Though my San Francisco Forty Niners barely missed another appearance in the Super Bowl, Sunday does present some weird and variable information. My focus is more on the unusual, as well as the food consumed. Can you believe it is the second largest day of food consumption behind Thanksgiving? Now, I am sure this varies among various races and ethnicities, but here in the United States, I can certainly agree with this. But I would eat the two things (liver and lima beans) I hate most, if my Niners were playing tomorrow!!! Most of you will consume 1200 calories, just snacking. This does not count meals. You are probably wondering what the most popular item served during the Super Bowl. An estimated 69.6 million tons of avocados, mostly as guacamole, will be served this year. If you decide to be lazy and order food, the most popular take-out and delivery items are pizza, chicken wings, and sandwiches. It is the biggest day for pizza sales, with Domino’s leading the way with 9 million slices. Lowly Pizza Hut has a 50% increase in business, and pizza delivery reaches 4 million miles. Tips increase from a few dollars to $20!! Americans will eat over 90 million pounds of chicken wings. This equates to 450 million individual wings, or 225 million chickens. Perhaps we should genetically engineer a chicken to have more than two wings!!!!
Even more astounding consumptions are 14,500 tons of chips, and 4000 tons of popcorn. Why, if I calculate the salt correctly, that means an increase of 8.5 mm Hg per adult in the US!!! (just kidding) But it can’t be good for you. Add to that, 5000 pounds of hot dogs. To wash it down, Budweiser serves as the exclusive Super Bowl beer advertiser for the last 17 Super Bowls. Beer sales increase $17.9 million during Super Bowl week.
For those of you who like to grill, Super Bowl Sunday is the biggest winter grilling day of the year. I wonder how it compares to the summer holidays, memorial, July 4th, and Labor Day? For the poor guy who gets stuck out on the patio grill, portable TV sales should increase as well.
Grocery stores sell $50 million more in food for the four days prior to the Super Bowl. For pharmacies, there is a 20% increase in antacid sales on the Monday after SBS. And those who cannot get that far, know that 6% of you will call in sick on Monday.
Can you believe that one in twelve of you will suffer through the football just to see the commercials and half time show with Madonna. And just 6% of us will watch the game alone, though 17 is the average number of people at a SB party. And be careful driving, as there are more alcohol related accidents on SBS on any day but St. Patrick’s Day.
For those of you concerned about the real pigskin (the football, dummy!), the NFL buys 700,000 footballs each year. But only 72 are used for the Super Bowl itself. And 35% of those who attend are able to write-off the trip as a deductible expense. I doubt that was a big deal back on Super Bowl I when the cost of a ticket was $6 at the Los Angeles Coliseum. I got in free for the Super Bowl in Palo Alto in 1984.
The only trivia that will elude TV viewers, would be which three players also coached in the Super Bowl. The obvious ones are Mike Ditka, and Tony Dungy, both TV analysts. The other one is not so obvious, a semi hometown boy from Sanger and of Hispanic decent. It was none other than Tom Flores, quarterback (back-up) for the Buffalo Bills and KC Chiefs, and coach of the Oakland Raiders. But still, it is the second most watched sporting event in the world, after only the Champions League (soccer) final.
This is the first Super Bowl to be held in Indianapolis, at the Lucas Oil Stadium, home of the Indianapolis Colts. In fact, I stay right across the street from Lucas when I attend the Indianapolis 500 Auto Race every memorial Day weekend. Many famous Hoosiers that you may see at the game: Larry Bird, Bill Blass, James Dean (his ghost), Michael Jackson (no comment), David Letterman, John Mellencamp, Red Skelton (deceased), Kurt Vonnegut, Jr., and Virgil Grissom. BTW, I will not be there since my Niners fell just short.
So, my SBS will have the following: champagne, guacamole and corn chips, chili with homemade Italian sausage (that I made), and cornbread. This is way too many calories, so I will do on an hour bike ride over the river and through the woods, before the game.
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