Super

The adage that records are made to be broken definitely applies to the TV ratings for the Super Bowl.

For three straight years, the game deciding the champion for the NFL season has set new viewing records, including last year’s Philadelphia Eagles crushing victory over the Kansas City Chiefs 40-22 that scored an average audience of 127.7 million viewers on Fox.

Both the 2024 and 2025 games had the benefit of the pop culture sizzle generated by Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce’s romance with pop superstar Taylor Swift, bringing in more casual fans.

This season, the Chiefs won’t be in the game for the first time in three years as NBC will have the Seattle Seahawks facing off Sunday against the New England Patriots in Super Bowl LX, not the match-up experts predicted for this year.

But that doesn’t mean it can’t set another ratings record.

Kansas City tight end Travis Kelce and Taylor Swift celebrate the Chiefs’ victory over the Buffalo Bills in the AFC Championship on Jan. 26, 2025, in Kansas City, Mo.

(Charlie Riedel / Associated Press)

“I believe it can,” said Lee Berke, president of LHB Sports, Entertainment & Media, noting the lift the NFL ratings have seen this season as viewing information from set-top devices and internet connected televisions in 45 million households are now included in Nielsen’s audience measurement.

“It’s definitely showing up and bumping up ratings throughout the year for the NFL,” Berke said.

A recent report from the Video Advertising Bureau found that the new measurement from Nielsen has boosted ratings for prime time NFL games in the mid-to-high single digit percentages.

Other changes to Nielsen’s measurement in recent years have given the Super Bowl a boost. While surpassing 100 million was once a reasonable goal, the numbers started climbing above that threshold since out-of-home viewing was added in 2021.

History is on the side of a robust audience number this year. The last time the Patriots faced the Seahawks in 2015, the NBC telecast set a viewership record at the time of 114.4 million. Fans watching Sunday can expect to see clips of Malcolm Butler’s interception at the goal line that helped give Tom Brady’s Patriots the win that year.

But NBC doesn’t need a record audience number for the Super Bowl to be a financial success. A robust TV advertising marketplace helped the network sell out the game at a record average of $8 million per 30-second spot, with some going for $10 million.

NBC has also sold spots that will air only on its Peacock streaming platform. The network pulled in the range of $3 million a spot, significantly above the $2 million Fox took in for ads last year when the game was streamed on its Tubi service.

This year NBC was able to use Super Bowl LX to drive ad sales for its coverage of the Winter Olympic Games in Milan that begin Friday and run through Feb. 22, (which is also sold out). The network also has the NBA All-Star Game at the Intuit Dome in Inglewood on Feb. 14, which is why Mike Cavanaugh, co-chief executive of NBCU parent Comcast, recently described February as “the most consequential month in live sports history.”

In 2022, NBC’s combination of both the Winter Olympics and the Super Bowl, accounted for $1.5 billion in revenue according to Comcast’s earnings report, a number the company will likely surpass this year. The company isn’t commenting on revenue but has said it expects to set a record for Super Bowl ad revenue.

Mark Marshall, chairman of global advertising sales and partnerships for NBCUniversal, said 70% of the companies in the Super Bowl are also running commercials in the Olympics.

In previous decades, a Super Bowl commercial was an event in itself with the reveal happening on the telecast. But Marshall noted that, as part of a larger marketing effort, advertising campaigns are now introduced with teasers ahead of the telecast and many get a full preview online.

This year, NBCU was able to offer the Olympics to help marketers connect with more consumers.

“We told advertisers ‘you’re going to spend eight figures (on producing a commercial) — extend the reach of that,” Marshall said.

Technology companies make up the largest share of advertisers. Several AI companies, including Anthropic and Genspark, will be first-time Super Bowl ad buyers. Viewers will also see returning entries from Google, Meta, Wix and Amazon, which will air a spot for its Alexa device.

While there are the usual array of snack food and soft drink companies that will appearin the commercial breaks, viewers will also see a spurt in pharmaceutical ads. Marshall said the category has increased its presence on NFL games. The Super Bowl spots will focus on a message of “wellness,” rather than straight ahead product spots with disclaimers listing unpleasant drug side effects.

Marshall said NBCU does not expect the announced alternative halftime show presented by Turning Point USA to have an impact on the ratings. A concert featuring Kid Rock and lesser known country artists Brantley Gilbert, Lee Brice and Gabby Barrett, will stream on YouTube, X, Rumble and several right-wing TV channels.

