So, you want to have a Super Bowl party? Well that’s great! Of course you will have a lot of huge football fans at the party, but everyone that attends may not be a big fan. So, what can you do to assure they all have fun other than allowing them to bask in your presence? How about games? You can create some for the big football fan as well as some for the people attending that usually don’t follow the game.
First, let’s go over some of the games for the less serious football fans. These are the people that you want to help find a reason to watch the game, because they probably don’t watch the games on a weekly basis. Some games I know of that are good for them are the typical grid game, a bingo game for fans, and the “draw a player out of the hat” game.
First, the traditional grid game. I’m sure all of you have seen these, it is the 10 x 10 grid where people buy squared for an amount you determine per square. Then you fill in the numbers of 0 through 9 for each team after all the squares are picked and if someone has the square that has the last number of each team’s score in any given quarter they win a set portion of the pot (25% is easiest for each quarter, but you could weight the halftime and final scores heavier if you wish and first and third quarter lighter). That is one that everyone knows of, but I’ve also created two games of my own.
The first is a bingo type game. Make a large number of 4 x 4 grids to give one to each of your guests. Before they arrive put certain types of football plays that could happen during the game. Some suggestions are NFC Team Interception, AFC Team Interception, NFC Touchdown, AFC Touchdown, 2 touchdown passes by NFC quarterback, 2 rushin touchdowns by AFC runningback, etc. until you fill all the squares on each grid (different grids can have the same types of football plays). During the game people mark off their squares as plays happen until somebody gets bingo. The first person (or as many as you decide to have prizes for) that get Bingo based on lining up the plays on their board to make 4 in a row horizontally, vertically, or diagonally wins.
Another game is the “draw a player out of the hat”. Put players names on both teams in the hat. Just put players that are quarterbacks, runningbacks, wide receivers, tight ends, defensive players, and kickers (don’t put the names of offensive linemen in the hat) in the hat. Every person that attends gets a player’s name from the hat. Then have prizes labeled such as “first player to score a touchdown”, “quarter back that throws the most touchdowns”, “kicker that gets the most points”, “first player to get a sack”, “first player to get an interception” and any other categories you’d like to use. Whoever has the player that accomplishes the task for the prize, gets the prize. These obviously don’t have to be big prizes, since there will be a lot, but you might want to have a couple big ones.
Okay, well all of those games are ones for the casual fans or ones that don’t watch football during the regular season. Everyone can play those games, but you might want to come up with a more challenging game for the more serious fans. So , how about a puzzle. Create an equation that adds players and subtracts them that are in the game. The trick is the fan has to add and subtract their jersey numbers, coming up with the final result. The first person that gets the correct answer wins a prize.
One final game for serious fans is a game based on “proposition bets”. These are the bets Las Vegas has where they let people bet on things such as “first player to score a touchdown”, “team with the most rushing yards”, “will the AFC runningback get more than 125 yards rushing”, “who will win the coin toss”, etc. Have a list of like 15-20 of these questions and let anyone that wants to enter fill out a sheet (the more casual and non-fans can play also and sometimes they luck out and win, but this does gear itself more to fans that follow football). Whoever gets the most correct wins the prize, if there is a tie then as a tie breaker before the game starts have everyone guess the combined total points scored between both teams.
Well, hopefully you will find some games that you would like to play at your Super Bowl party. You may be asking how to handle the prizes. Well you could do one of two things, either as the host buy all the prizes and absorb the cost, or charge “entry fees” for each game to help offset the costs of the prizes you purchased.
