Will Kelly Clarkson show her midriff? What will Madge wear at halftime? Pop-culture bets give football-phobes plenty to tune in for Sunday. By James Montgomery Madonna Photo: Daniel Mihailescu/ AFP/ Getty Images Not to get all general here, but when you get down to it, there are really only two types of people in the world: those who care about the Super Bowl and those who don’t. The former will need absolutely zero incentive to tune into this Sunday’s retribution-stoked Super Bowl XLVI, which pits the New England Patriots against the New York Giants in a rematch of one of the most epic Supes of all time, XLII, which saw — wait, if you’re going to watch, you already know what happened in that first championship tilt (David Tyree, Plax Burress on the slant-and-go, 18-1, etc.), and suffice it to say, you’re salivating with anticipation over the next chapter in this rivalry. For the latter, well, that last paragraph probably makes about as much sense as the fact that the New York Giants actually play their home games in New Jersey, and, as such, there’s no way you’re going to waste your Sunday watching what amounts to 240 minutes of commercials intermittently broken up by the occasional football play (unless you’re anxiously awaiting the premiere of “The Voice,” that is). But, really, you should reconsider that stance — mainly because of prop bets. For the uninitiated, props (short for “propositions”) are bets placed on the occurrence — or non-occurrence — of events during a game that have little-to-no actual impact on the outcome of that game. Stuff like “Which color Gatorade will the winning team dump on its head coach” or “Number of times (insert name of famous athlete’s girlfriend) will be shown during the TV telecast.” They are supremely silly, not to mention incredibly suicidal, wagers, and not surprisingly — given that it’s the biggest football game of the year — Las Vegas oddsmakers work overtime churning them out during the Super Bowl. Shoot, more often than not, most of those Super Bowl props have absolutely nothing to do with the game itself. There are not only odds on the length of Kelly Clarkson’s national anthem performance, but what kind of outfit she’ll be wearing while singing it. Which means that, whether you know who BenJarvus Green-Ellis is or not, there are still plenty of reasons to tune in to Sunday’s big game. So in the hopes of inspiring you non-fans to watch, we’ve reached out to the online oddsmakers at to get their lines on some of the most outrageous Super Bowl prop bets. And in case you’re wondering: Yes, there’s a science to these kinds of things. “I sat down and watched six to seven videos of Kelly Clarkson singing the anthem at past sporting events, timing all of them,” Bovada head oddsmaker Pat Morrow told MTV News. “Once that was done, I took some things into consideration: that she will be indoors, [that] it is the Super Bowl and people have tendency to take a little longer, and came up with 1 minute, 34 seconds. And I think we are bang-on, because we have had it up over a week and have taken a lot on both sides and have not had to move the number.” See! So, without further ado, are some of our favorite music-centric prop bets. Oh, and we realize some of the numbers may confuse you, so just consider this: If you were to place $100 on a 2/1 bet, and win, you’d walk away with $200 (plus your $100 back). Conversely, that $100 on a 1/2 bet would net you just $50. If you were to bet $100 on a +200 line, it means you’d take home $200 in profit (plus your initial $100). A line of -200 means you’d need to bet $200 just to win $100 (the more probable the outcome, the more you have to put up to turn a profit; Vegas wasn’t built on winners, after all). Oh, and an over/under bet is simply a wager on whether an event will go over or under the stated time. Confused? Of course you are. After all, prop bets aren’t supposed to be about logic, they’re supposed to be about insanity. So let’s take a look at the lines! How long will it take Kelly Clarkson to sing the National Anthem? Over/under: 1 minute, 34 seconds. What will Kelly Clarkson wear to sing the national anthem?
