Fact:
When the main act defiantly tells Americans they have four months to learn Spanish and later claims he will also perform in a dress as a sign of solidarity with the Alphabet Club, that act isn’t trying to be a unifying act. This goes against one of the tenets of what the NFL preaches vis-à-vis “love wins” and other third grade level mantras. Obviously, BB just needed attention or a hug from his father since he walked back his claims and decided to throw in some English phrases.
The only tenet the NFL has is "more money." Goodell probably accomplished what he wanted in having controversy over the halftime show. Most of the time I think courting controversy is a dumb business decision, but I don't think this one was at all. They've already done what they can to antagonize people. The people that claim to care are still apparently coming back for more. The NFL needs to keep growing revenue and they have more or less saturated the US market and can't realistically have strong growth here. Yes, the population is growing, but it's still somewhat shocking they've been able to maintain even meager growth in superbowl ratings until the last few years. There is a lot more fragmentation and realistically, the only way for them to grow is to grow in international markets.
I literally didn't watch a single play of the superbowl this year. I watched enough of the halftime show to catch that there were apparently technical issues (I assume it was them and not the TVs), but I was still somewhere with several TVs tuned into the halftime show. I'd say probably 10-15% of the people were watching the game and/or commercials. I'd love to know how many superbowl parties are similar and whether that is really any different from years past. I used to actually watch the game, even after I'd stopped paying attention to pro sports. But even when I watched, there were a lot of people at whatever party I was at not paying attention, so I'm not sure if that's just me moving groups or being a general trend.
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