From APM, American Public Media, and WNYC.

This is Freakonomics Radio on Marketplace.

Here's the host of Marketplace, Kyra's Doll.

Time now for a little bit of Freakonomics Radio that moment in the broadcast every couple of weeks

where we talk to Steven Dubner, the co-author of the books and the blog of the same name.

It is the hidden side of everything. Dubner, welcome back.

Hey, Ky, thank you. And listen, congratulations to you, your beloved New York giant

head back to the Super Bowl. I know. How about that Eli Manning, huh?

Peyton Ho. Yeah.

And so you're happy now, so it seems like a good time for me to confess a little something I've been hiding from you,

which is I've been kind of two-timing. Hey, ho, wait, what?

I've been doing these football Freakonomics segments for the NFL network during the season.

All right, I don't love that, but okay, that's fine.

Whatever. All right, but here's the upside, which is I'd like to share with you a few of the things I've learned

kind of the hidden side of the Super Bowl, if you will.

Yeah, but Dubner, here's the thing. There are a lot of people who watch this game or, you know,

go to parties about it between the, you know, the dip and the beer and all that stuff.

Who don't really know a whole lot about football itself? So what do you got?

So if you want to impress your friends, you could explode some cherished football myths, such as here's one,

defense wins championships.

What do you mean? Of course they do.

Not really true. Now, of course, you'd rather have a great defense and a bad one, but statistically,

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