The concert promoted by the right-wing group founded by the late Charlie Kirk and now run by his widow Erika is in response to conservatives outraged over the NFL’s selection of Grammy-winning music superstar Bad Bunny, who sings primarily in Spanish, as the halftime act. (President Trump called the decision “terrible” and is skipping the game.)

But the league has not wavered for a moment amid the blowback, as it seeks to expand its global reach by having the most streamed artist in the world on the stage of its marquee event.

The only effective counter-programming gimmick against the Super Bowl halftime show came in 1992. Fox, still an upstart network, ran a live edition of its sketch comedy show “In Living Color” against the halftime of the CBS telecast of Super Bowl XXVI, which featured ice skaters Dorothy Hamill and Brian Boitano.

The pronounced dip in viewership prompted the NFL to sign Michael Jackson as the halftime act in 1993. The game saw a significant ratings boost and the league has booked contemporary music acts for the game ever since.

When it was announced in the fall that Puerto Rican singer and rapper Bad Bunny was chosen to headline the Super Bowl LX halftime show, some folks took it personally.

Why not an American pop star (he is) who speaks English (he does) and likes the president (good luck, did you watch the Grammy Awards?)?! The right felt slighted, again, this time as the victim of a great left-wing conspiracy to turn football’s biggest night against them.

Then Turning Point USA — the conservative organization founded by Charlie Kirk and helmed by his wife, Erika Kirk, following his assassination — came up with an idea. They’d put on their own show in the barn, so to speak. Performers’ sets would be in English, unlike most of Bad Bunny’s material. And this great display of American-ness would take place during the Super Bowl, stealing away viewers and ratings from that other guy with the funny name.

On Monday, Turning Point finally announced the lineup for its counter-event, the “All-American Halftime Show.” Described by Fox News as a “star-studded alternative to the Super Bowl halftime show,” the roster’s brightest luminary is Kid Rock, who hasn’t had a hit song since Obama’s first year in office. The rest of the lineup consists of country artists you’ll likely have to Google to identify (Brantley Gilbert, Lee Brice and Gabby Barrett). Their sets will be streamed live on Sunday around 5 p.m., the same time Bad Bunny is slated to perform at Santa Clara’s Levi’s Stadium. It can be watched on Turning Point USA’s YouTube, X and Rumble channels, alongside conservative networks such as Daily Wire+, Real America’s Voice, TBN and OAN. Additional musical entertainers will be announced, the organization’s website says.

Kid Rock when he wasn’t wearing an American flag as a poncho.

(Pool Photo)

“We’re approaching this show like David and Goliath,” Kid Rock (aka Robert Ritchie) said in a statement. “Competing with the pro football machine and a global pop superstar is almost impossible … or is it?”

It is impossible, of course. Bad Bunny (aka Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio) is an American pop sensation who has conquered the globe with a vibrant mix of reggaeton, Latin pop, rap and R&B. The 31-year-old was Spotify’s most-streamed artist of 2025 and made history just a couple of days ago at the Grammy Awards when he became the first Spanish-language artist to win album of the year.

Sunday, he will reach an even wider audience as part of the country’s most-watched television event when the New England Patriots face off against the Seattle Seahawks.

But Kid Rock, 55, appears to have high hopes, with an opportunity to regain relevance likely at the top of his wish list. There’s no better way to gain attention than ripping on the most popular artist around. “He’s said he’s having a dance party, wearing a dress, and singing in Spanish?” said Kid Rock of Bad Bunny. “Cool. We plan to play great songs for folks who love America.”

The “Bawitdaba” singer is familiar with right-wing outrage over a halftime show wardrobe choice, and knows what it’s like to have your patriotism questioned by primed mobs. In 2004, he was one of several performers flanking Super Bowl headliner Janet Jackson. He angered conservatives when he wore a defaced American flag as a poncho and later tossed the flag/garment into the crowd.

But that was then, this is now. There are windmills to slay, crises to fabricate, rings to kiss. And headlining a spite concert provides a great distraction from the real issues plaguing Trump’s presidency, be it the soaring cost of living, Americans killed by ICE agents under his watch, or the nausea-inducing contents of the Epstein files.

