Greeson: Super Bowl is truly super-sized

There are few adjectives as universally true about any event as the word used to describe all the events this Sunday.

It is Super Sunday, as the Kansas City Chiefs face the Philadelphia Eagles in Super Bowl LIX.

In fact, alliteration aside, “super” may be the biggest undersell for a universal game day that almost has become a national holiday.

Try these super numbers on for size:

— Super interest: More than 100 million viewers are expected to watch in real time. According to Neilsen, in terms of average audience watching a singular program, Super Bowls comprise all 10 of the top-10 most-watched telecasts ever, and comprise 19 of the top 20.

— Super expensive: Companies gladly pay $8 million for 30-second TV commercials during the Super Bowl. The advertising data company EDO reports that Super Bowl ads are 224% more effective than regular commercials, and one Super Bowl ad to an audience that size is comparable to 450 normal commercials in prime time.

— Super historic (potentially): The Kansas Chiefs are trying to become the first NFL franchise to win three consecutive Super Bowls.

— Super pop culture: Yes, Taylor Swift is scheduled to attend to watch her boyfriend, Travis Kelce, play for the Chiefs and chase history. But Kendrick Lamar — fresh off multiple Grammys earlier this month — will preform at halftime, and the list of A-listers expected in New Orleans is eye-popping.

— Super aggressive: With legalized sports betting available in 38 states, including Tennessee, the American Gaming Association estimates $1.4 billion will be wagered on Sunday’s Super Bowl. For comparison, in the entire year of 2014, there was $1.8 billion bet on sports legally in the U.S.

SUPER BOWL NUMBERS

— 123 million: Number of viewers who watched Super Bowl LVIII last year. It was a record that is expected to be surpassed Sunday.

— $3,000: Price of the cheapest ticket available on StubHub for the Super Bowl as of Friday afternoon.

— +1400: Odds available at FanDuel that any quarterback will catch a pass in the Super Bowl. Those odds mean if you bet $100, you would win $1,400.

— $500 million: Estimated economic impact to New Orleans this week as the host city of the Super Bowl.

— $517 million: Amount predicted to be spent Sunday on soda.

— 6,000: Average caloric intake for Super Bowl partygoers, which makes it the second-biggest eating day of the year behind Thanksgiving.

— 1.145 billion: Estimated number of chicken wings that will be consumed Sunday.

SUPER BETS

It started simply enough with a legendary Vegas bookmaker offering the chance for Las Vegas sports bettors to bet yes or no on whether William “The Refrigerator” Perry would score a touchdown before the 1986 Super Bowl when the ’85 Bears crushed New England. He did, and the prop market was born.

And the birthplace of the prop — the Super Bowl — remains the Holy Grail of the genre.

Sure, you can bet on the Chiefs or the Eagles to win. Total points and the traditional wagers are always popular.

But nothing puts the pop in a prop bet like the Super Bowl.

You can get odds on the coin toss, the color of the Gatorade bath of the winning coach, the first score of the game, the last score of the game and who will win MVP.

But those are just the direct game-related prop plays.

Also on the board are yay or nay odds-weighted bets of:

— Will Travis Kelce propose to Taylor Swift after the game? (Yes is 5-to-1)

— Will any player cry on TV during the national anthem?

— Who will be Kendrick Lamar’s halftime guests?

— What product will be pitched in the best commercial? (Doritos is the favorite.)

— Who will the MVP thank first in his postgame speech?

You can bet just about anything that comes Sunday, you can bet on just about everything.

Contact Jay Greeson at jgreeson@timesfreepress.com.