YouTube’s broadcast of the Chiefs-Chargers game in Brazil was, shall we say, designed for a particular crowd.
The pre-game and broadcast featured a seemingly endless stream of influencers and stars that would only be known by someone born in the 1990s, and the broadcast also featured skits and gimmicks that wouldn’t be appreciated by anyone born before that time.
This dynamic was noticed by former Patriots and Eagles Super Bowl champ Chris Long, who felt like the youth-oriented YouTube broadcast was telling him that it was “time to die.”
“I watched the YouTube broadcast of the game in Sao Paulo, and I felt immediately like somebody who was being ushered to, like, an early grave,” Long said on his Green Light podcast. “Like, it just felt like, ‘Time to die, boomer. You don’t know who Deestroying is? Time to die. You don’t want to see MrBeast’s, like, giant f*cking pearly white smile as he Squid Games 2 NFL fans through a f*cking goal post? No problem. Just go to bed, you’re old anyways.’
“The whole thing to me is jarring. And I understand what old people feel like when programming changes because, like, I just don’t get it. But I’m old. And nobody wants to be the guy that’s like, is sh*tting on, like, streamers … like, I don’t want to sh*t on young people. But I’m like, ‘Man, I really felt it the other night.’ I’m not going to throw a fit. I’m still going to watch the game.”
In a way, it’s not surprising that YouTube would emphasize an appeal to young people. Their viewership is broad but tends to skew young. In what is good news for Long and all “boomers,” YouTube doesn’t have any more NFL broadcasts this season.
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