Your Super Bowl Primer.

It's a lot about food

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Most popular: Chicken wings. According to the National Chicken Council, an absolutely and totally biased source of information, Americans will consume 1.47 billion chicken wings on Super Sunday. The council’s annual Chicken Wing Report, which is a real thing, says the figure represents an increase of about 20 million wings from a year ago.

Let’s face it: 1.47 billion wings is a lot. The chicken folks say that if every player in the NFL ate 50 wings a day and also managed to never die, they’d still need 720 years to consume 1.47 billion. That’s so impressive that I didn’t do the math.

Also: We say “wings.” But you know full well that if what you’re eating ain’t got bones, it ain’t a wing. Just saying. You’re chomping on chicken product, not chicken wings. (More sauce is usually what’s called for.)

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Leading SB snack food: Tortilla chips. (Duh.) This data comes directly from SNAC International, the snack-food industry trade group, which is also an actual group. SNAC says that last year, we snarfed 34 million pounds of tortilla chips during Super Bowl week. We’re just exactly that fat.

The SNAC rankings from the 2024 SB:

Tortilla/tostada chips: 34 million pounds.

Potato chips: 28.9 million pounds.

Cheese snacks: 7.8 million pounds.

Corn snacks (come on, just say Fritos): 6.2 million pounds.

Also, SNAC is an acronym for Snacking, Nutrition and Convenience, according to its website. And that’s clever! Not every chip-maker would try to sneak “nutrition” in there so casually, partially because, you know, there’s no nutrition.

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Guac Watch: We’re in trouble. Although the threatened 25% tariff on Mexican imported goods (“The dumbest trade war in history,” opined the Wall Street Journal) was paused just in time for the Super Bowl, growers in Mexico have nevertheless shipped about 15% fewer avocados to the U.S. ahead of this year’s big game. Thus, you can expect the price of your guacamole to continue skyrocketing through the, um, the rest of…well…I’m not actually sure what other event besides the Super Bowl calls for this much guac.

I did find an article quoting experts from the Wells Fargo Agri-Food Institute that suggested Super Bowl party hosts should consider replacing avocados/guacamole, whose cost has risen almost 12%, with the much cheaper broccoli. And that is an awesome way to make sure that you’ll be able to watch the game undisturbed by any guests.

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Most searched SB party foods on Google trends: Charcuterie boards and seven-layer dip.

What’s in seven-layer dip: Usually? Refried beans, taco-seasoned sour cream, homemade guacamole (those pesky avocados again), tomatoes, and cheese, according to most recipes. But that’s only five layers.

Wait! There’s also lettuce and salsa. (You making a full layer out of thick salsa? Really?)

Food to definitely avoid at SB party: Anything shaped like a football. These are generally weird homemade ideas. Failure rate: 78%, according to informal surveys of unhappy party-goers at previous homes we’ve visited.

Suggested one-person serving of pigs in a blanket: Three, according to an AI-generated response to the question. Feels like too few.

Sides to serve with pigs in a blanket: According to famous pigs-in-a-blanket-dough-maker Pillsbury, either mashed potatoes or oven-roasted potatoes would make a fine dish to serve alongside dough-encrusted tiny sausages. Apropos of nothing, I don’t understand why we have a health crisis in the United States.

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SB appetizers trending in 2025: Cheesesteak sliders, Hawaiian roll sliders, your other assorted sliders. Also: potato skins, meatballs, cowboy caviar, nachos, jalapeno poppers.

Did I almost sneak that one past you? Cowboy caviar is a bean salad made of black-eyed peas with red onion, chili pepper, bell peppers, tomato, cilantro, scallion, avocado (damn! they’re everywhere!), garlic and a lightly pickled vinaigrette dressing.

It is not caviar. It does go well with the seven bags of tortilla chips you bought. It is not related to Rocky Mountain oysters. It is sometimes called Texas caviar, in case you don’t understand what “cowboy” means.

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Super Bowl three-peats in history: Zero. The Chiefs will be trying to do something that has never been done, strictly speaking. In reality, the Lombardi-coached Green Bay Packers won the NFL championship three straight years, from the 1965 through 1967 seasons, but there wasn’t a Super Bowl to be played in that first season — and for that matter, it was marketed as the “AFL-NFL World Championship Game” the first two years. It wasn’t called the Super Bowl until 1969, the Joe Namath game.

Patrick Mahomes’ favorite sando: The Z-man sandwich from Joe’s Kansas City. Sliced smoked brisket, smoked provolone cheese, a couple of onion rings and BBQ sauce on a Kaiser roll. Mahomes says he Postmates this sandwich on the regular.

Jalen Hurts’ favorite sando: The Jalen Special cheesesteak at FoodChasers in Philly, which Hurts invented, then credited the foodery, whose sales immediately took off. Seasoned steak, Cooper Sharp cheese, fried onions and mayonnaise on a roll.

Andy Reid’s favorite sando: All of ‘em. But Reid, a legit foodie, is a cheeseburger connoisseur. Growing up in Los Angeles, he’s a dedicated In-N-Out Burger and Original Tommy’s guy, but in Kansas City he constantly gives love to Town Topic: an 80/20 chuck burger, with onions pressed into the beef that caramelize and crisp on the searing griddle, cheese, pickles, ketchup, mustard (but only a little), served on a steamed bun. Sounds better than broccoli, but that’s me.