At that time, the shuttle mission had already been scrubbed several times for various reasons and NASA was under intense political pressure to ‘GO’ that morning. Hence, they pushed the button against their better judgment.
The Super Bowl was played the prior Sunday, and New England Patriots were in the Super Bowl. They were scheduled to launch that Sunday, but the launch was delayed until the following Tuesday. We were at a Super Bowl party that day, and someone commented that they probably scrubbed it for that day because of the Super Bowl. If I remember correctly, Christa Macaulliff was from the New England area, and this person was speculating that the astronauts wanted to see the S.B. I don’t know if that’s true or not, but if it is, that would be a terrible decision by NASA.