People love to watch legends in action. Tom Brady and the New England Patriots hosted Aaron Rodgers and the Green Bay Packers Sunday night, setting off a ratings bonanza for NBC.
Darren Rovell of ESPN reported the Packers-Patriots game set the best overnight rating for a Week 9 game in the last 13 years.
The game was all tied up at 17-17 through three quarters, which certainly helped ratings stay hot. In the end, a fumble by Packers running back Aaron Jones on the first play of the fourth quarter sparked a New England victory.
Brady and Co. went on to engineer two consecutive touchdown-scoring drives, the first of which was sparked by a trick-play pass from Julian Edelman to James White, and the second of which was capped off by a long bomb to Josh Gordon from the golden right hand of Brady.
It wasn’t exactly the legend-versus-legend dual fans were hoping for. Aaron Rodgers still doesn’t look fully healthy, and he struggled to get anything going in the second half as New England put the clamps down defensively.
But star power speaks for itself, as fans flocked to their televisions to soak in these two future Hall of Famers.