Reuters World News - An internationalist's guide to America’s spectacle: Super Bowl LVIII, Swift and Vegas

Episode Date: February 10, 2024

Reuters global sports editor Ossian Shine has traveled the earth covering the world’s biggest sporting events: Olympics, World Cups and Grands Prix. Now, he’ll experience America’s biggest spectacle for the first time. Hear from Ossian and our entertainment and sports journalists about what the world should expect from the first Super Bowl in Las Vegas. (Spoiler alert: this podcast does include Taylor Swift discussions.) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It's the Super Bowl. Kansas City has another win in its sights, while the 49ers are looking to settle a score after losing to the Chiefs just four years ago. And of course, Las Vegas is on full display. In this special episode, we'll tackle how Vegas is making its mark on the Super Bowl. What's at stake on the field? And, of course, Taylor Swift.

I'm your host, Christopher Waljasper, in Chicago. Super Bowl 58 kicks off this Sunday. Now, the Super Bowl is always a spectacle, but this year it is taking it up a notch because it's in Las Vegas. We have a couple of veteran sports reporters on the ground in Vegas. Rory Carroll is a U.S.-based reporter. He's covered four Super Bowls, and Ocean Shine. Osh is our global sports editor. He's been with us for two decades. He's covered every major sporting event around the world except the Super Bowl, as it turns out. Rory, Osh, thanks for joining me today. I'm happy to be here.

Thanks for having us. Okay, Osh, this is your first Super Bowl. You're in Vegas. What's it like right now? It's crazy town crossed with sensory overload city. It's just loud. It's dazzlingly bright. It's bizarre.

You can't turn a corner of that. being accosted by men, painted head to tone blue paint with Elvis impersonators, tiny dancers, bejeweled Stetsons. It's absolutely crazy. That truly is a spectacle, but sounds perfectly on par for Las Vegas. Rory, how does that compare to previous Super Bowls? I mean, this is the first time the Super Bowl has been held in Las Vegas, a place that professional sports avoided for decades. and it is being embraced now by the professional sports of all kinds,

and now the biggest spectacle in sports is arrived here in the desert, and people are really excited, and the energy is through the roof. Now, that's interesting. Why have professional sports avoided Las Vegas in years past? Gambling was a big issue. People didn't want their sports tainted by the prospect of gambling. Sin City known for all kinds of temptations. People didn't want their athletes in this city.

There's been a complete shift in the cultural landscape with regards to gambling, for sure, which is legal in many states now. And this is a city that has a blue-collar working community. They have a fan base. It's not just a city of Transients. It's a real community. And they've embraced, starting with the Golden Knights,

the WMBA's Aces, and now, They got the biggest prize of all the Super Bowl. I think it's still a bit of an uneasy sort of relationship in its early stages because there's been a lot of talk this week from the NFL about the importance of protecting the integrity of the sport. The point is, there's just so much money to be made out of the gaming industry that it's proved irresistible for them. And that's a great seg.

Commissioner Roger Goodell actually spoke about this earlier this week. We clarified our policy earlier this year, and it was to put the importance for our players that betting on NFL games or inside information or anything that would negatively impact the integrity of our game is absolutely off limits. It's opening up a can of worms, but there's an awful lot of revenue in it for them. Osh, you've covered a lot of other sporting spectacles, right? Olympics, World Cups, they're known for their pomp and circumstance. How does this differ from some of the other major sporting events you've covered?

I think this is that the major difference is this is as much about celebrity and entertainment as it is about sport. The other sports try to be entertaining, but they're entertaining in the sport rather than being forms of entertainment themselves. I mean, this is just an extraordinary show, a week-long show. I can't think of any other event where you have such a long build-up. But it's celebrity, it's showbiz, it's party time, but at its heart is this extraordinary sporting contest. Do you think an international audience gets just how big this thing is? I think people are beginning to understand globally more and more and more. It's a huge international push from the NFL.

And it's been noticeable here this week. How many foreign overseas journalists there? How many German voices are asking questions? How many, it's going to Brazil next. They play matches in the UK. They play matches in Mexico. So it's getting a lot bigger. It's getting, I mean, it's huge within the US.

