With so much buzz across social media about the big game, it’s hard to miss out on the wide variety of crazy conspiracies, superstitions and statistics about the Super Bowl.
For big games like this, fans might eat a certain food or wear specific clothes during a game. Fans might even have a special, “good-luck” seat on the couch when watching a game. USC student, Jake Thurman, is among this group of superstitious fans.
Jake Thurman: I’m a Patriots fan. So we usually we’ll have like a Super Bowl party and nobody’s allowed to bet on the score and no one’s allowed to make any predictions out loud. But since the Pats aren’t in it, I can do whatever I want.
For superstitious fans like this, there are some interesting stats about past Super Bowls which can be applied to Super Bowl 58.
According to clutchpoints.com, over the past 30 years, teams traveling west to the Super Bowl are 7-0 against teams traveling east to the Super Bowl. In this years matchup, the Chiefs are traveling west while the 49ers are traveling east. For those superstitious fans, this seems to be a beneficial omen for the Chiefs.
Another interesting statistic to fuel the superstitions of NFL fans is the fact that of the previous 57 Super Bowls in NFL history, two out of three of the winners wore white jerseys during the game. That’s according to NBC. On Sunday, the 49ers will wear white, while the Chief will wear red. For superstitious fans, it seems that the 49ers have the good omens in this case of jersey color.
Last of the interesting stats, regards the game’s coin toss. Of the past nine winners of the coin toss, eight of them have gone on to lose the game. It had been eight years in a row until the Chiefs broke the streak last year after winning the toss and the game.
A conspiracy that emerged in November of 2023, suggested that the two colors on the Super Bowl logo determine the two teams that end up in the Super Bowl. The colors on both the 2022 and 2023 Super Bowl logos matched the colors of the teams that played in both of those respective Super Bowls. This conspiracy added further support to the “NFL is scripted” narrative seen across social media, until it was debunked this year. This year’s red and purple logo does not perfectly match the red color schemes of the Chiefs and the 49ers.
Conspiracies, stats and superstitions like these might support the “NFL is scripted” conspiracies, but they are all just pure coincidence. Football is a game which goes far beyond a script, and its unpredictability and dramatic nature makes the Super Bowl the most watched television event in the U.S. every year.
USC journalism professor Alan Abrahamson gives it straight:
Alan Abrahamson: All these superstitions, all of these conspiracy theories are fun. They’re fun for sports talk radio. They’re fun for our taste. But in the end, the two teams have to line them up, hit each other in the mouth and see who wins. This is what makes football so great. It’s all just noise.
It will be interesting to see what new superstitions and conspiracies come out of this year’s Super Bowl. With America’s biggest game, anything is possible.
For Annenberg Media, I’m Roman Marchetti.