Catherine Bell predicted Super Bowl XXXVI details

[snopes]

Comment: The JAG actress Catherine Bell supposedly correctly predicted the teams (New England and St. Louis) and final score (20-17) of Super Bowl XXXVI before the season even began. The prediction was in The Sporting News magazine. Did she really make such a prediction?

[DAnnino]

This is apparently true, according to the IMDB catherine Bell page.

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0004738/bio

Before the 2001 NFL season began, in a survey of 70 celebrities who had nothing to do with football conducted by "The Sporting News," she correctly predicted that the New England Patriots would eventually beat the St. Louis Rams in the season-ending Super Bowl by the score of 20 to 17. This amazing prediction was made despite the fact that vast majority of "football experts" didn't think the Patriots would even make the playoffs much less get to the Super Bowl. She's the only person to have ever correctly predicted the participants in, winner, and final score of a Super Bowl before a season began in a published article in a major sports periodical or book.

Knows football, and she's smokin' hot, too!

[Mr. Furious]

IMDb is notorious for ULs and other unverified information. I'd like to see the actual TSN issue before I'd consider it confirmed.

[Johnny Slick]

Even if true, enough monkeys at enough typewriters...

[DAnnino]

Originally Posted by Johnny Slick

Even if true, enough monkeys at enough typewriters...

That's pretty much probably it.

Last spring, a woman who knew nothing about sports won our NCAA March Madness pool, based on picking teams with cute animal mascots and school colors.

[Gibbie]

Originally Posted by DAnnino

That's pretty much probably it.

Last spring, a woman who knew nothing about sports won our NCAA March Madness pool, based on picking teams with cute animal mascots and school colors.

Unless of course, that was just her ruse to sucker y'all in. Looks like it worked.

Gibbie

[hoitoider]

This stuff is pretty funny. It's like when someone wins the lottery b/c of their amazing skill at being able to pick six random numbers.

[Meka]

Originally Posted by Johnny Slick

Even if true, enough monkeys at enough typewriters...

Are you familiar with espn.com's Tuesday Morning Quarterback? One of the column's long running themes has been the futility of using "insider information" or "in depth analysis" in trying to predict scores. The columnist cited the Catherine Bell pick as an example.

He also tracked the predictions made by the New York Times, which of course included breakdowns of every game. Over several years and something like a thousand predictions, they were right less than 5 times (2 or 3 times, if I recall). A generic prediction of "Home Team wins, 20-17" (historically, a common outcome) would have yielded better results.

[forcadragons]

IIRC, Tuesday Morning Quarterback pointed out that many celebrities were asked to predict the score of the Super Bowl AFTER tehe participants were known, and only Catherine Bell got it correct.

[forcadragons]

Originally Posted by forcadragons

IIRC, Tuesday Morning Quarterback pointed out that many celebrities were asked to predict the score of the Super Bowl AFTER tehe participants were known, and only Catherine Bell got it correct.

Found it!
http://archive.sportingnews.com/nfl/...31/379058.html

[DAnnino]

Originally Posted by forcadragons

Found it!
http://archive.sportingnews.com/nfl/...31/379058.html

I tried to dig around the site, but I couldn't find it.

Yeah, they knew who was playing, but she was the only one who go the score right. I'm sure it was SWAG (silly wild-a$$ guess).

And I loved Shatner's non-answer.

[DAnnino]

I noticed that Snopes put this legend on the home page. Just out of curiosity, I went to check back at IMDb, and they fixed the item in her bio:

Correctly predicted the winner and final score of Super Bowl XXXVI, in a survey of 70 celebrities who had nothing to do with football conducted by The Sporting News. Specifically, she correctly predicted that the New England Patriots would beat the St. Louis Rams by a score of 20-17. (She is incorrectly rumored to have made this prediction before the season began; in fact, she made it after after both teams had already won their respective conference championships.).

Who says Snopes doesn't influence anyone?