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Sports Drinking Game
Fouls, flags and replays - rules for every broadcast.
Sports Drinking Game
The Super Bowl Drinking Game
The **Super Bowl drinking game** is built around the one football game where the commercials get more attention than...
You watchThe Super Bowl
You needDrinks + friends
Triggers14 drink rules
Best with2-15 players
The Super Bowl drinking game is built around the one football game where the commercials get more attention than the coverage. Every February the broadcast stretches four fifteen-minute quarters into more than four hours of pre-game, anthem, coin toss, halftime show and trophy lift, and this game fills the gaps: you sip on touchdowns and flags when the ball is live, and on the ads, the celebrity cutaways and the announcers' quarterback worship when it is not.
Football's stop-start rhythm is what makes it work as a sports drinking game. A drive is a burst of triggers - a flag, a slow-motion replay, a shot of the coach chewing his headset - then a whistle and a commercial break where the ad rules take over. The halftime show and the two-minute warning give you two natural checkpoints, and a fourth-quarter comeback or a blowout changes the pace of the room more than anything you decide before kickoff.
How to set it up
- Pick your side before the coin toss, even if you have no team in it - the Super Bowl is far better with a stake, and half the variations below need everyone to be rooting for someone.
- Print a squares grid and fill it in during the pre-game show; it takes ten minutes and gives every quarter's final score a payoff for the non-football people in the room.
- Decide now whether the halftime show has its own rules (a surprise guest, a costume change, a wardrobe reference) or is your breather - it runs roughly a quarter of an hour, and it is the one stretch with no flags or touchdowns.
- Put the food out at kickoff, not at halftime. The commercial breaks are long and frequent, and eating through the first half is how you make it to the fourth quarter.
The rules: drink when…
The heart of the game: 14 triggers. Read them out before you press play, keep the ones your group likes, cut any that would fire every minute, and remember that a "drink" is one sip.
| When this happens… | …you drink |
|---|---|
| A team scores a touchdown | Sip twice |
| A field goal or extra point is good | Sip |
| A penalty flag is thrown | Sip |
| The announcers say the starting quarterback's name | Sip |
| The broadcast cuts to a coach on the sideline | Sip |
| A replay is shown in slow motion | Sip |
| A commercial everyone talks about airs | Sip |
| A player does a touchdown celebration or dance | Sip |
| The camera shows a celebrity in the crowd | Sip |
| A team is forced to punt | Sip |
| The announcers mention the score or the point spread | Sip |
| The halftime show starts | Sip twice |
| There is a turnover - a fumble or an interception | Sip |
| A team wins the Super Bowl | Drink for 3 seconds |
How to play
Trim the list to your room
A room full of football fans can handle the punt, field-goal and turnover rules because they are already watching the down-and-distance. A party that is really there for the halftime show should keep touchdowns, flags, ads and celebrity cutaways and drop the rest - those fire on things the whole sofa notices without following the play.
Drink on the broadcast, not the game
The Super Bowl is unique in that the ads are appointment viewing, so the commercial break is not a pause. When a big-name ad drops, the room sips just like it does for a touchdown. The announcers saying the quarterback's name is the sneaky high-frequency rule - in a game built around two star quarterbacks it fires every other snap.
Use halftime as your checkpoint
The halftime show is the longest stretch without a play, and it lands about ninety minutes into the game clock. Sip twice when it starts, then use the set to eat, refill with water and decide whether the second half keeps the same list or a shorter one if the score is already lopsided.
Finish on the trophy, not the whistle
The three-second drink is for the moment the game is won, but the broadcast keeps going: confetti, the Lombardi Trophy presentation, the MVP announcement. If the game is a blowout by the fourth quarter, move the big drink to the Gatorade shower so the ending still gets a payoff.
Variations & house rules
Team loyalties
Split the room by the two teams in the game. Your side drinks every time your team is scored on, and hands out a sip to the other side every time your team scores. A close fourth quarter keeps both sides even; a blowout means the losing side switches to water by the third.
Super Bowl squares
Run the classic squares grid: each person takes squares matched to the last digit of each team's score. Whoever holds the winning square at the end of each quarter hands out three sips instead of collecting a prize, and the final-score square hands out a drink to the whole room.
Commercial bingo
Make a card of things Super Bowl ads always do - a talking animal, a celebrity cameo, a movie trailer, a beer brand's horses, a tearjerker with a dog. Sip when one appears during a break, and the first to a full line hands a drink to everyone else.
Pro tips
Kickoff is early evening on the East Coast and the trophy is lifted after ten, so a beer an hour is the right pace - anyone matching sips with the touchdown rule in a high-scoring game will not see the fourth quarter.
The two-minute warning in each half is where the triggers pile up: timeouts, replays, flags and the announcers repeating the quarterback's name on every snap, so pause the play-by-play rules there if the room is fading.
Prop bets are the Super Bowl's real party game - the anthem length, the coin toss, the colour of the Gatorade shower - and each one makes a good side wager with a sip as the stake.
Drink responsibly: A high-scoring Super Bowl with a touchdown rule and a flag rule, spread across a four-hour broadcast, adds up faster than it feels, so the losing side of a blowout should be the first to switch to water. A movie-length game adds up fast, so keep the pours small, water between drinks, and swap any trigger for a sip of water whenever you like. See our safety guide.
Frequently asked questions
Do the pre-game show and the halftime show count in the Super Bowl drinking game?
Halftime yes, pre-game no. The pre-game coverage can run several hours and is mostly filler, so start the rules at the coin toss. The halftime show is a set piece with its own beats - a surprise guest, a costume change, a medley of hits - and counts as one 'sip twice' when it starts, or gets its own mini-list if your party is there for the music.
How long does a Super Bowl drinking game last?
Kickoff to the trophy is a little over three and a half hours, four-plus if you count the pre-game show. The touchdown and flag rules fire in bursts during drives, the ad rules fire during the breaks, and the halftime show is the one real lull, so plan on around three hours of active play with a quarter-hour pause in the middle.
What if the game is a blowout by the third quarter?
Switch the losing side to water, keep the ad rules and the celebrity cutaway rule, and move the big drink to the Gatorade shower or the trophy presentation. A lopsided Super Bowl is when the announcers start filling time with stats and the crowd cutaways, so the non-football triggers keep the room in it.
Which triggers fire most often in a Super Bowl?
The announcers saying the starting quarterback's name and the penalty flag are the two that add up fastest - a name-drop can happen every snap and a flag every few plays. Touchdowns are usually only a handful per team, so those stay at 'sip twice'. If your group is drinking fast, drop the quarterback rule first.
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