The numbers game anomaly of the Super Bowl

The hype is finally over.

The Super Bowl – the NFL title game and glittering case study in American excess – is upon us. More than 100 million people - hundreds if not thousands of Bermuda islanders among them - are expected to tune in. What started out as a game between two rival leagues that couldn’t even sell out the Los Angeles Coliseum has evolved into much more than an NFL game. It is a spectacle. There are lists dedicated to the best Super Bowl halftime shows ever. There is considerable anticipation about the commercials.

Why the hype?  The easy answer is in the numbers:

For each of the last four Super Bowls, more than 100 million American viewers tuned in. The 2012 iteration of the game was the most watched Super Bowl in history, drawing more than 167 million worldwide. Only the UEFA Champions League Final, which drew  roughly the same amount  of viewers, could match the popularity of that event. The Champions League Final is the only annual sporting event that consistently pulls more viewers than the final game of the NFL season.

The better question – the one that’s harder to answer – is how did the Super Bowl become this huge?

 The Champions League popularity is easy to explain: football is the world’s most popular sport, with an estimated 270 million in more than 200 countries actively involved in the game, meaning they play, coach or referee at some level. That’s about 4 per cent of the world’s population.

American football, on the other hand, doesn’t have nearly as large pool of participants. A fact that may surprise you: the majority of Americans have never played the game. A 2011 poll shows that of America’s 7.6 million high school athletes, about 1.1 million played American football. That figure meant the sport was the most popular in that age bracket for the 12th consecutive year. But it also showed that about six of out seven high school athletes in the states don’t play the game.

 Many fans will watch their favorite teams religiously, but don’t fully understand the intricacies of the tactics and strategy. My mother, for instance, watches every Patriots game back home in Massachusetts, but she couldn’t tell you a thing about a Cover-2 defense or the art of a bubble screen.

Lack of understanding hasn’t hurt the NFL.  The league is as popular as ever. A recent Harris Poll shows the NFL is the most popular sports league in America for the 30th consecutive year. Advertising during the Super Bowl costs more than $133,000 per second.

That’s to say nothing of the Super Bowl as a global phenomenon. According to the NFL, it’s broadcast to more than 200 nations. Bermuda is no different. Multiple bars and hospitality businesses on the island are promoting the Super Bowl as a game that should be experienced with family and friends. The message is straightforward: It is an event. However, there’s no real organic connection to the game outside of North America; it’s not like people in Belgium grow up going to their school’s American football games on Friday nights in the autumn.

But yet the league, and its signature event, endure. How?

Some point to the event’s over-the-top, excessive nature. The whole “sport-as-American-spectacle” thing. Or maybe it’s all the gambling. The Super Bowl prop bets seem to get more ridiculous ever year. Others say it’s as simple as the decisiveness of the contest. One game for the league title. The other 31 teams are left with nothing.  The answer probably lies in a combination of those factors.

But any explanation of the Super Bowl’s popularity would be remiss without mention of former NFL Commissioner Pete Rozelle. Rozelle, in many ways, built the league. Rozelle was instrumental in creating the Super Bowl and ultimately merging the AFL and the NFL. He created Monday night football. He also landed massive television contracts that expanded the league’s revenues and popularity.  According to ESPN, the NFL had 12 teams worth about $1 million apiece when Rozelle started his term as commissioner in 1960. When he left in 1989, there were 28 teams, most worth more than $100 million.

Rozelle’s explanation of football’s popularity was simple: it offered an entertaining distraction from the problems of everyday life.

"People are interested in pro football because it provides them with an emotional oasis,” he once said.

For millions around the world, tonight is the season’s ultimate distraction.