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When everything is said and done, there’s a pretty good chance Super Bowl LIII will only be remembered for how forgettable it was.
There was no need to pop any melatonin if you watched last night’s snoozefest between the Patriots and the Rams, which featured almost as many punts as total points tallied and earned the proud distinction of being the lowest-scoring game in Super Bowl history.
If you’re like me, the only thing that kept you from turning off the game was the money you had riding on it— there’s close to zero chance I would have made it to the end if I hadn’t wagered on the color of the ceremonial Gatorade.
I spent more time than I can justify in the week leading up to the Super Bowl trying to handicap the various prop bets I gambled on last night. Sure, there’s not much you can do to increase your odds of predicting the coin toss but there are a few other bets where a little bit of research can come in handy.
This is especially true when it comes to my favorite prop bet: the length of the national anthem. Gladys Knight was given the honor of singing “The Star-Spangled Banner” before this year’s Super Bowl, and while she disappointed some people who bet she’d take a knee, her performance wasn’t without some controversy.
Most sportsbooks set the over/under at 1:50 and it initially appeared Knight was going to come up short. However, she threw a bit of a hitch in things when she repeated “brave” a second time to go over that total and plunged the prop betting world into chaos.
I would argue a song ends when the singer stops singing but some sportsbooks said the conclusion of the first “brave”—which came around 1:49—marked the end of the rendition.
Some books are grading the national anthem as an UNDER, ruling that the song ended before Gladys Knight said "brave" for a second time.
— Odds Shark (@OddsShark) February 3, 2019
Everyone is entitled to their opinion but some opinions are objectively wrong.
However, one gambling site decided to honor all of the bets pertaining to the length of the anthem to help put the controversy to bed.
National Anthem length grading update:
Our rules stated clock ended at end of first "Brave". That went about 1:49. Therefore the Under is the official winner.
However…
We have decided to pay out the Over as well. Both sides win. Thank this guy> @BetOnlineBurns
— Dave Mason (@DaveMasonBOL) February 4, 2019
It’s nice to know there are still some reasonable people in this world.