Are we still talking about those? Yes, we are. The New York Times identified more than 38,000 references to Trump, his family and his Mar-a-Lago Club in the latest batch of emails, government files, videos and other records released by the Justice Department. Previous installments of the Epstein files, which the department released late last year, included 130 files with Trump-related references.

No wonder his followers need a distraction.

Bad Bunny can take the heat. He used his acceptance speech at Sunday night’s Grammys ceremony in Los Angeles to condemn the Trump administration’s nationwide immigration crackdown. “Before I say thanks to God, I’m going to say ‘ICE out,’” he said. “We’re not savages. We’re not animals. We’re not aliens. We are humans, and we are Americans.”

And also Super Bowl headliners.

Super Bow LX is set for Sunday in Santa Clara, and don’t be surprised if someone who played high school football in the Southland on the Seattle Seahawks or New England Patriots makes a big play or even becomes the game MVP.

In fact, if you want to make a hunch bet in Las Vegas, former Narbonne linebacker Uchenna Nwosu of the Seahawks might be someone to consider. He’s the only athlete from the City Section competing, and two former Super Bowl MVPs were John Elway from Granada Hills and Malcolm Smith from Taft.

Nwosu has quite a story. He never started at Narbonne until his senior year. He was a junior varsity player focused on basketball.

His football coach, Manuel Douglas, remembers a meeting with Nwosu, who wanted to give up the sport.

“Coach, I’m not going to make it in football,” Nwosu told him.

“What are you an idiot?” Douglas said. “You’re 6-2 and too small for basketball.”

Douglas said, “He always had the grades. He just had to wait his turn. He had a moment he was going to quit and I wasn’t going to let him.”

Nwosu started 14 games his senior year in 2013, became the captain at USC and was a second-round draft pick of the Chargers.

“Perseverance,” is the word Douglas used to describe how Nwosu finds himself starting in the Super Bowl.

“He’s had to work from the beginning,” Douglas said. “People have their moments when they falter, but he never gave up.”

Among the other Southland high school graduates:

In 2017, USC quarterback Sam Darnold visits his former teammates at San Clemente High.

(Los Angeles Times)

Sam Darnold, quarterback, San Clemente: The hero of the Seahawks’ offense and the first former USC quarterback to play in a Super Bowl has been a legend in San Clemente for years.

Said San Clemente coach Jaime Ortiz: “Sam has continued to be the same Sam he was in high school. He is the leader of the locker room where he sets the example and makes everyone around him better. He is a man of few words and lets his actions do the talking. He is the ultra competitor and when he steps onto the field or basketball court, he was there to win.”

Former St. Monica receiver Kyle Williams now plays for the Patriots.

(St. Monica Yearbook)

Kyle Williams, receiver, St. Monica: The Patriots took a chance on a 5-foot-10 receiver, making him a third-round pick from Washington State.

Said St. Monica coach Thomas Barnes: “He is living and walking proof that a kid from St. Monica Prep can make it all the way to the big time. You don’t have to go to one of the big name schools, go to St. Monica and become the big name.”

Former St. John Bosco running back George Holani in 2023 for Boise State. He plays for the Seahawks.

(Robert Gauthier/Los Angeles Times)

George Holani, running back, St. John Bosco: A backup running back for the Seahawks who’s filled in for the injured Zach Charbonnet, Holani twice ran for more than 1,000 yards at St. John Bosco before starring at Boise State.

Said coach Jason Negro: “I’m not surprised one bit in George’s journey from Bosco to the Super Bowl. He took the lessons he learned here and the ones that were instilled in him by his family and continued to climb the professional sports ladder.

“George is one of the most humble and hard-working individuals I’ve ever encountered in my career. He’s built on loyalty and culture, which is why he took the path from Bosco to Boise State.

“He trusted the process and understood he needed to be rooted in who he was to get to his ultimate destination, which is playing in the biggest game in the world.”

Chargers running back J.K. Dobbins (27) attempts to evade a tackle by Patriots linebacker Jahlani Tavai (48) in 2024.

(Greg M. Cooper / Associated Press)

Jahlani Tavai, linebacker, Mira Costa: Just looking at the family history of the Tavai family in the South Bay means there will be plenty of people cheering for him and the Patriots. There are six brothers, all of whom played football.

Said coach Don Morrow: “Jahlani deserves a lot of credit. He was a great athlete coming out of Mira Costa but wasn’t the biggest guy. He was tall and lanky. He really changed his body at Hawaii and got really strong and moved to linebacker.”

