Are you a football fan who has no idea who Bad Bunny is? Or are you a pop culture enthusiast who's excited about the concert on Sunday but not sure what else the fuss is about? We get it. How can one person contain such multitudes?
Super Bowl 60 is Sunday, and no matter what your interests are (besides our great national unifiers of pizza and buffalo wings), you won't want to miss out on the chit-chat come Monday morning.
The big game has, in years past, yielded countless big moments —pulse-pounding last-minute victories, lexicon-shapingviral commercialsandunforgettable halftime shows. If this is the first sporting event you've tuned into all year or your first time ever seeing what Charlie Puth's face looks like, we'll help you excel at small talk at your Super Bowl party and at the office on Monday.
Let's start with the basics: In between extremely expensive commercials, the New England Patriots are up against the Seattle Seahawks. They're playing at Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif., where, coincidentally, there was alow-key earthquakeearlier this week. Halfway through the game, Bad Bunny, fresh off ahuge night at the Grammys, will take the stage.
Now, let's talk about the actual sports.
Conversation starter: Who are you rooting for and why?
Technically, this Super Bowl is a rematch between the two teams that played in 2015 — seriously,more2010s nostalgia.Back in the day, the Seahawks were poised to win, when quarterback Russell Wilson threw a heartbreakinginterception at the 1-yard line— that means the Patriots caught the ball and won!! I personally consider this game to be Starbucks vs. Dunkin'. We'll make the case for both teams.
The Seahawks
If you're looking for a good story, you should be rooting for the blue and green. As my colleague, Seahawks superfan Taryn Ryder, explains to me, quarterback Sam Darnold waswritten off for yearsand mocked by the media for months (OK, maybe he did deserve it for that one time he said he was"seeing ghosts" on a bad night), only to end up at the big game. Fans have been waiting a decade to get back to the Super Bowl for a shot at redemption after Wilson's last-second flop all those years ago.
If your goal is to cheer for the team that will actually win — and sometimes in this cruel world, that really is the vibe — you'll want tobet on the Seahawks. They've got the edge in every category: defense, scoring, coaching and so on. Honestly, this could be boring.
The Patriots
They might technically be the underdogs in this particular game, but I know I'm not the only person who thinks that the Patriots have a sinister aura in general that demands to be toppled, like Goliath in the Bible or Bruno Mars at the Grammys. This Super Bowl is their shot at a record-breaking seventh win — greedy, much? — and they've had anextremely easy pathto the big game, with a schedule packed with minimally impressive wins.
On the other hand, their baby-faced quarterback Drake Maye is a compelling character — the 23-year-old sweetie pie has a much softer reputation than Tom Brady and Bill Belichick, the QB-coach combo that ruled over the much-maligned Patriots dynasty before it all fell apart in 2020. (As a side note, I will confess that I am taken by the lovelorn thirst postingboth men have beendoing on Instagramlately). The Patriots could redeem themselves with this new lineup, but that uncanny continued success could also cement their villain status forever.
Wait, who are these people?
Drake Maye: The Patriots quarterback could become the youngest starter to win a Super Bowl. Pair his harmless demeanor with the fact he's really good at his job, and you've got a compelling character.
Sam Darnold: He's been the quarterback for at least five different teams, bouncing around until he landed with the Seahawks last year, after being dumped by the Minnesota Vikings for someone younger — go figure! He's only 28 but has the vibe of a weathered old sea captain to me.
Stefon Diggs: The Patriots' wide receiver is not as good as he once was, but he's still really good, and that's reason enough to keep an eye on him.
Cooper Kupp: The MVP of the 2022 Super Bowl is back for more on a new team. Dropped by the Rams last year, the Seahawks' superstar wide receiver has a lot to prove. Unfortunately, he looks a lot like Jake Paul.
Jaxon Smith-Njigba: The Seahawks have a lot of talented offensive players, but he's the best. This has absolutely no bearing on anything, but his birthday is Valentine's Day, and I think that's sweet.
Seahawks coach Mike Macdonald and Patriots coach Mike Vrabel: If I'm being honest, both Mikes look very similar to me. Macdonald is interesting because he's pretty new to this whole NFL coaching thing and really good at defensive play calling. Vrabel is a former NFL player who likes pushing people's buttons and unexpectedly led the Patriots back on the path to greatness.
