Nevius: Super Bowl feeling normal after season that wasn’t

You’ve probably seen a lot of media takes this year about how this Super Bowl is “weird.” No breathless week of Super Bowl hype. No in-person interviews. Playing the big game in a pandemic, with a restricted group of fans, they say, is “surreal.”

Not to me. At this point of the season it feels pretty much like the previous 54 Super Bowls. We’ve got a five-hour pregame show. Super Bowl commercials are being previewed on the internet. And a recipe for a three-layer Super chip dip just hit your inbox.

By now the hay is in the barn for the NFL. They already did the hard part. To the surprise and amazement of many (raises hand), the league managed to pull off a full 16-game season for all 32 teams despite the coronavirus. That was a minor miracle.

Now, there were some bumps along the way. The Pittsburgh-Baltimore game had to be postponed three times because of COVID. The 49ers had to play a Thursday night game short-handed because of positive tests, only to find that those players tested negative by the weekend.

But overall, they got it done. And if anything, the season seemed more and more normal as it went along. Watching games virtually seemed natural, even if the fans were cardboard cutouts.

We all mocked the canned crowd noise when it was announced, but it actually worked. And the crowd content control officers (or whatever you call the guys twirling the dials) developed a subtle touch ― throwing in some howls of protest when a penalty went against the home side.

So now, does the Super Bowl seem weird? Naw. I’ll sit in the same spot on the couch and watch, just like in years gone by. Another Super Bowl Sunday.

As for the hype, did you really miss endless interviews from Radio Row, the deep-in-the-weeds analysis from your favorite TV pundit and, of course, the annual dumb Super Bowl media day questions?

(A personal favorite. Tennessee tackle Joe Salave’a was asked, “What’s your relationship with the football?”

“I’d say it is strictly platonic,” he replied.)

You can even buy a ticket. They were available, even late in the week. But it wasn’t cheap. CBS reported that the average ticket for the game is $7,589, an increase over 2020, when the 49ers-Chiefs tickets averaged $6,621.

It makes sense. There are fewer tickets, only 25,000 allowed in the stands, and over a third of them awarded to health care workers. Also, the game is in Tampa Bay, home of the Buccaneers.

Giving the health care workers tickets is a good idea. It’s also good PR, at a time when the NFL is making an effort to burnish its image after the rough stretch of the Trump era. Pro football has been dragged into controversies over national anthem kneeling, Colin Kaepernick and a glaring lack of diversity among head coaches.

So the league would love to show that it is all aware and engaged in social issues. They even asked inaugural sensation Amanda Gorman to read a poem. I am going to go out on a limb and guess that it will be the first Super Bowl pregame poem ever. Nevertheless, it is a fine idea.

But the league was so pleased with itself, and made such a fuss of it, that one snarky internet headline writer wrote: “Football game to follow Amanda Gorman poetry reading.”

There is one facet to the Super Bowl that has changed dramatically ― gambling. There was a time when the heads of professional sports leagues were shocked and horrified if you mentioned legal sports betting.

Now, three years after the Supreme Court overturned a ban on sports betting, they are all in. Legal wagering is underway in 20 states, with more to come. It has become so commonplace we hardly notice a TV pitch for a betting site.

And, as a reward for reading this far, you win a prize. I have an absolute, dead-certain, can’t-miss lock of a bet that will win you $50.

Here’s the bet ― if either team, Tampa or Kansas City, scores a touchdown, you win $50.

That’s it.

What’s the catch, you ask? There isn’t one. And also, there is one.

First, yes it really is essentially a no-lose bet. Of course one of the teams is going to score a touchdown. And yes, when they do you win $50.

But here’s the tricky part. First you have to join the site and bet $50. Then they will pay out $50 in winnings to make the total in your account $100.

Gambling sites aren’t stupid. They figure it’s hard to pass up a sure thing. The New York Times tells the story of FanDuel, which was offering bets on the Pistons, giving them a betting line of +159.5 points. So, to cover the spread, the opponent would have to outscore the Pistons by at least 160 points.

Obviously, FanDuel lost that bet, to a tune of $2 million. But it also signed up 47,000 new subscribers.

And what the sportsbook sites find, I’ll bet, is that once you are on the site and can place a bet with a couple of clicks, you do more of it.

And, of course, the Super Bowl is like a starter kit for novice bettors. There are always plenty of wacky betting plays ― “prop bets” ― to pull you in. If anything, there are more this year.

One sign of the times is that you can wager on “How many players will miss the game due to COVID? Over/under 1½.”

You can also bet on the “color of liquid poured on winning coach.” (Orange is 5/4.)

Or, the old favorite: whether the opening coin flip will be “heads” or “tails.” Pro tip ― tails has won six of the last seven.

It’s the Super Bowl. They keep track of stuff like that.

Contact C.W. Nevius at cw.nevius@pressdemocrat.com. Twitter: @cwnevius