Starting with the New York Giants in 1985, one of the most iconic Super Bowl traditions is when members of the winning team dump a cooler or bucket of ice cold Gatorade over their coach’s head. Beyond the fact that it’s, well, funny, one reason this tradition has become a mainstay is likely due to the current popularity of sports betting. While fans can bet on winners, exact scores, or numbers of touchdowns versus field goals, there’s also the opportunity to break down every game and place your predictions for each individual moment.
The Super Bowl Gatorade tradition specifically works well for sports betting because you don’t have to have any knowledge of the teams playing, or even the game of football in general. Instead, bets are placed on what color Gatorade will be dumped on the coach. While other aspects of this silly ritual may gain some traction (for example, which players on the team will do the pouring or how many coolers will be dumped), the color is distinctly the most contentious.
If you’re wondering which Gatorade color you should be betting on for the winning team’s cooler drop, there’s actually a science to predicting which color will be featured each year. Whether you’re a sports better, football fan, or just someone who, like myself, is curious about this strange phenomenon, here’s how to predict this year’s Super Bowl Gatorade color for the post-game dump on the winning coach.
What’s the most popular Gatorade color to dump on a coach?
The most popular Gatorade color for this tradition is categorically “clear”, (which, while there is a clear Gatorade, apparently just refers to water), with eight total uses. This makes sense, as water is certainly the cheapest option. However, this hasn’t been used since 2008. Orange has slowly taking over as most popular with six total uses. Coincidentally, orange was the color that Jim Burt, defensive lineman for the New York Giants, used on head coach Bill Parcels back in 1985. However, it hasn’t been used since 2019 (although it’s important to note that the Kansas City Chiefs, one of the contenders this year, were the last to use orange). For their past two Super Bowl wins, though, the Chiefs used purple Gatorade both times.
The Philadelphia Eagles, the Chief’s opponents for Super Bowl LIX, poured yellow Gatorade on their coach the first and last time they won the Super Bowl in 2017. With these odds, you might be tempted to pick purple or yellow based on personal bias or the statistical likelihood each team has to win (but it’s never that simple). As for other teams that have won the big game multiple years in a row, the New England Patriots didn’t do a Gatorade shower for the first win of their two-year streak in 2003, and the next year, they just used water.
What determines the Gatorade color dumped on the winning Super Bowl coach?
There’s no clear-cut formula or mandate when it comes to choosing Gatorade colors. Rather than “red Gatorade every five years” or “whatever color Gatorade matches the team’s colors”, there’s a variety of reasons as to why different colors have been used in the past. From polling the whole team on their ideal color selection to whatever colors of Gatorade are left over after the game, it seems to be a relatively mysterious and sometimes random process. So how do you make as accurate of a bet as possible? In my opinion, it’s anyone’s guess.
Given that it’s been 16 Super Bowls since the last time water has been used, it could definitely make a comeback at some point. Blue is also up there with four total uses since 1985, but it’s important to note that neither the Chiefs nor the Eagles have ever used it themselves before. While this means that either team could decide it’s time to go blue this year, it really seems unlikely. Blue Gatorade has seemingly been a less popular color for dumping over time, which makes sense — the more popular the flavor, the less likely there will be any of it left over to dump on the coach at the end of the game.
The bets for this year are leaning pretty heavily towards purple, but I personally don’t think that’s too likely. After the past two years of the Chiefs using purple Gatorade (which again, makes sense given the inverse proportions of taste popularity versus dumping color), it would be a pretty boring choice if Kansas City were to use it for a third win. While the Eagles haven’t used purple Gatorade recently, it could also be an odd choice. Most new teams try to change it up from the past year’s color. My bet is in favor of any color other than purple, but the only way to know for sure is to tune in on game day for yourself.