Games to play during the Super Bowl

Your guess is as good as mine
There are dozens of variables to guess about during the Super Bowl—from which team will win the coin toss or score the first touchdown to how long the game will last and who will be named Most Valuable Player. You can also guess the total number of points scored by both teams, and propose the old “over and under,” which requires you to pick a total number of points and have your guests guess whether the actual score will be over or under that number. Write up a list of these questions and make copies to hand out to your guests. Tally up the correct answers at the end of the contest and declare a guessing game champ, a.k.a. an MVP (Most Veracious Predictor).

Commercial venture
Have everyone write out the brand they think will be advertised first during commercial breaks. You can declare winners for “First commercial after the game starts,” “First after halftime” and “First after game ends.” You could even get as specific as “First after the NFC scores,” or “First after the first punt,” but someone will have to really pay attention and keep everyone on track amid all of the conversation, snacking and drink prepping.

Fair and square
No Super Bowl would be complete without a board of squares. To make your own, all you need is a marker, ruler and poster board. Draw a large box, as large as you can while still leaving room across the top and along the left side for team names (or just “NFC” and “AFC”) and numbers. Draw straight lines inside the box, creating ten rows and ten columns of squares. Have your guests write their initials in the squares, one set of initials per square. After all of the squares are filled, randomly assign numbers 0 through 9 to each column and each row—one number per column and row. (Use playing cards for this, or write the numbers on pieces of paper.) Each number represents the last number in the score at the end of the first quarter, at halftime, at the end of the third quarter and at the end of the game. So, if after the first quarter the score is NFC 10 and AFC 7, the guests who have the squares for NFC 0 and AFC 7 win. If at halftime the score is NFC 24 to AFC 14, then the guests with NFC 4 and AFC 4 win. Sometimes one person might have both squares. In that case, don’t be a hater…just offer your congratulations.