The Seattle Seahawks opened as the obvious favourite against the New England Patriots for Super Bowl 60 in Santa Clara, California.
Before the biggest game of the year kicks off, the team captains will meet at midfield and flip a coin to decide who gets the first possession and choose end zones.
Why do they flip a coin to decide?
It’s a simple, neutral way to set the stage for the game.
When the coin is tossed, neither side is the favourite.
Once the coin toss is decided, strategy comes into play as the winner gets to choose whether they want possession to start the first half or the second half.
The coin toss loser decides which side of the field they want to defend.
While the probability of a coin landing on heads or tails is 50/50, we’ve seen some epic streaks over the years.
In 2012, the Carolina Panthers lost 13 straight coin tosses.
In 2017, Chicago Bears broadcast statistician Doug Colletti found that the team won 14 consecutive coin tosses.
I asked AI to tell me what the odds would be for a team to win 14 straight coin tosses.
The response was 1 in 16,384.
As for the Super Bowl, the longest streak ever spanned from 2009 through 2013 when the coin toss landed on heads five years in a row.
However, tails still leads by a slight 31-28 margin overall.
The most fascinating note about the Super Bowl coin toss is the overall lack of success by the teams that win it.
The Super Bowl coin toss winners have gone a combined 26-33 for a 44 per cent win rate.
That win percentage has plummeted since the last time the Patriots and Seahawks met in the Super Bowl.
At Super Bowl 49, Seattle won the coin toss with tails but lost the game in the most crushing fashion possible.
That loss marked the start of a streak of eight straight losses by the Super Bowl coin toss winner.
Since 2015, the Super Bowl coin toss winner has gone a combined 2-9 straight up in the game, with the Kansas City Chiefs the lone exception to that trend as the winner of the coin toss and the game in 2023 and 2024.
Will that trend continue at Super Bowl 60?
While FanDuel bettors are disappointed that FANUARYis coming to an end, the FLIP OF DESTINY will be live on the FanDuel app this Thursday January 29th, 2026.
Will you pick HEADS or TAILS for Super Bowl 60?