Will Campbell and Morgan Moses: The oldest and youngest players on the Patriots have a surprisingly sweet friendship. Watch for their chemistry on the offensive line.
Hold your own: Expect backlash to Bad Bunny's halftime show
As the most-streamed artist in the world and the recent winner of the music industry's biggest honor, Bad Bunny is still a controversial choice to headline the Super Bowl halftime show.
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The stage has become abattleground for the culture warslately, with naysayers — includingpoliticiansandmembers of the Trump administration— saying Bad Bunny's music isn't American. Which is weird, because the 31-year-old reggaeton artist is an American citizen from the U.S. territory of Puerto Rico. Bad Bunny does sing predominantly in Spanish, which is also spoken byan estimated 41 millionpeople in the U.S.
Ananonymous survey of 58 NFL players conducted by the Athleticfound that more than 40% of them didn't like the choice of Bad Bunny as a halftime show performer. One respondent said they'd prefer "anyone who's synonymous with football and football culture." Bad Bunny never brought his DEBÍ TiRAR MáS FOToS World Tour to the continental U.S., saying he was concerned thatImmigration and Customs Enforcement would target his concerts. At the Grammys on Feb. 1, he used his acceptance speech to speak out against ICE, adding, "We're not savage, we're not animals, we're not aliens. … We are humans, and we are Americans."
Days later, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodellstood by him, saying that Bad Bunny had been chosen to perform because he's "one of the great artists in the world" and because his "platform is used to unite people and to be able to bring people together."
It's hard to imagine anything making bigger headlines than Bad Bunny and how people respond to him, but he isn't the only performer of the night. Charlie Puth, Brandi Carlile and Coco Jones will perform the various standard patriotic anthems before the game begins. Just before that,Green Day will performat an opening ceremony honoring 60 years of Super Bowl history. Given their political outspokenness, they were a controversial pick as well —President Trump isn't a fan— but their audience before the game will be much smaller.
Deep cut: Who's going to be spotted in the stands
Celebrity fans
The turnout of famous people at this Super Bowl probably won't be as substantial as it was last year —Taylor Swift and her squadhave the year off — but we're predicting a few celebrity sightings. Ben Affleck, Matt Damon, Chris Evans, John Krasinski, Jon Bon Jovi and Mark Wahlberg are all Patriots fans, and Seahawks enthusiasts include Chris Pratt, Will Ferrell and Jeffrey Dean Morgan.
Then there's of course Cardi B, who is dating the Patriots superstar Stefon Diggs. She just performed onSaturday Night Liveand kicks off her Little Miss Drama Tour a few days after the game, so she's having a bit of a moment, whether or not her boyfriend's team plays well.
The WAGs
The wives and girlfriends of players are showmen in their own right, and none of them are having as big of a breakout year as Ann Michael Maye, Drake Maye's wife. The couple has been together since middle school, and she's beenblowing up on TikTokwith her aggressively normal baking and lifestyle content.
Sam Darnold's fiancée, Katie Hoofnagle, isn't such an enthusiastic social media poster — "I'm here so I won't get fined," her Instagram bio states, invoking an iconic 2015 line from Marshawn Lynch, the former Seahawks player (andBottomsstar).
Other notable names includeTori Gibson(married to Patriots running back Antonio Gibson),Riley Whayland(who's dating Patriots tight end CJ Dippre),Ahna Jaims Kreitinger(engaged to Seahawks safety Ty Okada) andHailey Louise Williams(married to Seahawks defensive end Leonard Williams). I'm addicted to watching them log the subtle chicness of the mundane parts of their lives on TikTok. Making smoothies is so much cooler when you're doing it before a big game.
Hot take: The commercials are becoming a bit predictable
The most expensive day in TV advertising is often a showcase for tearjerking, thought-provoking or otherwise entertaining commercials, but lately, they'vebecome a bit predictable.How many times can we pretend to be surprised by a celebrity spokesperson doing a bit about the one thing they're known for, like Ben Affleck for loving Dunkin' or Sabrina Carpenter for having boy problems?
I, for one, think we deserve more than the same-old tear-inducing beer ad or headline-grabbing stunt from a famous person. Stop forcingnostalgic mainstays to parade around in old costumesand make me feel something, or else I'll be forced to take my bathroom breaks during the commercials like this is just some regular day on TV.
