Non-football fans there for the food and the commercials have been a staple of Super Bowl parties for decades.
But with the appetizers already on the table upon their arrival and the biggest water cooler ads appearing online days ahead of time, the battle to keep their attention during the game has grown tougher than ever.
Here’s where prop bets come to save the day! Or at least stave off the inevitable. Below is a look at five prop bets taking place just before and after the opening kickoff that might keep the non-football fans in your living room engaged beyond 6:30 PM Sunday night. All Super Bowl betting odds from DraftKings as of Feb. 7.
The National Anthem
Country star Chris Stapleton is slated to join the likes of Billy Joel, Mariah Carey, Cher, Diana Ross, Beyonce, Gladys Knight and the late great Aretha Franklin in the select group of musical icons to perform the National Anthem prior to the Super Bowl.
The anthem generally runs a shade under two minutes, though Joel clocked in at just 90 seconds for Super Bowl 41 and Alicia Keys, the singer for Super Bowl 47, performed for two minutes and 35 seconds.
DraftKings has established an over/under of 2:02, with over (-125) having slightly better odds than under (-105). Perhaps that’s a nod to Stapleton’s cover of Metallica’s “Nothing Else Matters” lasting more than eight minutes, or more than two minutes longer than the original.
(Also, there’s no way to bet on Stapleton’s version being better than Whitney Houston’s prior to Super Bowl XXV, because we all know that’s impossible)
Prediction: Over -125. What can I say, the length of the Metallica cover nudged me.
The Coin Flip
Here’s a chance for the non-football fan in your life to place a can’t-lose bet! Both heads and tails are at +100, as are the Eagles and Chiefs to be the winning coin toss team. Obviously, a small wager on each outcome will ensure your friends exit the coin flip with as much money as they had entering it.
But if your non-football fan friends want to stoke their competitive juices before the game officially begins? The trends over the last 56 years confirm that everything you’ve ever been told about coin flips is true.
Tails holds the all-time lead by a narrow 29-27 margin, though heads has closed the gap by winning four times in the last six years.
In a quirky wrinkle, the NFC has dominated the coin flip, with 20 wins in the last 28 years per the play-by-play data for Super Bowl games at Pro Football Reference. However, the AFC has won two in a row.
So maybe this is a parallel universe version of the AFC beginning to turn the tide of the actual Super Bowl in the late ‘90s, when the Denver Broncos ended the NFC’s 13-game winning streak by beating the Green Bay Packers in Super Bowl XXXII. That win began a stretch of eight AFC wins in 10 years.
Prediction: Heads +100, Chiefs +100
Result of the Opening Kickoff
Might this be a sneaky way for fans and non-fans alike to get a little ahead before the first play from scrimmage? The odds of a return are +140 at DraftKings, which has a touchback’s odds at -175.
But just seven Super Bowls have begun with a touchback — including last year, the first touchback on an opening kickoff in the Super Bowl since the NFL overhauled its kickoff rules for the 2018 season.
Maybe that’s because the kick returner, a generally obscure player, has the spotlight all to himself at the point in which the most eyeballs are on the Super Bowl and he wants to try and create an unforgettable opening moment.
Of course, with only one opening kickoff return for a touchdown in Super Bowl history, the odds of that happening are considerably longer — +10,000 at DraftKings.
And while Eagles running back Boston Scott (who had a 66-yard kickoff return against the New York Giants on Dec. 11) and Chiefs running back Isiah Pacheco (who had a 48-yard kickoff return against the San Francisco 49ers on Oct. 23) are exciting players, they’re not Devin Hester, a transcendent talent who should be in the Hall of Fame for reasons well beyond returning the opening kickoff for a touchdown for the Chicago Bears in Super Bowl 41.
Prediction: Return +140
First Play From Scrimmage
Rush (31 times) has a healthy all-time lead on pass (23 times), with a shrug of the shoulder happening just twice — first when Roger Staubach was sacked leading off Super Bowl X and then when the snap sailed over Peyton Manning’s head for a safety to begin the Broncos’ nightmarish 43-8 loss to the Seattle Seahawks in Super Bowl 48.
But those numbers are heavily skewed from the long-ago ground-and-pound days — the first play from scrimmage was a rush in 13 of the first 15 Super Bowls — and in keeping with the current pass-first trends of the NFL, a pass (-105) and a rush (-120) are almost equally expected to be the first play call Sunday.
That said, rush might be a sneaky play here. Cam Akers’ four-yard run last season marked the third time in four years the first play from scrimmage was a rush and the seventh time it happened in the last 15 years.
Prediction: Pass -105
Method of First Score
Given the high-powered nature of both offenses, it’s not a surprise that touchdown (-245) is a pretty heavy favorite at DraftKings over field goal (+175) and safety (+2800). The Chiefs were tied for 15th in the NFL with 32 field goal attempts while the Eagles attempted just 25 field goals, second-fewest ahead of only the Tennessee Titans.
But historically, this one’s even closer than heads vs. tails. The first score in a Super Bowl has been via a field goal 27 times, just once more than a touchdown. (Somewhat surprisingly, the first score has been the quirky safety three times) Matthew Stafford and Odell Beckham Jr. hooked up on a 17-yard score last season to end a four-year streak of game-opening field goals — the longest streak of first scores via the same method since touchdowns produced the first points in Super Bowls XV through XVIII.
Prediction: Field goal +175