And I think that's what's always striking. me is it was hard to envisage quite how big it was when you didn't grow up with the sport and when you weren't in the US. But I mean, just watching TV here, you can see how the whole country just goes Super Bowl mad. It seems that that push for expansion internationally has been on the minds of a lot of the leadership of NFL, but also the fandom. Do we see that taking off? Are fans receptive to that expansion? Yeah, I think the NFL is prioritized growing its brand globally. It's made no secrets about it. And it's looking at different ways of doing that. They pushed hard to get flag football included in the LA 28 Olympics, which is something that

opens a sport up to women for starters. For people who can't afford helmets and pads, you know, it's a low-cost way of spreading the sport. And with the Olympic energy behind it, the Pro Bowl this year was a flag football game. So yeah, they were looking at ways to continue to grow the brand globally. that's where the next big market is. And it's not just the NFL, right? I think the teams are really on board with it, which is so important. They've been making very positive noises this week about having more overseas games. Yeah, the Jacksonville Jaguars play in London almost every season now,

and it's almost their second home. Now, we've gone several minutes here without mentioning a force that has dominated this entire spectacle, and that's Taylor Swift. To dive into that, though, I would like to dive into that, though, I would like to. to actually turn to our entertainment reporter, Lisa Rich Wine. Lisa, thanks for joining us today. Great to be here. So you've covered quite a few Super Bowls, both the game, but also the halftime show

and all of the excitement around it. How is this year's Super Bowl different? Well, I think there is a lot of excitement about it that is brought by Taylor Swift. She has brought in new fans, particularly female fans, younger female fans. and it's just adding to the hype around what is already, you know, one of the biggest events in the United States every year. It's definitely the biggest event on U.S. television. And then you add to that the biggest pop star in the world. So you've got these two big forces coming together.

And it's making people really excited about it. How has she impacted the NFL's viewership or revenue leading up to this weekend? Well, you can start by looking at the first game she went to. And suddenly, everybody knew who tried. Travis Kelsey was and Travis Kelsey Jersey's sales went up by 400% in just a couple days. So that's one way to measure it. There's a company called AMX Marketing Group that estimated that she has brought $330 million in brand value to the NFL. And what they're saying is basically if they tried to buy that publicity, they would have to spend $330 million to get the same amount of attention that Taylor has generated to them.

You can also look at the viewership among women and younger women in particular. NFL viewership was up 7% over this season. And I think a lot of people would attribute that to Taylor if you look at the viewership among women. And especially women ages 12 to 17 and 18 to 24. They're sitting down. Some of them are watching with their dads and learning about the game just because they want to see her. But there's also reports that people are getting into football and learning what's about, which is important to the NFL. They've been trying to get more female fans for a long time.

So they got lucky that Taylor Swift stepped in and is helping them do this. So this Taylor Swift boost, is it sustainable or will it dissipate after this year? I guess we'll see. We'll see him Chaler and Travis are together when the next season starts in the fall. But you've got to think that some of the new fans got interested in the game and will stick around and heard some dads commenting how great it is that their daughters are finally. interested in football. Some of them probably will think, hey, this, you know, this is something fun to do on a Sunday afternoon, even if Taylor's not there, but I'm sure there are others who are

like, no, you know, I just want to see Taylor. Now, it feels like you see Kansas City gear everywhere, hats, shirts, sweaters. They're all over social media, people walking down the street. It kind of reminds me of in the early 90s when when hip hop artists like dr dr dr dr. or ice cube would wear Oakland Raiders gear or a Chicago white socks cap and those brands became more associated with the musical artist than they did the sports team is Taylor Swift elevating the Kansas City brand beyond the sports team oh yeah I think so definitely I mean you know at one time the Cowboys were America's team And it feels like now the chiefs have kind of become America's team

just because they're getting so much attention from people who might not even be able to name another NFL team. So, yeah, I mean, you see her at every game. She's wearing a Chief's jacket or a hat with Travis's number 87 on it. And, you know, she's a trendsetter in fashion to begin with. So certainly, you know, her fans are going to follow some of what she's doing and grab some of the Chief's gear. Like I said, Travis Kelsey jerseys, they're still hot.

