Whether you're a NFL fan or not, there's always something fun for everyone on Super Bowl Sunday. Most watch the Super Bowl for the football, but the National Anthem can sometimes bring out goosebumps and the halftime show is almost always must-see TV. And if you ever find yourself needing a little added rooting interest, there's always Super Bowl squares.
Super Bowl squares is a game that can, and should, be played by anyone with the Big Game on a screen, whether you're paying attention to the actual game or not. Here's how it works.
How Super Bowl squares work
The game is very easy to play. Whoever is running the game hands out a 10-by-10 grid to those participating, with the x axis and y axis each assigned to one of the two teams playing in that year's Super Bowl (in this case, the Seahawks and Patriots). Each participant then picks one or more square on the grid (there's often a fee involved per square). Here's a visual example:
Once the grid is completely filled in, all 10 rows and all 10 columns will be randomly assigned a numerical value from zero to nine. On Super Bowl Sunday, those randomized numbers will be made public, with each selected box in the grid being assigned two numerical values — one for the AFC participant, and one for the NFC participant.
The winner (selected at the end of each quarter) is the person whose assigned box has the same two numbers as the last number in each team’s score. For example: Let's say your box happened to wind up as Patriots 7 and Seahawks 3. In that case, you'd be rooting for the final score at the end of each quarter to end with a seven and a three, respectively. If New England leads Seattle 7-3 at the end of the first quarter, you're a winner. If the Patriots win by a final score of 27-23, you're a winner.
Usually, the prize money goes up per quarter, with the final score bringing out the largest payout. It's unlikely for a participant to win all four quarters with one square, of course, but winning the final score box will make watching the whole game worthwhile, even for the biggest football hater.
The randomness of this game is what makes it fun for everyone to play. You don't need to know a single thing about the sport. Of course, that's also what can make it infuriating.
Best Super Bowl square numbers to have
The best Super Bowl numbers to have are zero, one, three, four and seven, and the reason why is quite obvious: They are the most frequent last digits in football, since touchdowns are worth seven points and field goals are worth three.
For that reason, seven and three are the most popular numbers to get excited about, but what about the others? Zero is a good number to have because not only is it far from out of the ordinary for a team to go scoreless in the first quarter, but a touchdown and a field goal also result in 10 points. Two touchdowns and two field goals adds up to 20 points. There are a variety of ways a score can end in a zero.
Ones and fours work well because two touchdowns give you 14 points and three touchdowns give you 21 points. Three touchdowns and a field goal get you to 24 points, and a touchdown (with a two-point conversion) and a field goal get you to 11 points. There are different realistic paths to get to those numbers.
You want as many bites at the apple as possible. You want numbers that can either appear directly (like three or seven with a field goal or touchdown) or numbers that can be featured as many times as possible. These five numbers fit that bill best.
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