It was noted in The New York Times (in two different places), USA Today and at locations across the Internet, but it was news almost every sports fan in the United States already knew -- because they made it happen.
A regular-season football game pulled a higher rating than Game 4 of the World Series on Sunday. The Steelers-Saints matchup attracted 18.1 million viewers, compared to 15.5 million viewers for Game 4 of Giants-Rangers.
Yawn. Yep, that's no surprise. The football game held the attention in our house, too.
It's been that way since the start of the NFL season. Just last week the NFL announced that the 12 most-watched programs of the TV season to this point have been a dozen of its games.
While top-notch sporting events remain strong draws on TV, nothing compares to the NFL.
Still, the World Series was successful by many measures. It finished as one of the lowest-rated Series ever, but it helped Fox draw enough viewers to have the best week among all broadcast networks.
What remains, though, could be one final NFL victory. The concluding Game 5 of the World Series drew 14.9 million viewers Monday. It was up against "Monday Night Football" on ESPN. That matchup, Texans-Colts, might not carry the cachet of Steelers-Saints the night before, but if the football game (when final ratings come in tomorrow) drew more viewers than the concluding game of the Series that's just another football victory.
And the NFL will work to expand its dominance as the season continues with national broadcasts moving to Thursday nights and Saturday nights once college football season winds down.