With the championship round slate of games quickly approaching in the National Football League, a preponderance of sports discussion is centered around which teams will earn a spot in Super Bowl LVIII, taking place on Sunday, Feb. 11 from Las Vegas, Nevada. The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz will be on site in Las Vegas for its Thursday and Friday shows in the week leading up to the Super Bowl. Ahead of the game though, the show discussed the potential featured matchup taking center stage.
In the NFC, the Detroit Lions will aim for a chance to hoist the Vince Lombardi Trophy for the first time in franchise history. The team will face the San Francisco 49ers, who have two AP Most Valuable Player finalists in quarterback Brock Purdy and running back Christian McCaffrey. San Francisco aspires to snap a two-game losing streak in Super Bowl appearances and could have a chance to do so with a win on Sunday. The game will be televised on FOX with kickoff scheduled for 6:30 p.m. EST/3:30 p.m. PST.
Meanwhile, the Baltimore Ravens will host the Kansas City Chiefs in the earlier matchup to determine the AFC champion, which will be televised on CBS. Kickoff for the matchup is slated for 3 p.m. EST/12 p.m. PST, but consumers could be searching for award-winning singer/songwriter Taylor Swift beforehand. Swift has been dating Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce since the summer and has been at many of his games this year to support him, drawing intrigue from football and music fans alike.
Combined with the team’s recent success – which includes two Super Bowl championships in the last five seasons – Dan Le Batard is hoping the team wins the game on a controversial call.
“I don’t think it’s what’s going to happen, but it’s what I’m rooting to happen because with the refereeing crisis that they have in that sport, the content machine will melt down if that’s what happens,” Le Batard explained. “And then we’ll go flying into conspiracy theories – very quickly, we’ll be [going], ‘The whole thing’s scripted.’”
Before the season began, the NFL engaged in an advertising campaign featuring several of its star players participating in a table read and reviewing a season script. In the past, there has been speculation from some fans that outcomes and storylines are predetermined before the year, referring to potential results as being scripted per se. Le Batard’s co-host, Jon “Stugotz” Weiner, believes that the league may want the Chiefs to make the Super Bowl because of the team’s popularity. For reference, the team won the championship last season against the Philadelphia Eagles with an average audience of 115.1 million viewers tuning in on FOX television and digital platforms, rendering it the most-watched U.S. television program of all time.
“The city of Baltimore is prepared for this thing to feel rigged because of how obviously beneficial it is to the NFL to have Taylor Swift in the Super Bowl,” Le Batard explained. “She didn’t want to be in the halftime show, and everything that happened after that, people have talked about the idea that everything that happened after that could look orchestrated.”
Show producer Chris Cote conveyed that if Swift were to show up at the Super Bowl, the halftime show featuring Usher would feature various shots of Swift in the process. Cote has grown tired of the Swift phenomenon surrounding the team and is rooting for the Ravens to defeat them on Sunday afternoon. Outside of the halftime show, the show surmises that some fans of Swift’s will root for the Chiefs to win on Sunday and make the Super Bowl, which could result in an appearance from the superstar at Allegiant Stadium.
“You talk about the conspiracy theories on if the Chiefs get in on a bad call, but can you imagine Swifties who have now dedicated their lives to being so upset that Mecole Hardman is getting touches that if Baltimore gets in on a controversial call, what’s going to happen on social media with the Swifties; it’ll be a nightmare,” show contributor Jeremy Taché said. “That can’t happen.”
Even though Weiner believes it would be enjoyable to see the Chiefs lose the game in this fashion, he was surprised to find out that Le Batard is rooting for the reverse scenario. With Ravens quarterback and two-time league MVP Lamar Jackson trying to make his first Super Bowl, he seemed to believe it to be a more compelling angle.
“This is what I am rooting for when I root for the stories and not the content, Stugotz. I’m rooting for just the stories,” Le Batard said, proceeding to discuss the Lions upcoming game. He then continued by expressing his opinion on the AFC Championship game. “….I am not rooting for the underdog in this circumstance; in fact, I believe that Baltimore is going to drag Kansas City, but I am afraid that Patrick Mahomes might be Michael Jordan somehow, even though that’s not what I’ve seen from this team.”
