Some of the fellas in the Dallas Cowboys locker room (including Dak Prescott) call you “Bandwagon Fans.” Some of the folks in the national media (led by ESPN's Michael Wilbon) call you “Fraudulent Fans.”
Well, congratulations, “Bandwagon Fraudulent Cowboys Nation” - because you just created Super Bowl-sized ratings for Thursday’s game between your Cowboys and the Las Vegas Raiders.
CBS announced that Thanksgiving’s game delivered an estimated 38.531 million viewers.
That means …
*The Cowboys-Raiders game is the most-watched NFL regular-season game on any network since 1990.
*This year’s Thanksgiving TV ratings for the Cowboys outing is up 26 percent from last year’s game.
*This Cowboys-Raiders game is the most-watched TV program - sports or otherwise - on any network since Super Bowl LV.
There are surely a number of factors that contribute to this financial bonanza for the league and the network. A general American passion for the NFL is among those - the passion being so strong that the fan base is willing to slog through the 28 penalties called over the course of this one.
And there is a specific attraction to stars like QB Dak Prescott and TV's Tony Romo, of course - but without the attention of fans, there are no "stars.''
So this story is really about the number of people who are drawn to the Cowboys. Uber-devoted or casual, “haters” (who actually love to watch Dallas), “bandwagoners” (which there is nothing wrong with being) or “non-existent frauds” (which, ironically, do not exist) … a record was just set.
And Cowboys fans are the ones who set it.
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