Claim Your Rooting Interest in Super Bowl 60

In today's Fantasy Life Newsletter, presented by Pop-Tarts:

Ever heard of the "love hormone," buddy? We've been getting free hits of Oxytocin all season long. It's why football feels so good, and today is no different.

The catch? You've got to find something to root for with your friends.

Sure, you can just "pick a team" to win the damn thing, but that's merely surface-level support. We need to feel invested.

Moneyline, Schmoneyline. As a real Oxytocin junky, I can find more to root for than just a single outcome. So let's really lean in today. It's time to pick sides on everything—even Bad Bunny’s halftime song count and Gatorade color. Trust me … It'll feel good.

Root for New Super Bowl Records

NE Patriots SB Wins: 6
NE Patriots SB Losses: 5

The Patriots and Steelers are currently tied with the most NFL Super Bowl wins. But New England has made it to the big game enough times to hold down both sides of the NFL record. They're also tied with the Broncos for the most Super Bowl losses.

So, either way it plays out, New England is making NFL history today! Though I doubt Pats fans will see both record-breaking outcomes as positive.

Root for the Redemption Arc

Sam Darnold's path to the Super Bowl has been anything but linear.

He was drafted third overall by the Jets in 2018, traded away by the Jets in 2021, benched by the Panthers, designated as a backup in San Francisco and despite his 14-3 season with 4,319 yards and 35 TDs in 2024, he was let go by the Vikings. Like I said, anything but linear. Now, after eight seasons and five different teams, Darnold is finally making his first Super Bowl appearance. With a story like this, you're either rooting for Darnold to win it all or you want him to see ghosts again. Either way, pick a side before kickoff.

Root for 'da Doink

In 2018, a single kicker hit the uprights four times in a single game (shoutout Cody Parkey). So, while everyone is waiting for the commercials, I'll be watching the goal posts like a hawk during every single extra point and field goal attempt. I'm rooting for that rare sound that can only come from pigskin slappin' galvanized steel and aluminum, baby: Doink.

Root for a Re-Do

Seattle just might get a chance to redeem itself tonight. You know the play: Seattle on New England's 1-yard line. Down by four points. 26 seconds left. But instead of running in a TD with Marshawn Lynch, Russell Wilson threw a game-ending pick (oof). Sure, it was February of 2015, but for some of us, it still feels like yesterday.

Sorry. I don't mean to rehash Seattle's decision. But with the same two teams facing each other tonight, it feels like the perfect time to root for redemption. Hey Seattle, if given the opportunity, please make the right choice this time.

BEST BETS TO ADD TO YOUR ROOTING INTEREST

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Editors’ Picks

Super Bowl 60 is here, the last game of NFL football that we get to enjoy for the next handful of months. Bittersweet, indeed. Catch up on all of the content to prep for the big game this evening …

FanDuel DFS Plays

Kenneth Walker or Jaxon Smith-Njigba in the MVP spot? Joe Metz breaks down how to build your FanDuel DFS lineups to position yourself for a profitable Super Bowl.

Halftime Show Predictions

The Patriots and Seahawks aren’t the only ones taking center stage. Kendall Valenzuela and cooterdoodle break down what to expect from Bad Bunny’s highly anticipated halftime show.

Super Bowl Squares

How do you like to configure your Super Bowl Squares? Fantasy Life has a downloadable sheet for plenty of Super Bowl fun at your party. Care to take the corners or fill the middle?

Super Bowl 60 PrizePicks

From Rhamondre Stevenson to George Holani, there is value across the board over at PrizePicks, and Jonathan Fuller has the best ways to take advantage for Super Bowl 60.

Pete’s Keys To Winning A Million Dollars

While building a lineup is easy, besting hundreds of thousands of other lineups isn't. That's right, I said hundreds of thousands. The flagship contest on DraftKings for Super Bowl 60 costs $20 per entry, pays out $1M to first place and has space for 264,700 entries.

This article will focus on how to build sharp lineups in these "lotto-sized" contests, but if you want to play in smaller contests, DraftKings has a full menu of offerings.

Ultimately, the goal in these large-field contests is to build lineups with a ton of upside that are also unique. If you just jam the best plays, you'll be holding hands with hundreds of friends who did the same thing. If you try to get too unique (bro, imagine if Nick Kallerup scored, tho!), you won't score enough points to sniff the top of the leaderboard.

With that said, here are four tips for building unique lineups that can compete for a million-dollar top prize …

1. Get Creative At Captain

It should surprise no one that the players projected for the most ownership at the Captain position are Jaxon Smith-Njigba, Kenneth Walker and Drake Maye. They are the three players who project for the most fantasy points in the game and therefore have the highest likelihood of being the optimal captain suggestion.

But we are not playing a game of scoring the most points. Instead, we are trying to score more points than our opponents. And if 25% of the field rosters JSN at captain, which is currently projected across the DFS industry, then that means there will be nearly 70,000 JSN captain teams to compete with in the big contest.

It's not impossible to build sharp JSN teams—there are other uniqueness levers to pull, and we'll discuss those below—but the path to first will be much cleaner if we get off the board at captain.

My favorite sneaky captain plays:

Rhamondre Stevenson ($13,200)—Stevenson will be the fourth most popular captain, but at 8%, he will be significantly less utilized than the Big 3. We know Stevenson has fully consolidated work in the New England backfield, and he has the ceiling to deliver a must-have fantasy performance.
Sam Darnold ($16,200)—Darnold is my favorite contrarian captain on the slate. I understand the concern that in the scenarios where Darnold goes off, as JSN is also highly likely to have a ceiling game. But it's also not hard for me to envision Sam spreading the ball around and eclipsing JSN in raw points at a much cheaper price tag and lower ownership.
Kayshon Boutte ($8,400)—It can be dicey going too far off the board at captain, but when I do, I like it to be on big-play threats with solid target shares. Boutte fits this description perfectly. Not only can Boutte deliver a big fantasy outing on only a few deep bombs (he leads the Patriots in air yards per game), but his affordable salary allows you to jam in a ton of the other superstars in the FLEX positions.

HOW MUCH SALARY IS TOO MUCH TO LEAVE?

Super Bowl Underdog Pick ‘Em

One more game. That’s all we have for more than six months. Don’t get misty yet. We still can play on Underdog TODAY and maybe put some cash into the account to fund all those best ball drafts we’ll be doing starting tomorrow. We’re not kidding.

Pete Overzet also jumped into the Underdog streets and took a look at the projections as a guideline for how to approach Pick ‘Em selections for today:

The Sharp Play (Trusting The Projections)

Let's start with a more conservative approach and find the best values on the board. We can easily do this by comparing our projections to the current numbers in the Underdog lobby.

Here are three that stand out: