Hey there podcast listeners and happy Super Bowl weekend. We thought it might be nice to replay

for you with some slight updates. An episode we first put out last year called an Eggheads Guide to

the Super Bowl. Super Bowl Sunday has become a sort of secular holiday in the United States with more

than 110 million people watching the game on TV. As with any audience, that large, there's

bound to be a lot of variants among the viewers. You've got hardcore fans, especially of the teams

involved this year, the New England Patriots again and the Philadelphia Eagles. You've got the people

who like football well enough but aren't fanatics. And then there's a large swath of people who

probably don't watch much football at all. They're primarily there for the party, the chicken wings,

or maybe they're new to this country, or at least new to the sport and have no clue as to how

American football even works. So we thought what can we hear at Freconomics Radio do to make

this secular holiday a little more enjoyable for everyone. That's why we assembled a few very

bright people, including a current NFL player, two former players, one of them a two time Super Bowl

champion, the other mathematician, and because this is Freconomics Radio, a PhD economist. We'll

talk to you right after this.

From WNYC Studios, this is Freconomics Radio, the podcast that explores the hidden side of everything.

Here's your host, Steven Dubner.

For our Egghead's Guide to the Super Bowl, we'll start with our resident egghead, Steve

Levit.

Hey, Dubner. Levit is my Freconomics friend and co-author. He's an economist at the University

of Chicago. So Levit, I've known you a long time and I know you've written a lot of papers

on different sports and elements of sports, sumo wrestling and soccer and sports gambling,

for instance. But honestly, if someone were to ask me, hey, is Steve Levit a sports fan?

...