Yeah, I mean, in pregame conferences this week, it felt like Travis Kelsey was just peppered with questions, almost as many about his girlfriend as he got about the actual game. Taylor has an unbelievable fan base that follows her and supports her throughout her life. And it's been fun to kind of gather the swifties in the Chief's Kingdom and open them up to the football world and the sports world. Now, the NFL has suffered several blows to its image. in recent years, right? We've had issues with their handling of traumatic brain injuries. We've had problems with prominent players being involved in abuse or assault scandals. It's not been great for the NFL, especially among female viewers. Now, here we are, and Taylor Swift has brought this huge influx of viewers to the league. How should we think about,

this phenomenon, given the longstanding issues that the NFL has been dealing with. I think the NFL is thrilled to have Taylor Swift kind of put this halo around the game. She has embraced it. They want the focus on the game, but they're also happy to have this really beloved pop star endorse the game. I mean, she is as close as it gets to really universal appeals. You know, she does have some detractors at the moment, but she is really, widely liked among a large group of people. So it helps the NFL. It takes attention off any of the

issues that you mentioned, any of the issues they've had around concussions or violence in the game or players being accused of sexual misconduct. If Taylor Swift is there and she's a role model to women and she is there supporting the game, so the NFL can be happy about that. So there's been a lot of buzz and excitement around Taylor Swift. and Travis Kelsey, their relationship, but there's also been some bizarre theories floated online, implying that their relationship is staged by political operatives and that Kansas City's place in the Super Bowl was somehow, somehow rigged.

What's going on here? This started circulating on Facebook. I started seeing it probably three weeks ago, people saying that the NFL was rigged. I don't know the origin. of it, but, you know, there's no evidence that the NFL is rigged. It seems like that would be something very difficult to pull off. And you see Travis and Taylor together, they really look like they're in love.

And there's a fair amount of people who think that's true. The NFL has denied it, of course. And there's no evidence that the game is rigged. But people have their doubts as to whether or not this relationship is maybe a little too convenient. Even Roger Goodell was asked about their relationship by reporters this week. What do you say to those who think it's all scripted by the NFL? I don't think I'm that good a scriptor or anybody on our staff. I think it's, you know, listen, there is no way that I could have scripted that one. Let's just put it that way.

But she is, or anybody in our office, she's, she's a remarkable performer. She's, she's a remarkable performer. I want to bring in Christina and Agastopoulos. She's our U.S. fact-checking editor, and her team has been trying to get to the bottom of some of these social media posts. Yeah, thank you, Chris. I'm excited to be here. It's been really entertaining. So, Christina, what are you and your team seeing? Okay, sure.

So there's misinformation. So that is concrete stuff that we can actually fact-check. And then there's conspiracy theories. These are broader. They're difficult. They're different. And they're hard to get into because they are. are by nature so elusive.

Our fact check team focuses on the former, so on concrete misinformation. Okay, like what? We had a fake Trump truth social post saying that Taylor should stay out of politics and sort of a long rant about her. We were able to fact check that because, you know, we scoured his truth social account.

There was nothing on it resembling this post. The timestamp on the post was also 2026, which is a good indication that someone's just sort of created it and invented it. We also found the original, and it was on an X account that calls itself sort of parody and called out that they sort of made it as a joke. But people were sharing it thinking it was real. Another example is a video compilation of news anchors speaking all at the same time,

and the audio has them saying, Taylor Swift is not a sci-op, which is a covert government operation that tries to sway people's thoughts and minds and hearts and behaviors. And actually that video we found the original. It's a few years old. you can actually tell that their lip movements are not synced with the audio, and they're actually talking about something else. But again, people were sharing that thinking it's real, and somehow the mainstream media was trying to say that Taylor Swift is not a sci-up,

but nobody was talking about it that way. So the argument is that Taylor Swift is a government operative, and her relationship with Travis Kelsey is staged, and Kansas City making it to the Super Bowl is somehow a government conspiracy. Exactly, that she's somehow a deep state agent or a government agent and that things like the Super Bowl win is predetermined. Her political views are not her own but predetermined by the Democrats. So stepping back a bit as a fact checker, we have no reason to believe any of this is true. Taylor Swift is a hugely successful musician.