Mission Viejo wide receiver Brenden Schooler looks for room to run against Norco in 2015.

(Los Angeles Times)

Brenden Schooler, safety, Mission Viejo: The Patriots once had one of the most famous special teams player in Matthew Slater from Servite. Now Schooler is getting noticed after being signed as a free agent in 2022. He made the Pro Bowl in 2024.

Said defensive coordinator Brett Paton: “Brenden was alway the guy who did extra, first in and last out. Made everyone around him a winner, held his teammates to a higher standard, really good leader. And always came up with the big play when we needed it. In the CIF championship game versus Vista Murrieta, he had the game-changing pick at safety.”

The official Super Bowl halftime show on Sunday will feature Bad Bunny, the Grammy winner for album of the year, at the height of his powers and influence. Those upset by his onstage comments about the dignity of Latinos and immigrants, however, can turn to a competing bill featuring Kid Rock and Gabby Barrett.

Rock, the perennial MAGA raconteur and country-rock singer, will perform for the far-right activist group Turning Point USA’s counterprogramming event streaming across the conservative mediasphere. Turning Point USA is the activist group founded by the late Charlie Kirk, who was killed last year at a speaking event in Utah.

“We plan to play great songs for folks who love America,” Rock said in a statement announcing the bill. “We’re approaching this show like David and Goliath. Competing with the pro football machine and a global pop superstar is almost impossible … or is it?”

“He’s said he’s having a dance party, wearing a dress and singing in Spanish? Cool. We plan to play great songs for folks who love America,” Rock said, in an overt jab at the actual Super Bowl halftime show headliner.

Veteran country acts Lee Brice and Brantley Gilbert and Barrett, an “American Idol” alum with a 2019 Hot 100 hit in “I Hope,” will also perform.

While Rock’s right-wing politics have largely eclipsed his musical relevance in 2026, he’s recently tried to position himself as a power broker for MAGA-friendly concerts with just enough plausible appeal for more neutral country and rock fans. His planned 2026 touring festival, Rock the Country, is set to feature Blake Shelton, recent Grammy winner Jelly Roll, Creed and Miranda Lambert, but lost Ludacris and Morgan Wade following blowback from fans.

When Bad Bunny was booked for the Super Bowl in October, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) said, “I didn’t even know who Bad Bunny was. But it sounds like a terrible decision, in my view, from what I’m hearing. It sounds like he’s not someone who appeals to a broader audience.”

“There are so many eyes on the Super Bowl — a lot of young, impressionable children. And, in my view, you would have Lee Greenwood, or role models, doing that. Not somebody like this, ” he added.

President Trump said a bill featuring the Grammy-winning Puerto Rican superstar — and the famously anti-Trump punk band Green Day — was part of the reason he would not attend the game this year. “I’m anti-them. I think it’s a terrible choice,” he said. “All it does is sow hatred. Terrible.”

Rams kick returner Xavier Smith muffs a punt as Seattle’s Dareke Young recovers the ball in the third quarter Sunday in the NFC championship game.

(Jane Gershovich / Getty Images)

Mistake-prone special teams: Blocked kicks led to multiple early-season defeats, and the Rams in November signed Harrison Mevis to replace Joshua Karty and veteran snapper Jake McQuaide to replace Alex Ward.

A punt return for a touchdown by Seattle’s Rashid Shaheed on Dec. 18 ultimately led to McVay firing special teams coordinator Chase Blackburn.

Punter Ethan Evans was mostly solid and Mevis performed well. But punt returner Xavier Smith’s attempt to catch a ball while he was falling down in the NFC championship game resulted in a fumble that led to a pivotal touchdown by the Seahawks.

Too much for Tutu: Don’t blame receiver Tutu Atwell.

The Rams selected the diminutive-but-speedy receiver in the second round of the 2021 draft, but McVay, who is regarded as perhaps the best offensive mind in football, never fully maximized Atwell’s skill set. Atwell became a free agent after the 2024 season, and the Rams gave him a $10-million, one-year contract, ostensibly with promises that they had finally figured it out.

Alas, Atwell caught six passes (about $1.7 million per catch), including an 88-yard winning touchdown against the Indianapolis Colts. He was not active for the divisional-round playoff game against the Chicago Bears or the NFC championship.

