Boring football doesn’t sell as well as the thrilling kind.
For that reason, the audience for Super Bowl LX dropped in 2026, to 124.9 million average viewers for the game.
Last year, Super Bowl LIX drew 127.7 million viewers. This year, the final number enjoyed the boost of the new Nielsen Big Data + Panel, which had been sending audience figures higher. Without that feature, the Super Bowl LX audience could have been much lower than the reported total.
The game set a record with a peak audience of 137.8 million in the second quarter, when the Seahawks held a 6-0 lead.
The Bad Bunny halftime show averaged 128.2 million viewers, down by more than five million from Kendrick Lamar’s record-setting 133.5 million in Super Bowl LIX.
The numbers remain unlike any other televised event. Still, the same question comes to mind every year at this time — with 350 million people living in the U.S., what the hell was the rest of the country doing when the Super Bowl was on?
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The new betting craze — prediction markets — generated plenty of wagers in connection with the Super Bowl. And one proposition regarding who would attend the game sparked massive action.
Via David Purdum, more than $24 million was wagered on Kalshi regarding the question of whether Mark Wahlberg would attend the game. The number exceeded the amount bet on 31 other celebrities and politicians combined. It was five times greater than the amount wagered on the second-highest potential attendee: Donald Trump. (Please, don’t tell him he finished second.)
As Purdum explains it, the flood of bets happened when a rumor circulated among college sororities and fraternities before spreading on social media.
By Monday night, Kalshi had not yet resolved the question of whether Wahlberg showed up for the game.
If it wasn’t already obvious that the whole prediction-markets industry is nuts, it now should be. Folks with inside information are able to prey upon the clueless, with enhanced value coming from successful efforts to start false rumors.
And anyone who knew the truth as to whether Wahlberg would or wouldn’t attend was in position to make plenty of easy money.
The house always wins. But sometimes it doesn’t win as much as usual.
Via David Purdum of ESPN.com, Nevada sportsbooks won $9.9 million on $133.8 million in bets involving the Seahawks and the Patriots in Super Bowl LX.
Purdum added that both numbers are “down considerably from last year’s game.”
Indeed they are. Last year, Nevada won a record $22.1 million on $151.6 million in wagers. The handle was a 20-percent drop over the prior year. The Super Bowl LX handle represents an 11.7-percent reduction over Super Bowl LIX.
Last year’s profits flowed largely from parlays based on Eagles running back Saquon Barkley scoring a so-called “anytime touchdown.” He scored a touchdown at no time during the game, killing every three-leg wager that relied on his two legs carrying the football into the end zone.
Generally speaking, the entire Las Vegas experience has been in decline since the floodgates opened for nationwide legalized sports betting. With wagering and casino games now available to be played on a cell phone in most states, what used to happen in Vegas has not stayed in Vegas.
Only one person was named the Super Bowl MVP, but Seahawks running back Kenneth Walker says his big game at Super Bowl LX was a total team effort.
Walker said the Seahawks went into the Super Bowl confident that their offense could move the ball on the ground against the Patriots, and everyone on the offense executed their game plan.
“We worked on the run game all week leading up to the game,” Walker said. “I’ve got to give the credit to the o-line, the wide receivers and the tight ends. They were detailed in the run game and did their job, and made my job a lot easier.”
Walker is the first running back to to win Super Bowl MVP since Terrell Davis 28 years ago.
The Raiders have named Klint Kubiak head coach of the franchise, less than 24 hours after his former employer won Super Bowl LX.
Kubiak, 38, is the oldest son of former Texans and Broncos coach Gary Kubiak. The elder Kubiak won Super Bowl 50 as coach of the Broncos.
On the field after the 29-13 win over the Patriots, Kubiak made it clear that he’d be taking the job. Which means he’d been offered the job at some point before the game. Which also means the Raiders had run afoul of the tampering policy by doing more than simply interviewing Kubiak.
It’s unlikely the league will do anything about it, unless the Seahawks file a complaint. Given that they won the Super Bowl and fully expected Kubiak to go, it’s unlikely they’ll make an issue out of it.
The league could, if it wanted. But the tampering policy is enforced sporadically and unpredictably. Look for this to become just another example of a team disregarded the terms of the tampering policy, without consequence.
It’s a far from ideal way to do business, but that’s how NFL business is usually done.
Few plays were more important to the Seahawks’ championship season than the Zach Charbonnet two-point conversion that sent their game against the Rams into overtime. That two-point play allowed the Seahawks to win in overtime, earn the NFC No. 1 seed, and have a clear path to the Super Bowl.
Which makes the replay review that correctly gave the two points to Charbonnet the call of the year.
The Seahawks had just scored a touchdown to cut the Rams’ lead to 30-28 in the fourth quarter when a Sam Darnold pass was deflected, hit the ground and rolled into the end zone. The officials ruled it an incomplete pass, but Charbonnet stepped into the end zone and picked the loose ball up.
Initially, it appeared that there was going to be no replay review. There was no indication that either the officials on the field or the league replay office was going to initiate a review. But former NFL referee Terry McAulay, working on the Prime Video broadcast, spoke up.
“This may be a backward pass,” McAulay said. “If it’s backward, then this recovery in the clear and continuing action in the end zone would be a good two-point conversion for Seattle.”
