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Super Bowl LIX media preview: Tom Brady, record audience, Terry Bradshaw’s future and more

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Super Bowl LIX media preview: Tom Brady, record audience, Terry Bradshaw’s future and more

Richard Deitsch and Andrew Marchand are sports media writers for The Athletic. They converse every couple of weeks on sports media topics. This week, they discuss the Super Bowl from a media perspective, including:

  • Tom Brady’s Super Bowl broadcaster debut
  • Viewership potential for the game
  • The future of Super Bowl pregame shows
  • Netflix becoming an NFL player

Richard Deitsch: I’m seeing Tom Brady in my sleep given how much this site has written about him over the past five months. But here’s the reality: We both agreed prior to the start of the NFL season that Brady’s debut as a Fox NFL analyst was the biggest sports media story of the NFL season.

My thesis has always been that Brady’s broadcasting year would ultimately be judged by the viewing public on how he performs in the Super Bowl. That’s the final test, but it’s more than a test: It is the football public’s ultimate engagement with Brady in his first year on TV.

We both know that his Fox Sports bosses and sports television executives look at it differently. They will judge him on progress from Week 1 to Week 21. Fox believes he has improved significantly throughout the season.

However, there will be 115 million-plus people watching Brady on Sunday. That is an enormous jury. How do you see this?

Andrew Marchand: I agree, but there are several different audiences for the Super Bowl:

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There are the hardcore fans there every week that produce the 15 (million) to 35 million or so viewers for games each week. The more casual fans that begin watching in the playoffs push the numbers into the 40 (million) and 50 million range. Then comes Super Bowl viewers.

The deciders are that first group, as they care much more about the broadcast. The other two groups may have some opinions, but ultimately will likely just be impressed that Brady is on the call.

If he does amazing or has an awful performance, then all three sets will chime in. He is way better than Week 1, but he’s not John Madden just yet.

If he has a “16-for-24, two touchdowns and one interception” performance, I think Fox would take it. They would love “400 yards and five touchdowns,” but I don’t think they will be greedy.


AM: How many eyes do you think will be watching this game?

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RD: The current viewership record came last year when an audience of 123.4 million viewers watched the Kansas City Chiefs beat the San Francisco 49ers in overtime. That topped the previous record of 115.1 million viewers for the Kansas City-Philadelphia Eagles matchup two years ago.

Look, there is no Chiefs fatigue; the data does not lie. The AFC Championship Game averaged 57.7 million viewers, the most-watched AFC title game in history. If this game is tight late — and I think it will be — I think we see a new record. Put me down for 124 million. You?

AM: This is a bad omen for Fox — we agree! I’m going 124.5 million viewers and a record.

You are on point on the fact that Chiefs fatigue is overrated. Viewers like the big-name teams, and Kansas City is going for history (three Super Bowl championships in a row) with maybe the greatest quarterback ever.

There may be some hate watching, but the people who have such strong feelings are watching no matter what. The records come at the edges, and I think Fox and the NFL pick that up.

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AM: How about the pregame show? You into it? Or a big waste of time?

It could be the last Super Bowl pregame show for Jimmy Johnson and Terry Bradshaw. After two of the last three Super Bowls because of the new TV contracts with the NFL, Fox won’t have the big game for four years as it is NBC (2026), ABC/ESPN (2027), CBS (2028) and then Fox in 2029.

RD: So here is the interesting thing with NFL pregame shows: They continue to draw more viewers than you might think.

For instance, “Fox NFL Sunday” averaged 4.42 million viewers this season. You can make a lot of advertising money off those numbers. I mean, if “First Take” averaged 600,000 viewers over a year they would hold a Rose Bowl parade in Bristol, Conn.

I find the pregame shows increasingly less relevant these days with younger viewers. We also don’t often see them pop on social media, the coin of the realm for young people.

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Fox Sports clearly will be bringing in younger staffers soon, but the NFL pregame show often feels like a relic of a different time. I’ll watch because we get paid to watch, but I find it less interesting every year.


RD: One of the things I get asked about from a lot of readers is whether a Super Bowl will ever go behind a paywall where a Netflix buys it.

I don’t think this happens in our lifetime. Now, if you asked me whether I can see a Netflix or Amazon have the divisional playoffs in the next 20 years, I absolutely see it. What about you?

AM: I’m more bullish on this lifetime, but I’d like to know how long that means. Amazon and Netflix are thinking big, global.

The NFL can have Roger Goodell do songs and dances about the fans this and the fans that, but if the digital players offer way more money, I could see Amazon or Netflix having a Super Bowl maybe when the NFL opts out of its current TV deals. I don’t think that is a wild thought in four or five years when those opt-outs happen.

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If broadcast TV gets significantly weakened over time, I think the idea of a subscription-based Super Bowl becomes more likely. It really depends on where The Great Rebundling takes place and how strong the networks can continue to be. But in a TV-by-subscription world, it’s hard not to bet on Netflix’s and Amazon’s long-term models for big events if they want more.

