Super Bowl Trivia: All About the Big Game
Super Bowl Trivia: All About the Big Game
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Super Bowl trivia

It’s the most popular event on the calendar – so you’d better know what all the fuss is about. If you want to impress your friends and colleagues, you need to be on top of the NFL Super Bowl odds here at Bodog Sportsbook, but there’s even more to the big game than just the football. Here are some valuable nuggets of information you can break out at your next Super Bowl party, or simply enjoy on your own while you get ready for Super Bowl Sunday.

SUPER BOWL PROP SHEET

Biggest Super Bowl Bets

Chances are you won’t be putting seven figures down when you bet on the Super Bowl, but these monster wagers are becoming more common every year. We can’t track all the Super Bowl bets throughout time, but the biggest on record appears to be US$2.2 million, placed on Philadelphia –1.5 to beat Kansas City at Super Bowl LVII; the Eagles lost 38-35.

We also can’t 100% confirm this is the Canadian record for Super Bowl betting, but Drake famously put US$1.15 million on Kansas City (+104 on the moneyline) to beat San Francisco at Super Bowl LVIII. “I can’t bet against the Swifties,” Drake said on his Instagram, referring to Taylor Swift being in attendance to watch her boyfriend, TE Travis Kelce. Drake also put US$700,000 on Kelce and KC to beat Philly the previous year.

What Taylor Swift Ate

We all saw Swift and her entourage chugging beers at Super Bowl LVIII, but what did they eat? According to the New York Post, their US$2.5 million luxury suite at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas included the following, as served up in partnership with Levy Restaurants:

– shrimp cocktail tower
– king crab fried rice
– wagyu tenderloin
– quesadillas (lobster, steak or gruyere)
– “breakfast for dinner” (buttermilk fried chicken with waffles and maple syrup)
– “Hot Dog Macaron” (chocolate-covered banana and macaron with vanilla ganache and strawberry sauce)
– specialty Super Bowl chocolate boxes

You didn’t have to be hanging with the Swifties to enjoy some of the other tasty treats they were serving up in Vegas, including the surf and turf nachos (wagyu tenderloin, lobster, queso blanco and pico de gallo). But if you want to have what she’s having, now you know.

Highest Rated Super Bowl

You’re probably reading this from Canada, where the most-viewed Super Bowl – at least on television – was Super Bowl LIV in 2020 between Kansas City and San Francisco, with a combined 11.17 million across CTV, TSN and RDS. TSN claimed that the Super Bowl LVIII rematch in 2024 between KC and San Fran broke the record with an average audience of 10 million, but the stats from Numeris show otherwise.

When it comes to the Nielsen ratings as opposed to raw viewer numbers, good data is hard to come by in the Great White North, but the highest-rated Super Bowl in the US was Super Bowl XVI in 1982 between San Francisco and Cincinnati, at 49.1. The lowest-rated Super Bowl broadcast? That’s a bit of a trick question: Nickelodeon’s kid-friendly alternate version of Super Bowl LVIII drew a 0.5.

Highest Super Bowl Attendance

There’s nothing quite like being at the big game in person – especially if you were at Super Bowl XIV way back in 1980, where 103,985 fans crammed the Rose Bowl in Pasadena to watch their local heroes, the LA Rams, lose 31-19 to Pittsburgh.

The lowest Super Bowl attendance, not surprisingly, was during the COVID-19 pandemic. Super Bowl LV at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa had only 24,835 in the stands. The non-pandemic low was Super Bowl LVIII, with 61,629 at Allegiant Stadium  – technically a sell-out, although this venue can hold up to 71,835 for NFL football.

Canadian Super Bowl Winners

The Pittsburgh Steelers of the 1970s are remembered for their Steel Curtain defence and their impressive offence led by QB Terry Bradshaw, but would they have won three of their four Super Bowls (IX, X, XIII) without PK Roy Gerela? Before kickers were treated like lower caste members, the pride of Powell River, BC was a two-time Pro Bowler and a popular member of the Steelers, with his own fan club: Gerela’s Gorillas.

