Heroes matter: Manning-Brady Matchup Delivers Best AFC Championship Overnight Rating In 29 Years

Can you see an Indycar driver today going to Daytona like Mario Andretti did in 1967 and win their biggest race? That is what heroes do.

AR1.com has stressed in numerous articles for the past 10 years on why athletes that are heroes make a sport and draw the big crowds. No one wants to pay money to see a wanker. Heroes have been a big part of motorsports like any other sport. Not the ball, not the bat, not the race car – but the people, the athletes, the really great athletes.

Why does Indycar have such few fans? Because they lost all their heroes, the drivers who dominated the sport and who did great things others could not. We cannot stress enough how important it is for a race series to find and cultivate the true greats.

How important are heroes?

A highly anticipated matchup between future HOFers Tom Brady and Peyton Manning helped CBS to the best AFC Championship overnight rating in 29 years. The Broncos' 20-18 win over the Patriots from 3:00-6:45pm ET drew a 31.8 overnight, which is the best for the AFC title game since Broncos-Browns drew a 31.9 on NBC in '87. Broncos-Patriots also is the best early window championship game — AFC or NFC — since '87. Yesterday was the first time in 12 years that the AFC Championship game in an early window topped an NFC Championship in the late window — dating back to a previous Brady-Manning matchup.