(Illustration: Demetrius Robinson / The Athletic; Sam Hodde/Getty Images, Mikayla Schlosser/Kansas City Chiefs via AP, Kara Durrette via AP)

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Puka Nacua 'hoping for the best' after Cooper Kupp said Rams will try to trade him

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Puka Nacua 'hoping for the best' after Cooper Kupp said Rams will try to trade him

Cooper Kupp earlier this week broke the news that he had been informed he is now on the trade block.

Apparently, it is a matter of when, not if, the Los Angeles Rams will trade the 2021 receiving Triple Crown winner, as Kupp said the team will look to trade him “immediately.”

After his OPOY-winning season, Kupp has been riddled with injuries, having yet to play more than 12 games in his last three seasons and not crossing the 1,000-yard threshold.

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Puka Nacua #17 of the Los Angeles Rams and Cooper Kupp #10 before a game against the Minnesota Vikings at SoFi Stadium on October 24, 2024 in Inglewood, California.  (Harry How/Getty Images)

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Kupp was a third-round pick by the Rams in 2017, so it’s surely odd to think of him elsewhere, but that appears to be the likelihood.

The Rams may be just fine with the emergence of Puka Nacua, but the 2023 Offensive Rookie of the Year would still be losing his counterpart.

“I love that guy Coop. I’m blessed to be around him the past two years for the start of my career,” Nacus told Fox News Digital down in New Orleans. “I’ll be super excited to watch Cooper Kupp back out there on the field and play the game of football. He does that at such a high level and does it the right way. I love that guy and hoping for the best.”

Cooper Kupp celebrates touchdown with Tyler Johnson

Los Angeles Rams wide receiver Cooper Kupp (10) celebrates a touchdown against with wide receiver Tyler Johnson (18) during the second half at Ford Field in Detroit on Sunday, September 8, 2024. (IMAGN)

HOW TO WATCH SUPER BOWL LIX BETWEEN CHIEFS, EAGLES STREAMED ON TUBI

Kupp made the announcement on social media earlier this week.

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“I was informed that the team will be seeking a trade immediately and will be working with me and my family to find the right place to continue competing for championships. I don’t agree with the decision and always believed it was going to begin and end in LA.,” he wrote.

“Still, if there’s one thing that I have learned over the years: there are so many things that are out of your control, but it is how you respond to these things that you will look back on and remember.

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Super Bowl LIX will be streamed on Tubi. (Tubi)

I have taken so much pride in playing alongside my teammates for the LA community, so thank you for embracing my family and making this such a special place for us. 2024 began with one of the best training camps of my career. Preparations start now for 2025. Highly motivated, as healthy as ever, and looking forward to playing elite football for years to come. Love you guys… But coming for it all.”

Follow Fox News Digital’s sports coverage on X, and subscribe to the Fox News Sports Huddle newsletter.

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Dana Stubblefield released from prison after recent reversal of rape conviction

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Dana Stubblefield released from prison after recent reversal of rape conviction

Dana Stubblefield was granted his release from custody more than four years after the former NFL star was convicted of rape and more than six weeks after that conviction was reversed by a California appellate court because of “racially discriminatory language” used by the prosecution during the trial.

California Superior Court Judge Hector Ramon made the ruling Friday in Santa Clara, allowing Stubblefield his freedom, without having to post cash bail, while authorities weigh whether to refile charges. Stubblefield is required to wear an ankle monitor, cannot possess firearms and is not allowed to contact his accuser.

“We expect him to be home tonight,” Allen Sawyer, one of the attorneys who represented Stubblefield, told The Times by phone. “As my partner said, he’ll be having a late dinner with his kids.”

Santa Clara County assistant district attorney Terry Harman released a statement to The Times :

“A jury unanimously found Mr. Stubblefield guilty of raping a woman at gunpoint, he was given an appropriate sentence, and we felt that justice had been served. That justice has been interrupted and although we are disappointed that the judge released Mr. Stubblefield from custody while we await a decision from the California Supreme Court, we remain focused on the sexual assault that occurred, the victim, and the need for accountability and community safety.”

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Stubblefield, a former defensive player of the year who spent 11 seasons with the San Francisco 49ers, Washington Redskins and Oakland Raiders, was charged in May 2016 with raping a woman at gunpoint the previous year. During his trial, Stubblefield’s defense argued the sex was consensual.

In October 2020, Stubblefield was sentenced to 15 years to life in prison after a jury found him guilty of forcible rape, forcible oral copulation and false imprisonment, and that he used a firearm in committing the first two offenses.

The Sixth District Court of Appeal reversed Stubblefield’s conviction in December based on the California Racial Justice Act of 2020, which prohibits judges, attorneys and law enforcement officers, among others, from exhibiting “bias or animus towards the defendant because of the defendant’s race, ethnicity, or national origin.”

The appellate court’s decision was based on language used in the prosecution’s closing argument, citing concerns over Stubblefield’s status as a famous Black man as a reason police didn’t search his home for a gun.

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