Christopher R. Martin and Jimmie L. Reeves

The Super Bowl is the most popular annual sporting event in the United States. However, according to Christopher R. Martin and Jimmie L. Reeves, Americans are wrong to believe that the Super Bowl is popular on a global scale. The NFL states that almost a billion people watch the Super Bowl, yet has little evidence to support that estimate. International sporting events such as soccer's World Cup, the Cricket World Cup, and the Rugby World Cup can all boast far more viewers than the Super Bowl, and yet a minority of Americans follow these events. The authors maintain that the U.S. media's emphasis on the Super Bowl's supposed global significance reflects America's exaggerated sense of its importance in world affairs. Christopher R. Martin is a professor of communication studies at...