The NFL isn't just America's favorite sport. If there were a way to measure it, the NFL would be America's seven favorite sports. Consider this: 72 of the 100 most-watched TV broadcasts in 2024 were NFL games. Read that again. Was that an outlier? Maybe, but not in the direction you thought. The figure was 93 of the top 100 in 2023, when there was no Olympics, no presidential election.
The NFL is King Kong.
For decades, there was a feeling that it was the nation's most popular sport, but baseball was often close behind (or even ahead). The Michael Jordan era pushed the NBA ahead of baseball and optimists could make the case that basketball was on track to ultimately push the NFL as the No. 1 sport.
Two-and-a-half decades into the new century, it's undisputed. The NFL is king of sports. And king of television. And maybe king of culture. Second place among sports? College football.
Which brings the obvious question: Why? Why is the NFL so much more popular than other sports (also including mixed martial arts, golf, tennis, pickleball, hockey and auto racing)?
Allow me to suggest six reasons that we (and by that, I mean you and your friends, not me. I'm an NBA- and baseball-first fan) love the NFL:
1. It's a perfect TV sport. NFL games last approximately three hours, with about 11 minutes of on-field action included within that time. But football's rhythm fits perfectly with the modern smartphone and social media attention span of Americans: One play takes a few seconds, then there's a 30-second break (or more) in which you can digest what happened, watch replays or talk to someone. Then another play. Frequent commercial breaks. A 15-minute halftime. If you asked a neurologist to design the perfect TV show for the modern brain, this would be it.
2. An optimal schedule. NFL teams play once a week, which allows you to be a fully invested fan without having to pay attention every day. Baseball teams play six or seven times a week; NHL and NBA teams play about three times a week. That's a lot of games. The NFL schedule allows you to watch a game one day, talk about it the next, take a break for a few days, then repeat. Also, every game is important in the way that's largely true only in the postseason for baseball, hockey or basketball.
3. It's violent, but not too violent. This obviously is a matter of opinion (Mrs. Brad doesn't like football and an estimated 95% of the time she walks into a room when I'm watching a game results in a season-ending injury to a player), but the NFL has been good about minimizing the obviously dangerous scenarios (penalties for shots to the head, a definition of "defenseless" offensive players, allegedly neutral doctors on the sidelines), while continuing to allow big hits. If we ignore long-term brain injuries, it's not too violent. Nothing to see here, folks. Move along.
4. It's a perfect fantasy sport. Because of the schedule and the simplicity of how fantasy football scoring works (even the complicated rules generally match the eye test for what is worth points), fantasy football is wildly popular. More than twice as many people play fantasy football as play either fantasy basketball or baseball. And playing fantasy football makes you care about every game.
5. Rules changes, analytics make it more interesting. NFL owners know that offense is what attracts fans, so there is a constant evolution to encourage more scoring and more explosive plays. Additionally, when the analytics folks got involved and looked for ways to increase efficiency, the results made the game more exciting. Both baseball and the NBA have to deal with the reality that many things that analytics folks say increase a team's shot at winning often make the game duller.
6. It owns the media. This is general (media companies are dependent on the NFL to drive eyeballs) and literal (the NFL just bought 10% of ESPN, assuring that the country's most important sports journalism organization is a public relations arm of the league). The NFL has media muscle and exercises it. And having games on so many platforms (ESPN/ABC, Fox, CBS, NBC, Amazon, Netflix, YouTube) means that the NFL is promoted everywhere, since those organizations have a built-in incentive to push the league: Ratings.
Reach Brad Stanhope at bradstanhope@outlook.com.
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