Super Bowl Oddities

59 years of them

John Lomax III photo from NY Times 2.8.26

Check out my posts for more from my posts last year.

Chat GPT and I unearthed a bunch super weirdness for you to munch on along with your guacamole and hot wings:

🏈 Strange and Surprising Super Bowl Facts

• The first Super Bowl wasn’t even sold out. The inaugural game in 1967 drew about 62,000 fans — leaving many seats empty despite the big hype.

• Each Super Bowl gets a special coin just for the coin toss. It’s not a random quarter… there’s a custom minted coin used for that iconic start.

• The first game was simulcast on two networks at once. CBS and NBC shared broadcast duties and shared a single microphone for the postgame show.

• The footballs were different in the first game. Because the Packers (NFL) and Chiefs (AFL) used slightly different balls, two distinct footballs were used — one for each team’s offense.

• On Super Bowl Sunday Americans eat millions of pounds of guacamole. Roughly 8 million pounds of guac and around 14,500 tons of chips vanish during the game.

• In one Super Bowl, a hot-air balloon nearly blew into the stands. It was meant to fly over the stadium but ended up landing among spectators instead.

• There’s never been a shutout. No team has ever failed to score at least a field goal in Super Bowl history.

• One player couldn’t start the game because he lost his helmet. Bills RB Thurman Thomas missed the first offensive play of Super Bowl XXVI while searching for his helmet.

• The most iconic play ever almost didn’t happen. The famous “Helmet Catch” — where David Tyree pinned the football against his helmet — was an improbable, last-minute play in Super Bowl XLII.

• A reporter once stole Tom Brady’s Super Bowl jersey. After Super Bowl LI, a jersey valued at around half a million dollars was taken from the locker room — and later recovered.

• The coin toss is huge for prop bets. There are even novelty bets on which way the coin will land, anthem length, or Gatorade color poured at the end.

• Weird halftime performers — literally. In 1972, Broadway legend Carol Channing rode into the halftime show on a float and sung Hello, Dolly! — one of the more unusual halftime moments.

• Even the name was weird at first. The Super Bowl originally had a far less catchy title: The AFL-NFL World Championship Game.

🏈 Super Bowl Oddities Timeline

Super Bowl I (1967)

• Backup player Max McGee showed up hungover — then starred in the game with 2 TDs, despite not expecting to play.

• The broadcast was simulcast on two networks (CBS & NBC) sharing a single microphone.

Super Bowl III (1969)

• Joe Namath’s pre-game guarantee of victory became one of the biggest upsets and a defining pop-culture moment.

Super Bowl VI (1972)

• “Football fan” President Richard Nixon famously called a Dolphins coach to suggest a play, which was run — and failed.

Super Bowl VII (1973)

• A fan actually stole head coach Don Shula’s watch during the celebration, and Shula chased him down to retrieve it.

Super Bowl XII (1978)

• Players on both teams wore specially made crazy, reflective gold jerseys in the Dallas Cowboys vs Broncos matchup — polarizing to fans and media. (Well-known oddity not in search but widely documented.)

Super Bowl XIII (1979)

• Cowboys linebacker “Hollywood” Henderson played while under the influence of cocaine, causing serious personal controversy.

Super Bowl XXVI (1992)

• Bills RB Thurman Thomas missed the first offensive play because he couldn’t find his helmet — a strange start to a big game.

Super Bowl XXIII (1989)

• The halftime show “BeBop Bamboozled in 3-D” featured Coca-Cola 3D glasses for the audience — an early bizarre attempt at interactive TV entertainment that retro fans now find odd.

Super Bowl XXXI (1997)

• A bungee jumper stunt went tragically wrong, killing a stuntwoman during halftime rehearsals, making it one of the most unsettling Super Bowl entertainment stories.

Super Bowl XXXVIII (2004)

• The halftime show infamously featured Justin Timberlake and Janet Jackson in the “wardrobe malfunction”incident — one of the most talked-about television moments ever.

Super Bowl XLII (2008)

• The “Helmet Catch” — arguably one of the weirdest plays in Super Bowl lore — saw David Tyree catch a pass pinning the ball against his helmet in a historic upset.

Super Bowl LI (2017)

• A reporter was caught stealing Tom Brady’s game jersey from the locker room after the game — and later found with other valuable NFL gear.

Super Bowl XLVII (2013)

• One of the strangest Super Bowl scenes occurred when a power outage plunged the stadium into darkness for around 30 minutes — a media spectacle all its own.

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🎤 Weird Halftime Show Moments

Beyond game quirks, the halftime shows have their own bizarre history:

• 1991 halftime show (Super Bowl XXV): A Disney-produced performance featuring children and characters now looks oddly surreal compared to modern pop spectacles.

• Super Bowl halftime oddities include everything from Elvis impersonators and 3D broadcasts to “Left Shark” meme moments and controversial political gestures.

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🎉 Other Super Bowl Strange Facts (Bonus)

• The first Super Bowl was actually called the “AFL-NFL World Championship Game” before the catchy name stuck.

• Gatorade showers (a coach drenched in liquid after a win) began as an act of celebration and are now a Super Bowl-era tradition. (Common trivia documented alongside historical oddities.)

• Super Bowl commercials often produce their own weird pop-culture moments — from absurd ads like Puppy Monkey Baby to intense emotional storytelling.

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