Super Bowl Kickoff Time 2012: Interesting Facts You Should Know About Coin Toss

Super Bowl XLVI between the New York Giants and New England Patriots is scheduled to kickoff at 6:29 p.m. EST on Sunday evening, but before that can happen, the teams must engage in the age-old tradition of the opening coin toss.

The coin toss may seem like little more than a ceremonial thing to most, but it has a lot of meaning to some. Those people would, of course, be gamblers. The Super Bowl coin toss is one of the most heavily-bet-on events in sports.

If you're betting on the coin toss or simply the Super Bowl itself, here are three things you should know about the history of the opening coin toss.

Opening Coin Toss Winners are 22-23 in Super Bowl

The odds of flipping heads or tails on any given coin toss is 50 percent. Ironically enough, the winning percentage of teams who win the opening coin toss in the Super Bowl is nearly 50 percent as well. There have been 45 Super Bowls up to this point, and the team that wins the opening coin toss has a record of 22-23 all time in the big game.

What that should tell you is that the toss itself doesn't have much of an effect on the game. Perhaps the only time that winning the coin toss ever meant anything was when the New Orleans Saints beat the Indianapolis Colts a few years ago. The only reason for that, though, was a successful onside kick gave the Saints possession to start the second half, so they began both halves with the ball.

Generally speaking, the result of the coin toss shouldn't give you any inkling as to which team will ultimately come out on top in the game.

New England Patriots Are 1-5 All Time in Super Bowl Coin Tosses

The New England Patriots may have a solid 3-3 record when playing in the Super Bowl, but they are just 1-5 when it comes to the opening flip. In one respect that might make you lean toward betting on the Giants to win the coin toss this year, but at the same time it can be said that the Pats are due. Seeing as a coin toss is a 50/50 endeavor, the Patriots should start winning some to get their coin flip mark closer to .500.

Obviously, losing the coin toss hasn't affected the Patriots' psyche in the past as they are 3-2 in Super Bowls in which they lost the opening flip. Over the past decade-plus New England has had a lot of luck on its side, especially when it comes to finding quarterback Tom Brady in the sixth round of the draft. The Pats have lost four straight Super Bowl coin tosses, though, so games of chance aren't really their thing.

NFC Has Won 14 Consecutive Super Bowl Coin Tosses

In what can best be described as a statistical anomaly, the NFC has won an incredible 14 consecutive Super Bowl coin tosses. Beginning with the Green Bay Packers in Super Bowl XXXII up through the Packers again last year in Super Bowl XLV, the NFC is unblemished in coin flips. That hasn't exactly translated to Super Bowl glory, however, as the NFC has a record of 5-9 in the game itself over that same time span.

Again, this tells you one of two things if you are planning on betting on which team will win this year's toss. You can either stick with the notion that the NFC is hot and that they will win the flip again this year, or you can go in the other direction and say that the AFC is due.

If you're looking for more food for thought, the Giants won the toss when they and the Patriots met in the Super Bowl four years ago. Also, ironically, the last team to win the opening toss on the AFC side was the Patriots in Super Bowl XXXI. They lost to the Packers in that game. Maybe those stats don't mean anything to you, but they are certainly interesting to consider.