With the above information, that's yet another L taken by the "I'm not watching the NFL anymore thanks to Taylor Swift!" crowd. Probably the final & biggest one to date. Definitely the latter.
Fieldsy put it best upthread. Taylor's involvement is a very good thing, and everything that mattered trended upward. There were discussions I had elsewhere with several people, including someone who said that they would fire someone on the spot if they questioned or commented on how they should pump the brakes on "so much TS coverage" since people want to watch the game. I couldn't agree more. Maybe I may not have been as swift but when business is booming, common sense should prevail over the opposite.
To clarify, I was saying that the NFL has been getting better & better for a long time, really since Roger Goodell took over. Some changes have not been popular, but that's common in life in & out of sports. The numbers have proven that people are watching despite saying that they're done watching. So I was saying that the popularity has been increasing without Taylor.
That being said, Ms. Swift's arrival is top notch, and the numbers rose faster than it would have without her. That is a fact. While Super Bowl 58 would've broken the record, it's not an 8 Million mark without TS. Maybe a million people or two, but what a crushing outcome!