Other Canadians to win the Super Bowl include the following:

– OT Allan Kennedy (Vancouver): San Francisco, XVI and XIX
– QB Mark Rypien (Calgary): Washington, XXVI
– PK Eddie Murray (Halifax): Dallas, XXVIII
– P Klaus Wilmsmeyer (Mississauga, ON): San Francisco, XXIX
– P Mitch Berger (Kamloops, BC): Pittsburgh, XLIII
– TE Luke Willson (LaSalle, ON): Seattle, XLVIII
– P Jon Ryan (Regina): Seattle, XLVIII
– OL Laurent Duvernay-Tardif (Mont-Saint-Hilaire, QC): Kansas City, LIV
– TE Antony Auclair (Notre-Dame-des-Pins, QC): Tampa Bay, LV
– OT Alaric Jackson (Windsor, ON): LA Rams, LVI
– LB Michael Hoecht (Oakville, ON): LA Rams, LVI

Most Expensive Super Bowl Ad

The price for buying ad space during the Super Bowl broadcast keeps rising – up to US$7 million for a 30-second spot at Super Bowl LVIII. But according to Yahoo Finance, the most expensive Super Bowl ad was “Before Alexa” at Super Bowl LIV. Amazon reportedly spent $16.8 million on this 90-second ad, which featured Ellen DeGeneres and her spouse Portia De Rossi. If soaking in the ads is for you, you’ll love our lowdown of the top 10 Super Bowl commercials of all time.

Most Times Hosting the Super Bowl

Since they play the big game in the wintertime, it’s almost always a warm-weather city or an indoor venue that ends up hosting the Super Bowl. Miami is in the lead in this category with 11, although New Orleans will move into a tie when they host Super Bowl LIX on February 9, 2025. Next on the list are Los Angeles (eight) and Tampa (five).

Coldest Super Bowl

There’s a reason New Orleans built the Superdome: When they hosted Super Bowl VI in 1972, it was at Tulane Stadium, where the temperature reached a balmy 39 degrees Fahrenheit (about 4 degrees Celsius) as Dallas beat Miami 24-3.

Three years later, Tulane Stadium was also home for the second-coldest Super Bowl of all-time: Super Bowl IX, where Pittsburgh beat Minnesota 16-6 as the mercury dipped to 46F (8C). As you may have already figured out, there has never been a snow game at the Super Bowl – although outdoor temperatures have dipped below freezing for some of the indoor games, like Super Bowl LII in Minneapolis (2F, –17C).

Shortest Distance Between Teams

We have yet to see a Super Bowl where two teams from the same metropolitan area (Rams-Chargers, Giants-Jets, Ravens-Commanders) faced each other, but we got pretty close at Super Bowl XLI in 2007 when Indianapolis faced Chicago; those two Midwestern cities are 164 miles (264 kilometres) apart.

Amazingly enough, there have been only two occasions where teams representing the same state have met at the big game. Super Bowl XXIX in 1995 saw San Francisco take on the Chargers, who were based in San Diego at the time, and Super Bowl XXV in 1991 was between Buffalo and the New York Giants, although the G-Men actually play in East Rutherford, New Jersey.

Oldest Super Bowl Quarterback

Tom Brady was already the oldest starting quarterback to ever win the Super Bowl when he retired from New England and un-retired to join Tampa Bay. Then Brady broke his own record by beating Kansas City at Super Bowl LV in 2020, at the tender age of 43 years, 199 days. That also made Brady the oldest player at any position to appear in the big game, win or lose. The youngest player? Green Bay OL Bryan Bulaga (21 years, 322 days) at Super Bowl XLV in 2011.

Who Does No. 12 Work For?

Speaking of Brady, his seven Super Bowl victories are the main reason uniform No. 12 has won more big games than any other starting quarterback – nearly one-third of the time at a staggering 18 thus far. But Brady’s not the only big name to do it:

– Terry Bradshaw, Pittsburgh (4)
– Roger Staubach, Dallas (2)
– Bob Griese, Miami (2)
– Joe Namath, NY Jets (1)
– Ken Stabler, Oakland (1)
– Aaron Rodgers, Green Bay (1)

It’s going to be a while before this record gets broken. In second place with seven Vince Lombardi Trophies is No. 16, most famously worn to victory four times by Joe Montana with the 49ers. No. 7 (including two each by Denver’s John Elway and Pittsburgh’s Ben Roethlisberger) is third overall and tops among the single digits. Amazingly, Nos. 1, 2 and 6 have yet to win the big game. Now that you’ve got the full skinny on the big game, you’ll be ready to amaze your fellow football fans at the next Super Bowl party – or anytime you feel like dropping some knowledge. In the meantime, we’ll be working hard at Bodog Sportsbook to make sure every single Super Bowl line out of the hundreds on our NFL odds board is ready for you to bet.

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