MJMANDALAY
02-04-2007, 08:42 AM
Just in case you were wondering: At halftime of today's Super Bowl, it's okay to flush the toilet bowl.
Though not a national or religious holiday, Super Bowl Sunday is an American institution, easily eclipsing second-division holidays like Arbor Day or Armistice Day in the collective consciousness.
And like many holidays, Super Bowl Sunday has over the years developed its own special lore that finds its way into the chatter as Gridiron America heads into its annual grand finale.
Granted, it's not Santa or the Easter bunny, but here in no particular order are the six most frequently cited game day legends, according to the urban-legend-busting Web site Snopes.com.
1. Sewage systems of major cities have been overwhelmed by the simultaneous flushing of toilets during halftime.
Snopes says rumors of toilet-flushing havoc related to super-popular entertainment events date to the 1930s' Amos'n'Andy radio program. The connection to the Super Bowl may have started in 1984 when a water main in Salt Lake City burst during the game, but such occurrences were hardly uncommon at the time, and the break was never linked to super-fan flushing.
The three-to-four-hour Super Bowl features almost as much commercial time as it does football, offering plenty of opportunity for fans to heed nature's call. Think about it: Who is going to sit there wriggling in discomfort, refusing to budge from their recliner until halftime, so they won't miss even a few minutes of game play or over-hyped commercials?
Besides, these days many people can just hit the pause button.
2. The Super Bowl turns husbands and boyfriends into super bullies.
The claim that more women are the victims of domestic abuse on Super Bowl Sunday than on any other day of the year comes up every year and has been cited as fact by many legitimate news organizations. Problem is, it's just not true.
It all started, according to Snopes, with a 1993 news conference by a coalition of California women's groups that cited a study at Virginia's Old Dominion University that purportedly found a 40 percent increase in domestic violence cases in northern Virginia during the 1988 Super Bowl, which was won by the Washington Redskins. The New York Times called it the "Abuse Bowl." The Boston Globe reported floods of calls to women's shelters and hotlines associated with the Super Bowl.
The Washington Post took a more thorough look and found that the Old Dominion study said nothing about Super Bowl domestic violence and that similar claims had come from well-meaning, but ill-informed, sources.
3. Super Bowl Sunday is the best time to visit Disneyland.
It seems to makes sense that, with Americans glued to the tube by the millions, a place like Disneyland might be almost empty. But is it true? Uh ... no. Snopes found that, while late January and early February do tend to be slow months for Mickey and crew, Super Bowl Sunday is no less crowded than any other Sunday this time of year.
4. During pre-game media interviews at Super Bowl XXII, a reporter asked Redskin Doug Williams, the first African-American player to start at quarterback in a Super Bowl, "How long have you been a black quarterback."
Though Williams says he remembers being asked this bone-headed question, no one else who was there at the time does. According to Snopes, a reporter did ask Williams when race began to be an issue, since he obviously had been a black quarterback his entire career.
No word on whether Lovie Smith of the Chicago Bears or Tony Dungy of the Indianapolis Colts, the first two African-American Super Bowl head coaches, have been asked similar questions.
5. To feed the need for game-time guacamole, two-thirds of all avocados sold in the U.S. each year are purchased within three weeks of the big game.
Again, says Snopes, big myth. According to the California Avocado Commission, a lot of people do go for avocados at Super Bowl time, but at nowhere near the volume reported in this rumor. About 8 million pounds of avocados are bought for the big game -- a lot, but far less than the 14 million pounds sold around Cinco de Mayo celebrations.
6. The annual performance of the stock market can be predicted by the outcome of the game.
This may be the most far-fetched sounding Super Bowl legend, but it is actually the closest to being true.
It goes like this: If a team from the old American Football League wins, the market will go down; if a team from the old National Football League wins, the market will go up.
Tracking the evidence can get confusing, because teams shift cities and leagues, and expansion teams have been added. Still, the Super Bowl outcome predicts market trends at a rate far beyond mere probability.
In those seasons in which an old-line NFL or AFL team has won, the markets have responded accurately 31 of 38 years, according to Snopes. Last year was a perfect example, with the Pittsburgh Steelers' win correctly forecasting a rising market.
