The NFL is becoming so popular that it's scary. Not like a Freddy vs Jason type of scary, but a Frankenstein's monster or Planet of the Apes type of scary. The type of scary that stems from not being able to control a creation and worrying what it will do when it becomes too powerful.
The easiest way to convey to you this scary popularity is through a comparison:
Who is more famous right now:
Tom Brady or Barack Obama?
Hands down, Obama wins internationally, but I’m talking about right here in the good old US of A.
I polled my friends and I got varying results: two of them said Brady, one asked, “Isn’t Osama dead?”, and the majority of them, after thinking about, picked Obama. But those are the key words: after thinking about it.
All of my friends took at least four seconds (Note: it takes four seconds for a silence to become awkward) to think about it before picking, which could mean one of two things:
1. My friends are slow and it took them four seconds to process the question and figure out how to move their mouths to respond, or
2. Football has become that famous.
Four seconds may not seem like a lot of time, but it is during the course of a conversation. Don’t believe me? Count to four out loud right now. Not that bullshit defensive-lineman-during-a-pickup-football-game counting where you say the words onetwothreefourfivesixseven all in one second so that you can blitz faster. I’m talking about the set-a-timer-on-your-phone-and-wait counting.
It’s a pretty long time, especially during a conversation. The fact that they even had to think about it showed how popular football has become.
But this is just the biased thought-process of my football-watching friends. To really test this question I needed to ask some people on the other side of the spectrum.
I asked the question to my AP Calculus class during a lesson about turning transcendental functions into polynomial MacLaurin Series centered about a point other than the origin. I got a slightly different response. Right away, one girl protested, “OMG (not “oh my god” the actual letters O, M, and G) that’s not even a question.” A guy followed by saying, “Barack Obama is obviously more famous. His healthcare reform has affected the lives of thousands, nay, millions of people, and his work … [insert political rant from a person whose only source of news is Comedy Central’s The Daily Show].” I decided to pose another question after the shitstorm that I created blew over:
“How many of you know who Tom Brady is?”
Everybody in the class raised their hands. My point was proven.
famous |ˈfāməs|: known to or recognized by many people
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| (this image has no relevance to anything in the post, but regardless, enjoy) |
Sure, Obama is more important than is Brady, but fame isn’t based on how important you are to society. Snooki is more famous than every single fire fighter in New York City. I rest my case.
I am willing to bet that the number of people who recognize the name “Tom Brady” is not that far off from the number who recognize “Barack Obama” (in the United States, at this very moment (Thursday, February 2, 2012)). And yes I just rocked the double parentheses.
Hear me out:
(all US population info from http://www.2010.census.gov/, the one stop shop for all of your population-related needs)
The current population of the United States is approximately 313 million people.
First, let’s take out all of the infants and toddlers (ages 0-4) who don’t know who either person is. That removes roughly 25 million people from our survey, giving us a new total of 288 million.
Now, I’m willing to say that 100% of the population listed in the census knows who Barack Obama is. If you don’t, you’re either retarded or Amish. That totals Obama’s fame at 288 million people.
On the other hand, we have Brady.
Harris Interactive recently surveyed over 2000 people from various regions, demographic, and financial standing, about football.
The survey shows that roughly two-thirds of all adults watch football regularly (73% of all men, and 55% of women).
Apply those numbers to our survey pool, and it turns out that approximately 195 million people watch football regularly. If you watch football regularly, then you know who Tom Brady is. I’m pulling out the transitive property, so approximately 195 million people know who Tom Brady is.
Take into account Super Bowl advertisements for the five times that Brady has been to the Super Bowl, his photo shoots for fashion magazines, and his advertisements with other companies like UGGS, Xfinity, and Under Armour, and that probably adds another 30 million people (and that's being conservative) to the “I know who Tom Brady is” bandwagon.
FINAL TALLY:
Barack = 288 million
Brady = 225 million
Those numbers mean that approximately 78% of the people who know who Barack Obama is also know who Tom Brady is.
That also means that more than three out of every four people in the United States know who Tom Brady is.
That means that a professional athlete is almost as famous as the leader of the free world!
Another fun fact: for every one person who watches the President’s State of the Union Address (56 million views this year) there are two people who watch the Super Bowl (111 million views last year).
Super Bowl XIV and XV are the two most watched programs in television history, and this year's Super Bowl is expected to top them both.
The reasons for this massive increase in football's popularity?
1. Elite Quarterbacks:
Never before have we seen such a talented group of quarterbacks playing together against each other at one time. Look back to as recently as 2007. There were really only two or three elite quarterbacks: Peyton, Brady, and an aging Favre/an upcoming Brees. Until recently, teams won Super Bowls with punishing defenses and a great run attack. Most quarterbacks’ major role was not to get in the way. I mean, when even Trent Dilfer is a Super Bowl winning quarterback, you know that there’s got to be something going amazing happening on the other side of the ball. Today, we’ve got five to six elite quarterbacks in Rodgers, Brees, Eli, Brady, Peyton (when he’s healthy), Roethlisberger, and possibly Stafford. Two quarterbacks broke Dan Marino’s passing record this season, and a team that ranked last in total defense won 15 games. The league is changing and games are becoming higher scoring. Why do you think soccer isn’t popular in America? Americans like scoring and quarterbacks score (no pun intended).
2. Round the clock access
The media has fully embraced the fact that we can’t get enough of football and they play into our addiction. They’re what the rehab industry calls the “appeaser.” The people who give you everything you need in order to make your addiction flourish and grow. The media gives you 24 hour NFL network, three different choices of three hour long pregame shows, round the clock analysis from ex-players to ex-coaches to that hobo on the street that naps on that park bench every Wednesday. It’s a little overwhelming how much access we have to the NFL, and the fact that NFL Live is on ESPN every weekday at 4:00 during the offseason is a testament to how addicted we are.
3. Twitter, Twitter, and more Twitter:
Ridiculous twitter usage has made it easier and easier for fans to connect with their favorite superstars. In the past, the only interactions NFL players had with fans were through signing autographs and press conferences. Now that they have Twitters, fans can type in @[insert your favorite superstar here] and send them a direct message. They feel connected to the players because players tweet about problems, issues, and opinions that the fans can relate to. They tweet pictures of their cars and their kids and fans feel like they have an intimate relationship with these players. This ability allows the players to share their ideas and beliefs with the fans, and influence them in ways that were impossible before.
The NFL is crazy popular, so popular that people are beginning to worship it. Is it that big of a stretch to say that the popularity of football will prompt a retired great to run for a political position and WIN, in a similar way that military veterans ran for office in the past? We've already had a movie star turned president in Reagan, and I don't think we're that far off from a professional athlete turned president.
Tebow or Bust 2020?
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