Make Safety a Priority for Your Super Bowl Party

The Super Bowl is likely the world’s most-popular “single day” sports event. It’s also a great excuse to get together with friends on a Sunday during the dead of winter. It doesn’t matter if you’re a football fan or not. After 50 plus years, the Super Bowl has transcended sport to become a cultural phenomenon – WITH a much-hyped halftime show. If you’re planning to host a Super Bowl party, it’s important to make sure your guests have a safe, but enjoyable experience. As you construct that game day menu and lay in the “refreshments,” take stock of your home to minimize physical hazards and chances for injury. Are the driveway, sidewalk and steps leading to your door shoveled and de-iced so there will be no slips and falls? Just thinking about an injury lawsuit can bum-out any party host! Inside your home, remove throw rugs that might trip guests and check to see that your power cords are tacked down. Moving furniture and televisions around to fit in all the guests can make exposed cords tripping hazards. If you can store your delicate knick-knacks out of the way, that’s a good idea too. Some Eagle or Patriot fan can suddenly get demonstrative and smash something breakable. Or valuable. Or valuable AND breakable.

If you serve alcohol

It’s important to have plenty of food to dilute the impact of alcohol. If you can serve drinks yourself, it’s easier to monitor how much each guest is drinking. And you should drink moderately too, or none at all if you wish. Cut off the alcohol after the third quarter. You can be subtle about it by offering different food courses as the evening progresses and slowly put the alcohol away. A nice distracting game of rating SuperBowl ads as they appear could be a very fun alcohol distraction too.

NO DRINKING GAMES!!!

The worst way to encourage intoxication is to allow drinking games. None of this celebrating touchdowns, or field goals, or first downs. That’s so Freddy Frat-rat, and we’re all adults here who live in nice homes, not a dorm room across the street — right?

Have an eating “game plan”

Start with nibbles (Chips and dip, Chex Mix at kick-off time), followed by warm appetizers during the second quarter and the main course at halftime. During the fourth quarter after “last call,” bring dessert and coffee out. You’ll be surprised how few actually notice the absence of alcohol; they’ll just move on to the next course. Have plenty of water on hand to keep friends hydrated, and a chest full of non-alcoholic beverages for teens, designated drivers and non-drinkers. Under no circumstances should you serve minors, even if their folks say it’s ok. There is no excuse (nor liability insurance coverage) for underage drinkers. It’s your house, your rules, and everyone’s safety – including those on the road when your friends get behind the wheel. When the game is over and friends begin leaving, have a cab company’s number or an Uber or Lyft app handy. And hopefully, you won’t need to hook-up some of your more freewheeling revelers with those designated drivers you invited. Maybe if you collect car keys as guests arrive, you’ll have an easier time of keeping those who shouldn’t be on the road off it. These tips may sound like a lot to consider since you merely want to have a good time with some friends. But if you’re an experienced host, you know there’s nothing to it. And if you’re not, this list will become second nature, nobody will be at risk, and a really good time will be had by all. And when driving to or from your Super Bowl party, keep your defensive driving skills sharp. Should a careless Super Bowl Sunday drunk driver crash into your life and you need legal assistance, please contact the Billy Johnson Injury Law Firm by calling us at 606-437-4488 or fill out our online contact form.