Cody W. Pattison: Column by Celebrating Super Bowl weekend with dragons, gambling and Taylor Swift
Feb. 1—Dragons, prop bets and Taylor Swift ... what do all of these have in common?
If you answered you'll hear about them a lot this Super Bowl weekend, you win.
Everyone is bound to be preparing for Super Bowl Sunday, whether it's visiting friends and family, knowing who is bringing what in terms of food or even preparing for that one person who yells too much for no apparent reason or the other person who's never watched a football game and has a million questions.
My start to celebrating Super Bowl Sunday begins Feb. 10.
THE YEAR OF THE DRAGON
I tend not to believe in luck. The Lunar New Year falls on the Saturday before the Super Bowl.
It is the Year of the Dragon. My Chinese zodiac year isn't for a while.
But, my best friend's wife, Haleigh, sent me something in December that is in Mandarin and details that everyone born on July 4 will be among the luckiest people for the year of 2024. Winner, winner right here.
Maybe once the Lunar New Year kicks in my gambling luck will turn around.
For the Super Bowl — either way you cut it — people will be gambling for one shade of red in the San Francisco 49ers or the other shade of red in the Kansas City Chiefs.
SUPER BOWL SUNDAY
I tend to get up at least a couple of hours before the Super Bowl kickoff so I can ground myself like a Buddhist monk before deciding what bets to place.
Last Super Bowl, I remember "grounding" myself with about six beverages while I sat on a wooden chair at the bottom of my parents' driveway with the sun beaming on me. With my eyes closed, a car began honking.
It was my sister and mother returning from the store with food and snacks for the game, and I was blocking the entrance to the garage while music flowed out from the upstairs windows.
It was a good Super Bowl Sunday.
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This Super Bowl Sunday, I won't be home with my family, and it might not be as nice of a day to sit outside and soak up some rays.
Some prop bets do not require zen-like patience to fall upon oneself before making the gamble.
Some things are like clockwork when it comes to Super Bowl bets:
The coin toss will be tails as the mantra "tails never fails," enters my head.
I always put money down on the octopus, regardless of if it happens.
As a Raiders fan, it's always good to put $2.50 down on Super Bowl Sunday that they'll be champions next year. A man can dream, can't he?
Some Super Bowl bets do require some "grounding" before placing them:
Will Travis Kelce propose to Taylor Swift? Well, if the Kansas City Chiefs win..."It's a love story, baby," just say yes to that bet.
Against my better judgment, I'll take the Chiefs money line even though people on social media are making this thing out to be the 49ers with the Deadheads and the Chiefs with the Swifties.
Finally, some Super Bowl bets for me require not overthinking it and just placing a couple of dollars here and there to go against extreme odds:
Will the opening kickoff be returned for a touchdown? Sure. Shut up and take my dollar.
No touchdown in the game? Here, take my other dollar.
Will I have a good time regardless of whether I'm with family or at the local watering hole with friends making a to-go plate after I lose all of my money?
You can bet your bottom dollar on that one, folks.
(Cody W. Pattison is a sportswriter at the New Castle News. Email him at cpattison@ncnewsonline.com.)