No investment in secondary: The Rams were so confident the pass rush would be dominant, they stood pat and made no changes to the secondary. No draft picks. No free agents.

They made a trade deadline deal for cornerback Roger McCreary but otherwise rode with the same group from 2024.

In the NFC championship, Cobie Durant and Darious Williams started at cornerback.

Nacua’s social media mistake: Nacua, perhaps more than any other Rams player, embraces social media opportunities and has become one of the NFL’s most popular personalities.

But while appearing on a livestream a few days before a critical Week 16 game at Seattle, Nacua made critical comments about officials and, unbeknownst to Nacua, made an anti-semetic gesture. Nacua apologized and the NFL and the Rams issued statements. After scoring two touchdowns and amassing 225 yards receiving in the overtime defeat, Nacua posted another critical comment about officials. He was fined $25,000.

Lost home-field advantage: Entering a Week 13 game at Carolina, the Rams were 9-2, had won six games in a row and held the No. 1 seed for the NFC playoffs, which came with home-field advantage for the playoffs.

The Rams lost to the Panthers, the first of three losses in their final six games. They finished with the No. 5 seed.

That meant the Rams probably would have to win three road games to advance to the Super Bowl. They came back for playoff victories at Carolina and Chicago but could not do it at Seattle.

The Rams won’t be the only no-shows at the Super Bowl. President Trump will be conspicuous in his absence from the biggest annual, single-day sporting event in the United States.

“It’s just too far away,” Trump told the New York Post. “I would go if, you know, it was a little bit shorter.”

Or perhaps not so far to his left?

Super Bowl LX will be played Feb. 8 at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, part of the San Francisco Bay Area that Trump has so often reviled.

The teams — the New England Patriots and the Seattle Seahawks — hail from deeply entrenched blue states. Massachusetts and Washington have voted for the Democratic presidential candidate in every election since 1988.

Trump also has expressed disgust over the musical performers at this year’s game: Bad Bunny and Green Day, both unabashed critics of the current administration. Bad Bunny will play the halftime show while Green Day will perform ahead of the kickoff.

“I’m anti-them,” Trump said. “I think it’s a terrible choice. All it does is sow hatred. Terrible.”

Ahead of a tour last fall to promote his most recent album, Bad Bunny (whose real name is Benito Antonio Martinez Ocasio) announced he would skip the United States because he was afraid of ICE raids at his concerts. The Puerto Rican superstar — who has nearly 84 million monthly listeners on Spotify — explained why he made an exception for the Super Bowl.

“What I’m feeling goes beyond myself,” he said in a statement. “It’s for those who came before me and ran countless yards so I could come in and score a touchdown. This is for my people, my culture and our history.”

Green Day, an American pop-punk band of almost 40 years, has since Trump’s first term swapped a line in the lyrics of the 2004 hit “American Idiot” from “I’m not part of a redneck agenda” to “I’m not part of the MAGA agenda.”

Turning Point USA, the conservative non-profit founded by the late Charlie Kirk, announced in October that it would stage its own counterprogramming to the Super Bowl and stream it on conservative outlets. The “All American Halftime Show” is billed as “Celebrating Faith, Family, & Freedom.” As of Monday, musical artists had not been announced.

Trump became the first sitting president to attend a Super Bowl a year ago when he received a muted, mixed reaction of cheers and boos in New Orleans. But this year, the 5½-hour flight from Washington D.C. to the Bay Area apparently is too long for the president, who in January alone has flown to Switzerland, Detroit and Palm Beach.

Trump has long enjoyed attending high-profile sporting events. He was present at the College Football Playoff title game between Indiana and Miami a week ago and in 2025 attended the Army-Navy college football game, the U.S. Open Final and the Ryder Cup. In 2019, he attended Game 5 of the World Series in Washington D.C., where he was resoundingly booed.

The NFL has resisted pressure to replace Bad Bunny with a performer more politically palatable to Trump.

“There’s a lot of people right now who don’t like Bad Bunny being in the Super Bowl halftime show,” NFL chief marketing officer Tim Ellis said at a conference in October. “Well, not everyone has to like everything we do. Bad Bunny is f—ing awesome.”

Not everyone has to like the teams that earned Super Bowl berths and the states they call home, either. And not everyone has to approve of the venue. That includes the President, who made it clear that if he decides to watch, he’ll do so from a distance.