After McAulay said that, the referee announced a replay review of the play, and the review confirmed that it was a backward pass recovered by Charbonnet for two points. That tied the game, 30-30 late in the fourth quarter.
The Seahawks then won the game in overtime. If they had lost that game, the Seahawks would have been a wild card team and would have had to win three games on the road to get to the Super Bowl. By winning the game, the Seahawks ended up with the No. 1 seed, and only had to win two home games to get to the Super Bowl. That one call made a massive difference to the Seahawks winning the Super Bowl.
Seahawks cornerback Devon Witherspoon had a tremendous game against the Patriots in Super Bowl LX, and he says he knew he and his teammates were going to have a big game as they watched tape over the last two weeks.
Witherspoon says coach Mike Macdonald put together a great game plan that had them prepared perfectly for what the Patriots tried to do.
“I knew what was going on,” Witherspoon told SiriusXM NFL Radio. “We had a good tell on what they like to do and how they like to play and how they were going to attack us. Coach put us in the best position to win. That’s our coach right there, that’s why we always stand beside him and always have his back.”
Witherspoon says tape study revealed that the Patriots’ offensive linemen often show what they’re going to do by how they line up.
“We had a tell on their guards and their tackles, how they like to set, they’re going to overset on certain rushes, they’re going to fall for certain moves any time a group of guys get after them, and today I think we did that,” Witherspoon said.
Even as he celebrated on the field after winning the Super Bowl, Witherspoon said the Seahawks will hold each other accountable for the two fourth-quarter touchdowns they gave up. This Seahawks defense has the highest of standards, and that showed on Super Bowl Sunday.
Super Bowl LX was a rough outing for Patriots rookie left tackle Will Campbell, who was clearly struggling with the Seahawks’ pass rush throughout the eventual 29-13 loss.
While Campbell did not talk to the media after the game, Mark Daniels of MassLive.com noted the young offensive lineman declined to make a comment in the locker room with tears in his eyes, clearly affected by the loss.
Campbell did receive a pep talk from his teammate, veteran right tackle Morgan Moses, who effectively told the young lineman to keep his head up.
“I told him I’ve never seen a rookie come in and play the way he played at left tackle,” Moses said, via Daniels. “The sky’s the limit for him, man. He has the opportunity to look back and rest a little bit and get himself back into working out and digest everything that’s happened.
“But for a rookie to go out there and play left tackle all the way to the Super Bowl and do an amazing job and still have room to grow, he’s the guy.”
According to NFL Next Gen Stats, Campbell — the No. 4 overall pick of the 2025 draft — allowed a career-high 14 pressures against the Seahawks. That’s the most pressures allowed in a postseason game by one offensive lineman since 2018.
But Campbell arguably was not as healthy as he had been earlier in the year, having suffered an MCL injury in Week 12. He returned in Week 17 before playing in the postseason.
Either way, Campbell’s future should still be bright as an anchor for New England’s offensive line despite a rough outing on Sunday.
The Seahawks won Super Bowl LX less than 24 hours ago and some have already turned their attention to Super Bowl LXI.
Sportsbooks have set the odds for who will be raising the Lombardi Trophy in SoFi Stadium on February 14, 2027. The Seahawks are at the top of the list, but they aren’t the only team on that rung.
They aren’t even the only NFC West team. The Rams join the Seahawks at +950 at DraftKings at the moment.
The Bills have the top odds of any AFC team with the Eagles, Patriots, and Ravens tied for the fourth spot. The Packers, Lions, Chargers, and Chiefs round out the top 10.
At the other end of the spectrum, the Cardinals and Dolphins are both at +25000.
The Super Bowl included another prime example of the existence — and value — of inside information in pro football.
In the days preceding the game, the Patriots and quarterback Drake Maye did everything they could to create the impression that his injured throwing shoulder was fine. It was not.
The fact that Maye received a painkilling injection before the game proves it. Those things aren’t done preemptively. He had a condition that was causing significant discomfort to require the area to be numbed so that he would have a chance to play as he normally does.
Maye fully participated in practice on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. He was removed from the final report, with no designation to suggest anything other than he was good to go.
Of course, that complies with the league’s woefully minimal injury-reporting rules. They focus on availability only, not effectiveness. But, to the average person, the message is unmistakeable. Maye was fine.
But here’s where it gets interesting. Look at what he said last Monday night.
“I’m not trying to lie to you guys when I say I’m feeling great,” Maye said. “I’m feeling great, and looking forward to getting out there today. Another day of practice, we got one tomorrow, and feeling pretty good.”
He wasn’t trying to lie when he said he was feeling great. He was, as suggested by the painkilling injection he received six days later, successfully doing so.
On one hand, it’s always been part of the game. Injury reports are bare-bones recitations of a player’s overall health. No one, as they say, is 100 percent by Halloween.
On the other hand, the NFL has jumped fully into bed with gambling. The league makes millions from sportsbook sponsorship. Owners are allowed to acquire up to five percent of any company that operates a sportsbook — and the league has refused in the past to disclose which owners own pieces of which sportsbooks.
The scandal is coming. And, when it happens, they’ll act surprised. Shocked. Appalled. Even if they should have seen it coming.
They surely do. And, hopefully, they’re scrambling behind the scenes to avert it. Or at least to delay it. Until then, it’s about cramming as much cash in the coffers as they possibly can, before the reckoning arrives and the irreversible damage to the integrity of the game occurs.
