Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (R-La.) falsely claimed Wednesday that NFL fans would be restricted by a paywall to watch last night’s season opener, meaning more eyeballs would be on the Republican Party’s midterm convention in Dallas.But the Seattle Seahawks’ victory over the New England Patriots in a Super Bowl rematch was actually on NBC, so it was free.The GOP convention reportedly fell short of attendance expectations, even with President Donald Trump giving the rambling and ribald keynote address. Many Republican candidates had already said they would stay home.“How concerned are you that this convention won’t get the tune-in that you hoped for going up against NFL football on back-to-back nights?” Newsmax’s Rob Finnerty asked Johnson. “I haven’t heard a good answer or explanation for this. It almost seems like a scheduling mistake.”“Well, I don’t think it’s a mistake,” Johnson replied. “We had a limited number of days on the calendar where we could do this. The timing’s important because it’s close enough to the election to make a difference, but it’s also before early voting begins nationwide. So the dates are pretty strategic.”“I think the first night of NFL tonight, I think is a streaming service, so there’s a paywall. I know there will be a lot of eyeballs on the convention and what’s happening here,” the speaker added.Mike Johnson downplays the impact the NFL opener will have on Trumpapalooza viewership: "The first night of NFL I think is a streaming service, so there's a paywall. I know there will be a lot of eyes on the convention." pic.twitter.com/yIoR2yzjsJ— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) September 10, 2026Maggie Haberman of The New York Times told MS NOW recently that Trump’s circle had not accounted for the convention’s scheduling conflict with football ― when the event is in Texas, of all places.“That was an error that some people around him privately acknowledge was something they had not been paying attention to,” she said.However, Thursday night’s game between the San Francisco 49ers and Los Angeles Rams in Melbourne, Australia, will be on a streamer, Netflix.Johnson said he hoped Republicans would get mileage off the convention snippets on social media as well.“The clips that we’ll be using from this for the next 55 days will be very valuable to us to draw the contrast between these two sides and to let people know what’s really at stake in this midterm,” Johnson added.