The NFL will be one step closer to determining who will play in this year’s Super Bowl after this weekend, and one thing is for certain, football fans will follow the games any way they can. That includes listening to games on the radio.

Westwood One, which is the official network radio partner of the NFL, revealed just how strong listenership of the NFL on the radio is thanks to a recent study.

According to Westwood One’s Audio Active Group, which unveiled the data compiled by Nielsen Scarborough USA+ and MRI Simmons USA, NFL playoff listeners on AM/FM radio are more likely to work full-time and have higher disposable income compared to TV viewers.

Additionally, MRI Simmons found that radio listeners are keener to attend sporting events, look up sports information on their phones more frequently and be more active in fantasy sports than their TV watching counterparts.

The study also found that 82% of those surveyed who said they listen to the NFL on AM/FM radio consider themselves extremely/very passionate about the NFL.

The average age of radio listeners is younger than the average TV watcher. The study found that the average age of people who listen to the playoffs/Super Bowl on the radio is 46, while the average age of folks who watch on TV is 53.

Monday Night Football with Peyton and Eli on ESPN2 has been a major success for the network the last two seasons, and one of the big things that everyone points out about what makes the show between the Manning brothers work is how organically things flow.

Eli was a guest on The Anthony Gargano Show on 97.5 The Fanatic in Philadelphia ahead of Saturday night’s Eagles/Giants NFC divisional playoff game, and Gargano said he was a huge fan of the ManningCast.

“I wish they would do it and replay it during the week, because it’s so much fun,” Gargano said. “I never would’ve guessed that you guys would be this great at it.”

Eli said it took some tweaking to really hammer out kinks from the first season of the MNF alternate feed, but he and Peyton both really enjoy getting the chance to put on a show for fans.

“We have a blast, and that was the idea of it to not make it like the normal telecast of a football game,” he said. “To make it very different and where you can just be very relaxed, you can take shots at each other, you can talk over each other. There’s still just a rawness to it we don’t want to lose.”

Eli said there’s never any real organization to the show, like putting together a rundown of topics ahead of time. That’s one of the things that makes the ManningCast unique, and Eli wants to keep it that way.

“It’s not scripted,” he said. “It’s kind of off the wall, off the fly, let’s go wing it like we’re sitting on our coach at home.”

Manning added that this past week for the season finale, he and Peyton were chatting a couple minutes before air time figuring out who was going to open the show and who was going to talk about which team. They book guests ahead of time, but often there’s never a set list of questions they want to ask.

It’s not a rumor or a wishful thought anymore. According to Chris Russo, we are getting the long-awaited Mike and the Mad Dog reunion. Russo and Stephen A. Smith will be joined by Mike Francesa for the entire two hours of First Take on February 1.

Russo made the announcement on his SiriusXM show Thursday afternoon. It is possible that it was a mistake though.

“Did anybody catch the reunion we’re going to have on February 1?” he said. “Did everybody see that? Stevie did say it on Howard, didn’t he?”

Stephen A. Smith told Howard Stern earlier this week that he intends to reunite Mike and the Mad Dog, but he did not set an official date. Russo acknowledged that he may not have been authorized to say it yet, but now that the cat was out of the bag, he gave more details.

“It sounds like the big guy will return and we’ll have the three of us in there,” he told the audience. “I can tell you this, no other people, the three of us for two hours. Think about that. You talk about me being a fraud, Mike hated ESPN for 100 years!”

If Russo is correct, that means no rotating analysts and no Molly Qerim. If the goal is to give the audience more Mike and the Mad Dog, then ESPN is making sure nothing gets in the way.

An interesting question now is what is Stephen A. Smith’s role in the reunion. He likely played a pivotal role in closing the deal to get Francesa on ESPN for a day, but what will he do on camera on February 1?