Look for a bullish year on Wall Street this year: The Bears are an old NFL team and so are the Colts, even though they switched to the AFC in 1970.
Though not a national or religious holiday, Super Bowl Sunday is an American institution, easily eclipsing second-division holidays like Arbor Day or Armistice Day in the collective consciousness.
And like many holidays, Super Bowl Sunday has over the years developed its own special lore that finds its way into the chatter as Gridiron America heads into its annual grand finale.
Granted, it's not Santa or the Easter bunny, but here in no particular order are the six most frequently cited game day legends, according to the urban-legend-busting Web site Snopes.com.
1. Sewage systems of major cities have been overwhelmed by the simultaneous flushing of toilets during halftime.
Snopes says rumors of toilet-flushing havoc related to super-popular entertainment events date to the 1930s' Amos'n'Andy radio program. The connection to the Super Bowl may have started in 1984 when a water main in Salt Lake City burst during the game, but such occurrences were hardly uncommon at the time, and the break was never linked to super-fan flushing.
The three-to-four-hour Super Bowl features almost as much commercial time as it does football, offering plenty of opportunity for fans to heed nature's call. Think about it: Who is going to sit there wriggling in discomfort, refusing to budge from their recliner until halftime, so they won't miss even a few minutes of game play or over-hyped commercials?
Besides, these days many people can just hit the pause button.
2. The Super Bowl turns husbands and boyfriends into super bullies.
The claim that more women are the victims of domestic abuse on Super Bowl Sunday than on any other day of the year comes up every year and has been cited as fact by many legitimate news organizations. Problem is, it's just not true.
It all started, according to Snopes, with a 1993 news conference by a coalition of California women's groups that cited a study at Virginia's Old Dominion University that purportedly found a 40 percent increase in domestic violence cases in northern Virginia during the 1988 Super Bowl, which was won by the Washington Redskins. The New York Times called it the "Abuse Bowl." The Boston Globe reported floods of calls to women's shelters and hotlines associated with the Super Bowl.
The Washington Post took a more thorough look and found that the Old Dominion study said nothing about Super Bowl domestic violence and that similar claims had come from well-meaning, but ill-informed, sources.
3. Super Bowl Sunday is the best time to visit Disneyland.
It seems to makes sense that, with Americans glued to the tube by the millions, a place like Disneyland might be almost empty. But is it true? Uh ... no. Snopes found that, while late January and early February do tend to be slow months for Mickey and crew, Super Bowl Sunday is no less crowded than any other Sunday this time of year.
4. During pre-game media interviews at Super Bowl XXII, a reporter asked Redskin Doug Williams, the first African-American player to start at quarterback in a Super Bowl, "How long have you been a black quarterback."
Though Williams says he remembers being asked this bone-headed question, no one else who was there at the time does. According to Snopes, a reporter did ask Williams when race began to be an issue, since he obviously had been a black quarterback his entire career.
No word on whether Lovie Smith of the Chicago Bears or Tony Dungy of the Indianapolis Colts, the first two African-American Super Bowl head coaches, have been asked similar questions.
5. To feed the need for game-time guacamole, two-thirds of all avocados sold in the U.S. each year are purchased within three weeks of the big game.
Again, says Snopes, big myth. According to the California Avocado Commission, a lot of people do go for avocados at Super Bowl time, but at nowhere near the volume reported in this rumor. About 8 million pounds of avocados are bought for the big game -- a lot, but far less than the 14 million pounds sold around Cinco de Mayo celebrations.
6. The annual performance of the stock market can be predicted by the outcome of the game.
This may be the most far-fetched sounding Super Bowl legend, but it is actually the closest to being true.
It goes like this: If a team from the old American Football League wins, the market will go down; if a team from the old National Football League wins, the market will go up.
Tracking the evidence can get confusing, because teams shift cities and leagues, and expansion teams have been added. Still, the Super Bowl outcome predicts market trends at a rate far beyond mere probability.
In those seasons in which an old-line NFL or AFL team has won, the markets have responded accurately 31 of 38 years, according to Snopes. Last year was a perfect example, with the Pittsburgh Steelers' win correctly forecasting a rising market.
Look for a bullish year on Wall Street this year: The Bears are an old NFL team and so are the Colts, even though they switched to the AFC in 1970.