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Feb 19, 2024 4 min read

The National Football League’s 104th season proved professional football is more popular than ever.

When I first became aware of pro football back around 1960, there were only 13 NFL teams. Those 13 teams only played 12 games each. There are now 32 NFL teams. And they each play 17 games.

After 272 games stretched over five and a half months, 31 teams yielded to one champion – the Kansas City Chiefs.

The Super Bowl program was watched by more people than any program in television history. A reported 123.4 million average viewers tuned in to see it. Only the moon landing had more viewers – between 125 and 150 million watched.

Unfortunately, I missed that event on July 20, 1969. I was in this place called Vietnam.

(Don’t thank me for my service. I didn’t do it for you!)

Where were we?

Not only was Super Bowl LVIII the most watched Super Bowl game in history, but it was also nearly the longest – at 4 hours and 6 minutes. But, despite the game going into overtime it wasn’t the longest.

Super Bowl XLVII (47) between the Baltimore Ravens and the San Francisco 49ers went longer, because of a power blackout that lasted for 34 minutes. Thus, that game lasted 10 more minutes than Super Bowl LVIII.

There’s halftime.

Usher.

Or should I say Usher Raymond IV ignited lots of reviews – before and after his 13-minute Super Bowl show?

For those who didn’t like it, I’d suggest you go back and check out all of those “Up with People” halftime extravaganzas.

That’s when Super Bowls were only about football. There weren’t blockbuster epics for commercials, and nuclear-powered pyrotechnics backing performers during intermissions.

Up with People used to be sufficient.

Not anymore.

Usher did just fine.

Pro football found itself within the snares of American politics in September of 2017 when President Trump decided to take on NFL players who took a knee during the playing of the national anthem.

“Wouldn’t you love to see one of these NFL owners when somebody disrespects our flag to say get that son of a bitch off the field right now – out! He’s fired,” he told the assembled Alabamans during a speech that generated a mini-controversy that lasted for weeks.

There were MAGA folks all over the country who swore off the NFL forever, thanks to Trump’s ridiculous crusade.

With more people watching NFL games than ever, those irate Trump followers haven’t gone anywhere. They were just making a lot of noise – just like Trump makes.

But there’s always an NFL controversy lurking.

And hardly anybody can start a fake controversy like Megyn Kelly.

Kelly, you might remember, wasted valuable time when she was a Fox News host in 2013 – educating her audience about the race of Santa Claus.

She took offense to a Black writer’s call for Santas to be depicted in a variety of ethnicities.

You would have thought that writer had tried to steal Kelly’s whiteness from her.

“This is ridiculous, yet another person claiming it’s racist to have a white Santa. And by the way, for all you kids watching at home, Santa just is white,” was Kelly’s lecture that launched a thousand guffaws.

She hadn’t been the least bit aware of the “true” ethnicity of an unreal character. Santa can be whatever race we want him to be – period.

Kelly’s rigid racial tone deafness resurfaced following Super Bowl LVIII.

She took umbrage about the pregame singing of the song “Lift Every Voice and Sing.”

“The so-called Black National Anthem does not belong at the Super Bowl. We already have a national anthem, and it includes everyone,” said Kelly.

Ah, yeah. We do have a national anthem. But the NFL has decided to allow for a variety of voices to be heard on its biggest day.

I wonder how Kelly would feel if that song had been sung – only by a chorus of white Santas?

Ok! The Super Bowl is officially over.

Edward A. Owens is a multi-Emmy Award winner, former reporter, and anchor for Entertainment Tonight, and 50-year TV news and newspaper veteran. E-mail him at freedoms@bellatlantic.net.