Research is key when placing Super Bowl bets. This includes studying up on Gatorade color odds, since believe it or not, as many Super Bowl winning teams tip their hand in the Conference title round.
These pre-Super Bowl Gatorade showers certainly help shape the Gatorade color odds betting market in the days leading up to the Big Game.
So, did we see any Gatorade dumped on the Patriots’ Mike Vrabel or the Broncos’ Sean Payton Sunday night in Denver? Did the Rams' Sean McVay or the Seahawks' Mike Macdonald receive the treatment in Seattle?
We will have the results for you as soon as the electrolytes hit the turf tonight.
⚡Was Gatorade dumped at the AFC or NFC title game this year?
The AFC title game between the Patriots and Broncos is still playing out, but our Gatorade hawks will post the results here as soon as they are made available.
Vrabel and the Patriots entered the game as a -5.5 betting favorite, so it is more likely that “Vrabes” gets the shower in Denver.
That said, Vrabel and Payton are both two "old school" coaches who would likely frown upon a Gatorade celebration prior to a Super Bowl win. They are both "only celebrate when the job is complete" type guys.
There is no guarantee that the winning team will utilize the Gatorade shower in the Championship Game round. Most teams that use the Gatorade show a round earlier than usual are teams that have never been there before, or at least haven’t been there in a while.
Mike Macdonald's Seahawks would qualify as a team that has not "been there before." Macdonald is in just his second year as the Seattle head man.
Sean McVay is the most tenured of the four head coaches remaining, as he has been the Rams head coach since 2017. We'll go over McVay's Gatorade history and more below.
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Patriots Gatorade history
Vrabel has never made it to the Super Bowl as a head coach, so we do not have any history to work with here in terms of semi-final Gatorade baths. He did make it to the AFC Championship Game while head coach of the Tennessee Titans in the 2019 season, but the Titans fell to the Kansas City Chiefs.
The Patriots do have a lengthy Gatorade shower history in the Super Bowl, of course, having appeared in an NFL record 11 title games.
One of the most notable ones came in the 2014 Super Bowl between the Patriots and Seahawks. Then-Patriots head coach Bill Belichick huddled with his assistant coaches, including current Patriots offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels. Belichick, McDaniels and the rest of the staff were hit by blue Gatorade first, and then were hit by a second Gatorade shower. The second was the color Orange.
The record books show that Blue was the winner because it was the first, but it did cause plenty of Gatorade betting controversy at the time.
Vrabel was a player on the Patriots when they won their first Super Bowl title back in the 2001 season. They played the Rams, who they could face in Super Bowl 60.
Belichick avoided a Gatorade dousing against the Rams that year as the Pats won the game as time expired.
Broncos Gatorade history
We have seen Gatorade activity from the Broncos in an AFC Championship Game before. Then-Denver head coach John Fox was drenched in Gatorade on Jan. 19, 2014 when his Broncos beat the Patriots in that season’s AFC title game.
In the Broncos and Patriots last meeting in the AFC Championship Game on Jan. 24, 2016, Denver head coach Gary Kubiak was spared a Gatorade bath because the game was so close until the final seconds.
Of note, when Payton won a Super Bowl while head coach of the New Orleans Saints, the Saints used orange Gatorade on him.
Rams Gatorade history
We have two somewhat-recent pieces of evidence to go off of here with McVay and the Rams.
McVay was not hit by Gatorade in the Rams’ 2018 NFC Championship Game victory over New Orleans because the game went down to the wire.
In 2021, the Rams edged the 49ers in a NFC title game. L.A. players did have about a minute to hit McVay with the shower, but it never transpired. Two weeks later, McVay finally got the bath when the Rams beat the Bengals in the Super Bowl. McVay was doused with blue Gatorade.
Seahawks Gatorade history
We do not have evidence of Seahawks head coach Mike MacDonald ever being showered with Gatorade.
We have to go back to when Pete Carroll was Seattle’s head coach to find electrolyte evidence involving the Seahawks.
Caroll was doused with orange Gatorade when the Seahawks won Super Bowl over the Broncos.
📜 AFC and NFC Championship Game Gatorade history
There is no guarantee of a Gatorade bath on a winning head coach in the Super Bowl, let alone a Conference title game.
Typically, Gatorade dumps happen in the final few minutes of a game when the clock is winding down and the winning team knows it has victory in hand.
For instance, when the New England Patriots beat the Atlanta Falcons in overtime of the 2017 Super Bowl, there was no Gatorade dump. This is because the game ended abruptly.
There is even less of a guarantee of a Gatorade bath in the AFC and NFC title games because there is still one more round to go.
As mentioned above, Eagles head coach Nick Siranni got the bath in the NFC title game last year. That celebration was a precursor to the Gatorade bath that occurred in the Super Bowl, when the same color was used.
At the conclusion of the 2002 Super Bowl, Al Michaels and John Madden discussed then-Buccaneers head coach Jon Gruden being doused with Gatorade in the 2022 NFC Championship Game. It was notable because Gruden had to stand in the frigid Philadelphia cold after being hit by the beverage.
