Featured Image Credit: Don Juan Moore/Getty Images
Topics: Super Bowl, NFL, Reddit, Social Media
Emily Brown
Topics: Super Bowl, NFL, Reddit, Social Media
I'm not a football fan, but I think I'm safe to assume that those who are tend to follow the sport on most major platforms.
We're talking the NFL Instagram page, your team's X account, and the r/superbowl Reddit thread, all of which you'd expect to deliver updates and news about players, teams and games. Right?
It's a reasonable enough assumption, but it turns out it's the wrong one.
While you absolutely will find such content on the NFL Instagram page and X accounts for teams like 2026 Super Bowl competitors the Seattle Seahawks and New England Patriots, you won't find it on the r/superbowl Reddit thread, as I swiftly realized when trying to use the platform to educate myself on the famous event.
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Hashtags and Reddit pages mean we're all used to seeing words squished together on social media, so I can be forgiven for assuming that r/superbowl would be a hub of commentary about the annual NFL competition.
However, two seconds on the page taught me that it's not r/super-bowl. It is, in fact, r/superb-owl.
The page description says it all, explaining it's designed for 'owl lovers everywhere'.
Scrolling through r/superbowl will teach you nothing about quarterbacks and tight ends, but you will get to see countless photos of all different types of owls, from barred owls to snowy owls, and chonky chilled-out owls to gracefully swooping owls.
Now, obviously those on the r/superbowl Reddit page are aware of how it could be confused for the Super Bowl - especially since it was created on the same day as the big game in 2011.
So, rather than getting angry at any accidental football-related posts, the page has leaned into the idea with an announcement shared in late January which confirms that 'meme posts' would be allowed in the period surrounding the big game on February 8.
But while there may be some references to the Super Bowl, the Reddit thread continues to maintain its focus, as the meme post explains: "Superb Owl Sunday is coming.
"Our sub will soon be flooded with new people wanting to celebrate owls with us. As such, we'll be allowing meme posts for the next couple of weeks. Photoshop away, but please please please don't use AI.
"No one likes AI."
So, if you're not into football, you can rest assured that there's at least one social media page that will be free of chatter about the Seahawks and the Patriots this weekend, and instead will deliver nothing but superb owls.
It's going to be a hoot.