The Super Bowl has been an American tradition and is frequently considered the most-watched television broadcast for over 50 years. Dating back to the late 1960s when the Packers trampled the Chiefs 35-10. Every year the TV viewership numbers climb. That very first Super Bowl got over 50 million viewers back in 1967. Last year’s Super Bowl between the Chiefs and the Eagles received over 115 million viewers. The Super Bowl has become more and more popular each year, but there is one thing that needs to change:
The Super Bowl needs to be held on a Saturday night.
Most viewers have everyday things they need to do, such as work and school the following morning. Also, the Super Bowl is a much longer game than any other regular and postseason NFL game, due to the pregame and halftime activities along with the commercials that take place. On average the Super Bowl lasts about 4 hours long, which is over an hour longer than any other NFL game. If the NFL moved this back a day, it would generate more viewers because nobody would worry about staying up too late and getting up early for school or work the next day.
The “real” reason every NFL game isn’t on Saturday, is because it would “overshadow” college football, but let’s be honest this isn’t the main reason. The real reason these leagues are broadcasted on different days is so they can make more money and not lose viewers to the overwhelming amount of good games, which is why the Sports Broadcasting Act of 1961 was created. This act prevents NFL and NCAA games being played at the same time. But, this was created just so both leagues could get a run for there money in a professional way. Since then there have been a large amount Saturday NFL games, but none interfered with the NCAA. Of all those Saturday games, the Super Bowl wasn’t one of them. Aside from all of this, college football ends in early January over a month before the Super Bowl, so therefore there is an opening on Saturday night.
The NFL hasn’t completely shut-out Saturday games quite yet. They started to incorporate some Saturday games every season dating back to 1970. This year half of the playoff games took place on Saturday and the other half on Sunday each week. I, along with other fans, love this new playoff format, but only one thing remains to make it flawless.
Some people may see it as changing history, it is not. It is simply a singular schedule change that will increase viewership and make America’s football fanatics happy once and for all.
