Has a Super Bowl LVII ‘script’ been leaked online?

Claim:

In early 2023, the “script” for Super Bowl LVII was leaked showing the Philadelphia Eagles defeating the Kansas City Chiefs 37-34.

Evaluation:

On February 4, 2023, just eight days before Super Bowl LVII, a Twitter user posted an image of a game’s final score showing the Philadelphia Eagles defeating the Kansas City Chiefs 37-34. The caption for the tweet read, “No, someone leaked the SuperBowl script.”

According to the stats below the tweet, it has been viewed more than 12 million times.

However, as some users noted, this was simply a continuation of a sarcastic and comedic discussion that had taken place on a podcast in the days before the tweet appeared.

On an episode of Barstool Sports’ podcast “Macrodosing: Arian Foster and PFT Commenter,” former NFL player Arian Foster had starred in a comedy piece about how the NFL was “rigged” and that he was being “scripted” to how his seasons would play out with the league.

SI.com reported“NFL players respond to scripted league conspiracy theory,” adding, “If it’s not clear to the average listener, it’s clear that Foster delivered his account with his tongue firmly planted in his cheek.”

For readers who can’t listen to the clip, here’s the transcript:

PFT Commentator: It’s funny. Before we started taping, Arian told me how the NFL is rigged and how he got a script every year. Day one of training camp it was dropped off at his locker and you had to, you know, it was like, week one you do that, week two you’re going to have a hamstring injury, week three that’s going to happen, week four you will get three touchdowns and then you just have to, did you memorize those before the season started or would you rehearse the script before every game?

Foster: Oh, we really got into it, so it was more like practicing, it was about practicing the script. This is how it goes and this is what we have to do in order to…

PFT Commentator: And that umpire is going to miss that call because he hates you and loves the Colts, that kind of thing?

Foster: Yes, WWF, so it’s like you know what’s going to happen, but you still have to put on a show.

Big Tennessee: What were your thoughts when you got the script in 2016 that said your career would fall off a cliff when you stopped believing in God?

(Laugh)

Forster: That was in 2015.

As far as we know, the person who created the score seen in the tweet simply used a page from a previous game as a template, published by pro-football-reference.com. There was for example A game which ended 37-34 in early 2023. A few simple changes in the page’s code were all that was required to create the image.

In the replies below the tweet, many of which asked the user who posted the image to scroll down and view the box result and coin toss result for betting purposes, we noticed that another user posted his own final score of 112-3.

Of course, there’s a chance the Eagles will defeat the Chiefs with the 37-34 score posted in the tweet. But here, too, the picture was only intended as a joke.