The Super Bowl has evolved into something that is larger than life, with more emphasis on halftime musical acts, weeklong festivities and less emphasis on the game itself. The NFL is as much about glitz, glamour and marketing as it is about football after all.

In the old days—let’s use Super Bowl I as an example—the halftime show and the national anthems were both handled by the University of Arizona and Michigan marching bands and the television rights were held by both NBC and CBS. The L.A. Memorial Coliseum, where the game took place, wasn’t sold out and in fact, the newspapers printed articles on how to lift the game feed despite a local blackout.

If someone from ’67 hopped into a flux capacitor powered DeLorean and rode into 2007, they would probably think they were on another planet. The game has grown by leaps and bounds and the same can be said of the betting market.

Like the automobile, betting for the Super Bowl has evolved quite a bit from what it was originally. On top of the spread, moneyline and total, a vast number of ordinary to crazy prop bets can be wagered on, including the coin toss, halftime show wardrobe malfunctions, points in a quarter and number of offensive plays.

The basic bets are always there. The line for XLI, which is subject to change of course, has the Colts favored by a touchdown and the total set at 48, but here are some more interesting bets for this year’s game.

I don’t think I would be going out on a limb if I said that Peyton Manning will be the player who will be under the most scrutiny leading up to opening kickoff.

Manning has pretty much been anointed the chosen one since coming out of Tennessee but hasn’t lived up to the billing—as far as championships appearances are concerned—until now.

A huge number of interesting props are available on Archie’s middle child.

If you think Peyton will light up the Bears’ secondary you might want to head over to Bodog and place a bet on whether he will pass for less or more than 273½ yards (-120 either way).

If you think that No. 18 will pick apart the Chicago secondary with laser like precision put your money where your mouth is. The Bodog oddsmakers think that Peyton has a better chance of dissecting rather than succumbing to the Bears’ secondary. The odds for Manning completing 70.6 to 80.5 percent of his passes is listed at +215 while a completion percentage of 0-40.5 percent is listed at +600.

If you are feeling a little adventurous and are looking for a big payoff, head over to Pinnacle Sports.

The odds for the first score of XLI being a safety by the Colts defense are listed at +8500.

In a similar vein, odds for the last score being a safety by either the Bears’ or Colts’ defense are +3600. (Continued)

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