The protests that have so obsessed the NFL were absent, but the Super Bowl LIII national anthem was overflowing was controversy.
First, it was a premature leak of the approximate time that Gladys Knight would hit, and gamblers rushed to take the over. Then Knight sang, and stopped, and sang, and those over/under bets are getting confusing.
Knight appeared to conclude “The Star-Spangled Banner” with a brief “the brave” at about 1:49 (many sites had set the over/under at 1:50). But it was just an appetizer for Knight, who repeated “the brave” in all her soulful glory, extending the anthem another 10 seconds or so and leaving confusion about when the preamble to Patriots-Rams finished.
ActionNetwork’s Darren Rovell reported one sportsbook originally decided upon the over but briefly flipped the decision, finally settling on the over and surely driving gamblers crazy.
