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In Redskins-obsessed Washington, Georgetown University Hospital installed television sets in the labor rooms of the maternity floor. Before that inspired move, fathers-to-be delayed bringing their wives to the hospital until the game had ended. How long between contractions? One slant off-tackle, an end-around, two passes and a penalty. When the Kansas City Chiefs played in the 1970 Super Bowl, the home-town police had one-quarter the usual number of Sunday-morning calls and just one crime, a burglary; they waited until half-time to question the suspect. The Kansas City Power and Light Co. turned on 15 million extra watts of power to run the city's radios and television sets that Sunday afternoon. The Chiefs' victory that year was won amid a gambling investigation during which the name of Quarterback Lenny Dawson arose. President Richard Nixon made two of his famous locker-room calls to buck up Dawson and Coach Hank Stram.
Dawson was cleared, but betting remains very much on the minds of Super Bowl fans. Super Bowl means time to put the money down, whether it is for $1 office pools or high-roller stakes. It is the biggest day of the year for bookies; estimates of the amount wagered range as high as $260 million. At the Stardust Lounge in Las Vegas, where Super Bowl betting is done legally, fans flock to the windows. Says the lounge's manager: "They'll come here out of the cracks of walls—from Texas, the Midwest, everywhere—to watch the game and bet." The word among bookies on the biggest Super Bowl bet ever made: $400,000.
But the principal social outlet for Super Bowl mania is getting together with friends to party, or at least munch, and watch the game. Some gatherings are formalized affairs, involving early invitations, official N.F.L. team bunting and other decorations purchased far in advance. Supermarkets in Knoxville, Tenn., report mountains of potato chips carted away in the days before the game; fast-food franchises put on extra help to handle the halftime hamburger crush.
In the bars, especially those that feature oversize screens, Super Sunday is boom time. In a restaurant/discotheque hard by the u.C.L.A. campus, students have their choice of three seven-foot screens on three separate floors. In no-longer-teetotaling-on-the-Sabbath Atlanta, bar owners plan to discount drinks, hoping to lure patrons away from their home TV sets.