• by Wayne Friedman , Staff Writer, February 8, 2016

Richard Sherman of the Seattle Seahawks said he wasn’t going to watch the Super Bowl this year. Andrew Luck of the Indianapolis Colts didn’t really watch last year, and odds are he didn’t watch this year.

Hey, Super Bowl advertisers: Are you really getting all the viewers you want? True NFL combatants can’t really watch, maybe because it’s too difficult not to be there playing. All to say, marketers may be missing this niche “competitor demographic.”

But no doubt Super Bowl advertisers will lure other viewers: Perhaps more than 114 million, which would be another record for U.S. TV history.  Can’t win them all -- and apparently neither can the Carolina Panthers, who went 16-1 in the regular season and were the odds-on favorite to win the big game against the Denver Broncos.

Too bad. Marketers spent plenty in celebrities and glitz for Super Bowl ads -- as well as a record $5 million for a 30-second commercial. But not everything was higher.

For example, the amount of Super Bowl traditional TV “teaser” advertising -- commercials that air before the game -- actually declined this year versus 2015.

Some 73 individual TV commercials (43 brands) spent a collective $9.7 million in 2016 through Feb. 4 --  down from $11.6 million, 105 commercials (41 brands) for Super Bowl 2015, according to iSpot.tv.

Total online views of Super Bowl TV ads were 274.5 million through Feb. 4, up from 233.1 million in 2015. Facebook got 135.4 million views; YouTube got 139.1 million. For YouTube, about 25%, or 68.4 million, were “earned” views -- stuff marketers don’t pay for.  A year ago 84% of YouTube ads were organic and/or earned.

Good news. Maybe some of those smart non-Super-Bowl-playing NFL athletes watched some of those teaser TV commercials. No reason then to see reruns later on TV’s big day. Perhaps next year they will find way to watch some actual football -- and no doubt even pricier 30-second TV commercials.