I agree the NFL would be the largest story in the US, but it gets seriously diluted by apathy around the world.
If it spread to other sport leagues then you may have an argument, but really he wouldn't have been more than a finalist (which he was)
So Since you seem to agree with me I'll ask the question I've had since the start which no one can answer yet...
Why the hell does the rest of the world matter for this?
Time doing this is like USA Today doing this. Time is not a worldwide magazine. It is a US based subscription magazine. And we are on the same page that domestically the NFL has been the biggest story all year. I don't care about foreign at that time, and certainly neither should Time.
IIRC the US comprises of around 75% of Time's subscription base, that's not an insignificant amount for the rest of the world. This obviously leads to the magazine to be bias towards the US which is fair.
Metoo was also pretty big in the US, especially during the later part of the year (which adds recency bias) so it wouldn't be like the NFL would blow it out of the water in the US market. If the match gave the NFL a 55-60% win among the US market I could easily see the rest of the world tilting the scale towards Metoo given that NFL issues is non-existent to the rest of the world.
Fair enough. I disagree with Time but definitley appreciate your explanation ---