Super Bowl Facts

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Here are some interesting facts about past Super Bowls:

The coin toss before 1993’s Super Bowl XXVII in Pasadena was presided over by sports personality and future slasher O.J. Simpson, and the halftime show during that same game featured Michael Jackson and 3,500 children.

During a rehearsal for the halftime show of Super Bowl XXXI in 1997, the bungee cord of 43-year-old performer Laura “Dinky” Patterson malfunctioned, causing her to plunge headfirst onto the 50-yard line of the Louisiana Superdome. She died instantly. NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue kept his priorities intact after the accident. “The overriding thing is, we are here to play a football game that will decide the championship of American football,” he decreed. “Death is a tragic thing, but you have to put some degree of perspective. Life is a combination of joy and tragedy.”

It’s bad enough that you’re frisked and fondled when you enter the stadium, but every fan who entered the gates in Tampa before 2001’s Super Bowl XXXV was subjected to a biometric face scan. Using cameras mounted near each entrance, a security technology known as FaceFINDER tried to match every fan’s face to a global list of known terrorists and other baddies. And yet, somehow, Ray Lewis was let into the stadium.

Pizza restaurants do more business on Super Bowl Sunday than on any other day of the year. Domino’s alone delivers about 1.2 million pies to Bowl jockeys. With a standard large pie boasting 2,048 calories, the Bowl is responsible for Americans ingesting nearly 2.5 billion calories through Domino’s alone. “It’s a belly filler,” says Ron Paul, president of Technomic, a restaurant consulting firm. “If you have two or three beers and enough pizza, you’re happy no matter who wins.” Fat and happy.

One report estimates that 52.9 million American workers watch the Super Bowl every year. That equals two out of every five people who are employed. Each worker blathers on about the game for about 10 minutes every day at work during Super Bowl week. During the five business days leading up to the game and the Monday after, each worker costs his employer about $15.54—and businesses lose about $821.4 million each year because of water-cooler chatter surrounding the Super Bowl.

Nevada casinos handle as much as $80 million in wagers each year for the Super Bowl. But that figure pales in comparison with the $4 billion authorities estimate is bet illegally on the game. Law-enforcement officials believe that a large portion of that money goes to organized crime. “This money that mob families make on Super Bowl Sunday will go toward funding their other illegal activities, including drug trafficking, loan-sharking and prostitution,” says Kings County, New York, DA Charles J. Hynes. “It is the cash cow of organized crime.”

Serious auto accidents jump 41 percent during the four hours after the last play of the game. From 1975 to 2001 there were, on average, 4,000 serious crashes, 1,900 injuries and 24 deaths per Super Bowl. Researchers believe alcohol played a significant role in the crashes. And there were more accidents in the cities whose home teams had lost the game. So remember: Friends don’t let friends root for crappy teams.