO Neil Mohan’s annual letter, he says, “YouTube is the new television” because of how many people are now watching the video platform on their big screens. Incredibly, televisions are now the primary viewing device for YouTube. [YouTube]

🔥THE CLOSER🔥

If loving you is wrong, I don’t want to be Wright

First Things First with Nick Wright, Kevin Wildes, and Chris Broussard has slowly turned into one of the best shows on sports television. And to their credit, the show has successfully ridden the wave of Wright being a massive Kansas City Chiefs homer as they have established the next great NFL dynasty.

So, when the Eagles blew out the Chiefs in Super Bowl 59, Monday’s show began as appointment television. Thankfully, it did not disappoint.

First Things First went ridiculously over the top, trolling its star with confetti, a marching band, breakdancers, and a choir to serenade Nick Wright in commemoration of the Chiefs laying an egg in search of a three-peat. It was a thing of beauty.

Homerism is always a difficult thing to tackle in sports media. Do you acknowledge it? Do you play into it? Do you run from it? Few are ever able to strike the right notes and tones. Mike Greenberg’s existential angst over the Jets can get wearisome, Kirk Herbstreit’s tortured relationship with Ohio State can get too personal, and Stephen A. Smith’s Knicks fandom can take over entire broadcasts.

But Wright and First Things First have continued to find the right note in not only acknowledging his Chief's homerism but, most importantly, having fun with it. And isn’t that what sports is supposed to be all about? The only thing that could make it better is if First Things First interrupts any Chiefs talk in the offseason with their Super Bowl lowlights to remind Nick Wright of just how bad this big game performance was.

Because after years of him shoving the Chiefs in America’s face, he definitely deserves it.