Super Bowl Sunday Facts!

So before you gorge yourself on chips and dip, here are a few facts to round out your Super Bowl knowledge to you can properly celebrate this festive occasion.

There's nothing better than a cold brewskie while watching a game. The Super Bowl is no exception; Americans will drink 50 million cases of beer on Super Bowl Sunday. Not all beer is created equal, but about 94 percent of beer consumed will be Bud Light, Budweiser, Coors Light, Miller Lite, or Natural Light. Who's up for football drinking games?

Not all of us are football experts or enthusiasts, but the commercials are a key part of the Sunday spectacle that anyone can feel qualified to judge. Commercial spots during the Super Bowl are coveted and expensive. Nowadays, a 30-second commercial costs $4 million, but during the first Super Bowl, it was only $42,000. One of the most expensive food and drink commercials ever, "The Joy of Pepsi 2002", which featured Britney Spears, rang in at $7.53 million. Other ad heavy-hitters include Budweiser, Coca-Cola, and Subway.

The first Super Bowl was played in the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum on January 15, 1967. The game featured the Green Bay Packers and the Kansas City Chiefs. The Packers beat the Chiefs 35 to 10 and Bart Starr was named MVP. Each player on the Packers received a bonus of $15,000, while Chiefs players only received $7,500. These days, each of the players on the winning team can earn a cool $92,000, the losers $46,000.

It's wintertime, yes, but that doesn't mean you can't bust out the grill for the big game. Super Bowl weekend is second-biggest grilling weekend of the year, after the Fourth of July. 14 billion hamburgers will be grilled at tailgating parties across the country and 5,000 pounds of hot dogs will be sold during the game. 

Early halftime shows lacked the glitz of more recent ones. The Grambling State marching band performed at Super Bowl I. As the Super Bowl became more popular, big-name singers and musicians performed during pre-game ceremonies and the halftime show. The first, highlighting only one star performer, was Super Bowl XXVII in 1993. Michael Jackson's performance that year changed the course of halftime shows forever. 

What's in a name? The game was not always called the "Super Bowl." The inaugural match-up back in 1967 was called "AFL-NFL Championship Game." However, by the fourth contest, the name officially switched to the "Super Bowl." It is said that this new title was coined by Lamar Hunt, owner of the Kansas City Chiefs, and inspired by the popular toy, the Super Ball. In the contest's fifth year, the roman numerals were attached. 

Pizza may just be the take-out champion of the Super Bowl Sunday. Pizzerias expect their best sales on Super Bowl Sunday, Halloween, New Year's Eve, New Year's Day, and the night before Thanksgiving. Sales spike during particularly close Super Bowl games. Domino's delivery drivers will log about 4 million miles on Super Bowl Sunday. 

The average Super Bowl watcher will consume about 1,200 calories while snacking; that's double the amount of the average daily consumption of snacks. It all adds up to more than 33 million pounds of treats and more than $50 million worth of food. That's a lot of chips.

While watching the game (more likely jumping up and down and shouting at the screen), you'll probably dip your hand in a bowl or two for some game day snacks. Across the country, some 4 million pounds of pretzels, 2.5 million pounds of nuts, and 4,000 tons of popcorn are expected to be devoured on Super Bowl Sunday. To go with all the guacamole made from 69.6 million pounds of avocados, 11 million pounds of chips will be consumed. Holy guacamole!

Sure, people stuff their faces with snacks and greasy eats way past regulation time, but game day is also an important day for take-out. It's estimated that 48 million people will order take-out on Super Bowl Sunday.

Not only does the winning team get bragging rights for a year, they also become the keepers of the Lombardi Trophy. The trophy is named after Vince Lombardi, the coach of the Green Bay Packers, who won the first Super Bowl in 1967. This football-shaped trophy is 21 inches tall and weighs seven pounds. It's worth $25,000, but it's priceless to the winning team.

Wings are definitely messy, but they are a classic game day food. So much so, that more than 1.23 billion wings will likely be eaten during Super Bowl weekend. If all of those wings were laid end to end, they would stretch across the country more than 25 times.