Happy Friday! If you're new to Now I Know, you'll notice that today's format differs from the rest of the week. On Fridays, I pause to write the "Weekender," my  "week in review" type of thing, or to share something else I think you may find interesting. Thanks for reading! — Dan

Hi!

The Super Bowl is this weekend, and I really don’t care who wins it, but I’ll watch the game anyway — because that’s what we do, right? If you’re going to a party, here are some fun facts you can share.

Yes, the National Anthem is probably lip-synched. In 1992, Garth Brooks was scheduled to perform it but he wanted NBC, the game’s broadcaster, to air a music video he created as well. They didn’t want to, but Brooks had all the leverage — he refused to sing the Anthem if they didn’t. As a fallback, since then, performers have to pre-record the song.

Not everyone gets the same commercials, and that can lead to funny results. Local broadcasters can pop in their own ads in some of the slots, and in 2009, that led to a one-second beer ad. Miller Brewing Company had a spokesperson pop on screen to say “high life!,” the name of one of their products, and only in a few markets. The ad seemed to work, though, increasing sales notable for the week after. Oh, and the ad time cost a lot less than the bonkers price tags you’ll get for national placements. In some small broadcast areas, as recently as ten years ago, you could get a Super Bowl ad placed for under $1,000.

You can’t watch the first Super Bowl. At least, not the whole thing. When the game was played in 1967, no one realized that it would kick off an annual tradition, and it was common practice for broadcasters to erase and reuse broadcast tapes. This was pre-VCR, so when broadcasters wiped the tapes, they destroyed almost all the copies of the recording. One remains, and here’s my story about that saga, which I shared in 2019.

The Baltimore Colts won Super Bowl V, but the Los Angeles Rams have the trophy. At the time — January, 1971 — the Colts were owned by a guy named Carroll Rosenbloom. But a year later, he the owner of the Los Angeles Rams traded with each other (yes, they swapped teams). A year after that, Los Angeles hosted Super Bowl VII, and for reasons unclear, the Colts brought the Super Bowl V trophy to display it before the game. But per the Los Angeles Times, “he trophy never made an appearance.” Rosenbloom and his wife, Georgia Frontiere, are believed to have taken it back — it was their team, not the Colts’ new owners, that won the trophy. The NFL reissued a trophy to the Colts.

In 2001, Guan started cancelling school on the Monday after the Super Bowl. Guam is an American territory and its people are American citizens, and they like the big game as much as anyone else. But Guam is also 15 hours ahead of New York City, so the game typically begins at about 9 am local time. As a result, it’s common for Super Bowl Monday to be a day off for the kids.

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Monday: Why is Mark Zuckerberg Suing Facebook?: A Daniel Day-Lewis problem, minus the Day and hyphen, and not about me.

Tuesday: The Video Game System That Ran Up a $500,000 Bill: A DoS attack, well before those things existed.

Wednesday: The Lost Tourist Who Found Herself: She was lost, but also found.

Thursday: Clowns + Firefighters = Police?: A brouhahaha.

Now I Know is supported by readers like you. Yes, you! Many of my readers donate a few dollars a month to help Now I Know grow and thrive. And in exchange, they get an ad-free version!

And thanks! — Dan

Here are a few things you may want to check out over the weekend:

1) “The Strange and Totally Real Plan to Blot Out the Sun and Reverse Global Warming” (Politico, 40 minutes, November 2025.) It’s the Simpsons, but real?

2) “These College Students Ditched Their Phones for a Week. Could You?” (New York Times/gift link, 13 minutes, January 2026). To answer the question, kids/family aside, I could for a week — but that’d be pushing it.

3) “On Tilt” (Harper’s Magazine, 23 minutes, February 2026). A look into the rise of sports betting in the United States.

Have a great weekend, and I hope the team you’re rooting for wins the Super Bowl!

Dan