She's paved her career on her own since she was really young. In the last few years, she has decided to be vocal about politics. having a political opinion, you know, doesn't automatically make you a government agent. And similarly with the Kansas City Chiefs, there's no reason to believe that if they win on Sunday, this is all pre-programmed, right? They are massively successful team. They have won the Super Bowl twice in the last few years. So again, there is just no evidence to support these claims. Aside from the Taylor Swift of it all, Rory, there's some potentially big milestones that could happen on the field on Sunday.

What are you watching for as the actual game unfolds? Yeah, what we have is a very compelling matchup, a rematch of four years ago with Kansas City Chiefs going for a back-to-back championships. And the 49ers looking to win their sixth Lombardi, a elusive trophy. It all starts with Patrick Mahomes, quarterback for Kansas City Chiefs.

He showed veteran experience this year that we hadn't seen before. He helped the team through what was not a great season by their standards, but then turned it on the playoffs, showed his leadership, and he's been on this stage before, and he is looking at Tom Brady and potentially toppling him in his career for most Super Bowl championships. And went on Sunday would definitely help that. Now, it's interesting. You mentioned Brady just a couple of years ago. That was the conversation that Mahomes was this untested rookie versus this veteran Tom Brady. And Mahomes actually addressed

the comparisons to Brady this week at a conference. conference. I mean, I'm not even close to halfway, so I haven't put a lot of thought into it. I mean, your goal is to be the best player that you can be. And I know I'm blessed to be around a lot of great players around me. And so right now, it's doing whatever I can to beat a great 49ers team and trying to get that third ring. And then if you ask me that question in like 15 years, and I'll see if I can get close to seven, but seven seems like a long ways away still. On the other side is 49ers quarterback Brock Purdy. He's got some dubious nicknames right now that he's trying to rise above.

Yeah, Brock Purdy is just a perfect underdog story here, picked last in the 2022 draft. That comes with the dubious distinction of being Mr. Irrelevant. Even as he has been spectacular for the 49ers as a starter, still the doubters call him a game manager. Someone who has benefits from the people around him, the explosive 49ers offense, he can silence all those doubters if he can be hoisting the Lombardi Trophy. on Sunday. So help me understand that. What makes a quarterback, a game manager, versus a person who can really control the play? Right. Calling him a game manager is a bit of a slight saying that

he hands the ball off. He makes short passes. He does what he needs to do for the offense to function, but he's not the risk taker. He doesn't make the spectacular play. That is just not true. If you've seen the 49ers this season, he's been incredible for them. And he showed it in the playoffs where he engineered to spectacular come from behind victories to land them here in the Super Bowl. So, Osh, how do you think about covering a match like this, especially as someone who normally covers such a wide variety of sports with peculiar rules and quirks and whatnot? How are you approaching covering the Super Bowl?

You know, for me, sport had its essence is about the passion. It's about the pursuit of perfection. It's about the sacrifice, the chance of vengeance, the backstory. It's, for me, any sport isn't about the numbers and the data and the stats. It's about the people. And what we've got in this Super Bowl is a story about some fantastic people who've got great milestones ahead of them. Because Rory said, I love that story about Mr. Irrelevant becoming Mr. Irreplaceable.

That would be a fantastic story. And again, the Chiefs, I just think the whole Taylor Swift story there, whichever side wins, there's a great story behind it. Rory, what could a win mean for either of the coaches of these teams? Yeah, for Andy Reid, third Super Bowl, the chiefs are on the doorstep of Dynasty here. So if they do this, then they are going down the history books as one of the all-time great NFL teams. Kyle Shanahan has lost two Super Bowls, heartbreakers, both come from behind by the other team. So he would love to get that monkey off his back and finally get that trophy.

