1. I know the NFL is king. You know the NFL is king. We all know the NFL is king.
Having said that, every now and then, I still like highlighting just how dominant the NFL is in this country when it comes to television ratings.
Two weeks ago, I told you that on a Saturday night, an NFL preseason game between the Seahawks and Steelers on the NFL Network had more viewers than a Yankees–Red Sox on Fox in the same time slot. And this is despite the NFL Network being in 40 million fewer homes than Fox.
The Steelers are a major preseason draw—their game against the Lions on CBS this past Sunday drew nearly six million viewers. It was the most-watched preseason game so far and the most-watched NFL preseason game on CBS since 2013.
Some context on Lions-Steelers drawing 5.8 million viewers on a summer Sunday afternoon for a game that doesn’t count:
The MLB All-Star Game drew 7.5 million viewers.
Fox’s Field of Dreams game drew 3.1 million viewers.
Saturday’s Nebraska-Northwestern game on Fox drew 4.4 million viewers.
More context on how absurd the Lions-Steeles rating is via Sportico’s Anthony Crupi: The game outdrew Game 6 of the Stanley Cup Finals.
Why did Lions-Steelers do so well? In my opinion, a combination of things:
As I said, the Steelers are a big factor here. They are a team with national appeal. There was probably interest in seeing first-round pick Kenny Pickett, too.
The Lions are the team featured on Hard Knocks this season and their coach Dan Campbell has a cult following.
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Plus: gambling has become legalized in more states since the end of last season. New York got legalized sports gambling in January and is bringing in more money than any other state.
In May 2021, the NFL signed new television deals with CBS, NBC, Fox, ESPN and Amazon collectively worth about $110 billion over 11 years.
It’s not hard to figure out why all those companies shelled out all that cash.
2. It was revealed Monday that The Pat McAfee Show is no longer airing on SiriusXM. The show still continues on YouTube. McAfee told the New York Post‘s Andrew Marchand that SiriusXM “never made an offer to continue our partnership” and there are “no ill feelings” between the two. Given McAfee’s massive popularity, I would expect his show to find an audio home soon.
3. At Monday’s Brewers game, one fan named Mark got some terrible news via the stadium’s scoreboard.
In addition to Mark getting rejected in front of the entire stadium, the Brewers were also down 5–3 at the time. However, Milwaukee rallied for a 7–5 win, and Christian Yelich gave credit to Mark.
4. Since I started writing a daily column for SI.com a million years ago, I’ve always said that I’m a huge fan of Chris Berman. So I love that Bill Belichick loves Chris Berman.
5. I’d love to know whether LeBron ever wears that shirt out in public. I hope he does.
6. This week’s SI Media Podcast features two interviews.
First up is WWE universal champion Roman Reigns. Reigns opens up about Vince McMahon’s controversial retirement from the company, what McMahon’s departure means for him personally, his new part-time schedule and a possible WrestleMania match against The Rock. Reigns also explains the differences between getting a pop from a promo and a move, discusses the challenges of fatherhood and shares his reaction to seeing his “Acknowledge Me” boxer briefs, sold on WWE.com, for the first time.
Following Reigns, Andy Staples, who covers college football for The Athletic, joins the podcast to talk about the Big Ten’s recent media deals with CBS and NBC, what it means for college football viewers and how it impacts the SEC. Staples also talks about whether USC and UCLA have impact across the country, the future of the Pac-12 Network, Urban Meyer’s return to Fox’s pregame show, the Netflix Manti Te’o documentary and more.
You can listen to the podcast below or download it on Apple, Spotify and Google.
You can also watch the SI Media Podcast on YouTube.