With a Vegas-hosted Super Bowl comes a whole new world of sports betting. The game was already one of the most heavily wagered events in the world before it landed just down the road from the Vegas Strip. Frank Pingway has been covering sports with Reuters for more than 14 years. He's been digging into how sports betting has changed ahead of this year's Super Bowl. Frank, thanks for joining us today. My pleasure. Thanks for having me. So what does betting on the Super Bowl look like this year? Well, since there are now 38 U.S. states plus Washington, D.C., that feature live legal sports betting markets,

you're basically seeing Americans continuing to migrate to the legal betting market, whether that's through a traditional sports wager online, either retail sports book, or with a bookie. And in fact, this week, the American Gaming Association, which is a trade group basically that represents the U.S. casino industry, said they estimate a record 68 million American adults, which is up 35 percent from last year, to bet $23 billion on the Super Bowl. Wow. $23 billion. So you can now legally gamble on the Super Bowl in a whole host of states across the country. But one thing that makes Vegas so unique as a Super Bowl host city is that even if you're not in the stadium on Super Bowl Sunday, the casinos on the Vegas strip have rolled out the red carpet in these elaborate sports book facilities. Yeah, Vegas sports books are typically large rooms with comfortable plush seating and walls of towering video screens like something. out of Michigan Control Room at NASA, but instead of these ones are showing sporting events

from across the globe, and they can get very busy during major games like the Super Bowl. But for some people, a Vegas sportsbook might be the next best thing to being at the game. And as for the experience, I guess it really depends on whether one's wagers are paying out or if their betting slips end up littered across the sportsbook floor. And people are betting on much more than just the final score. Right. Well, there's definitely no shortage of options. There's something for everyone. And as we said, billions will be wagered on the Super Bowl, but only a portion of those funds will be devoted to the actual winner or on the game itself. Aside from the more traditional bets, gamblers can basically take a chance at what are called proposition bets,

like deciding which team will score first and what color liquid will be poured on the winning coach at the end of the game. And of course this year there's many bets that revolve around Taylor Swift. So those inclined can place bets on whether Kelsey will propose to Taylor Swift at the Super Bowl, whether the couple will announce their first pregnancy at the Super Bowl, and also find odds on how many times Taylor Swift will be showing on camera during the Super Bowl if she does indeed show up at the game. And of course, at the end of the day, the final score is still the main event. What were the sportsbook odds heading into this weekend?

Well, earlier this week, the American Gaming Association said that betters are nearly split on the outcome of the game, with 47% planning to bet on the Kansas City Chiefs to repeat as Super Bowl champions, and 44% planning to bet on the San Francisco 49ers. If you think you or someone you know has a gambling or sports betting addiction, please contact the National Council on Problem Gaming. The number is 1-800 gambler. that's 1-800-G-A-M-B-L-E-R, or visit their website for help and additional information about treatment.

So at the end of the day, we're going to have a huge game, we're going to have a halftime show, and we might even have a Taylor Swift siding. When this thing all wraps up, the confetti flies, the Gatorade is poured, what do you think this Super Bowl will be remembered for? I would say that it's going to mark Las Vegas's real, announcing itself as a sports city on the global stage,

and we'll see more professional teams come to this city when they see the success of the Super Bowl, when they saw what F1 was able to do here. Potentially, we're looking at NBA franchise. I think it's going to be remembered as a huge party, and I think the NFL will be wanting to come back as soon as possible. I think you can't look too far beyond Taylor Swift if she comes. I think we assume she'll come.

I think it's going to be such an incredible moment for TV, for viewers the world over. And I think it will really stamp if that needs to be done. The fact that the Super Bowl is so much more than a sports event, it's a huge celebrity event at the same time. And I think that the TV viewership figures

will probably bear that out for this one and moves the Super Bowl into even higher strata. That's it for this special episode. Thanks to Lisa Richwine, Rory Carroll, Ocean Shine, Steve Keating, Christina Anagnostopoulos, Frank Pingue, Evan Garcia, Lillian Salgado, and Nathan Frandino for all their contributions to this episode. Reuters World News is produced by Jonah Green, Tara Oaks, David Spencer, and me, Christopher Waljasper.

Our regular host is Kim Vennel. Carmel Crimmons is our senior producer. Our executive producer is Lila de Kretzer. Engineering, Sound Design, and Music composition by Josh Summer. To be sure you know what's happening around the world, listen in for 10 minutes each weekday. And don't forget to subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts or download the Reuters app.