#superbowlgate

It looks almost like it’s floating… like how Max’s did when she was being Vecna’d…

possible release date below!!

Credit: @ cxstiel on Twitter

Ok stay with me

Ready for the banger?

All credit to twitter user @ cxstiel 🤯

#birthdaygate is real, those bastards have been lying to us

Alt Title: The Duffers Know Ball, and They're Betting We Don't

Alright guys, time to make my forced proximity to SportBall growing up pay off.

So, as we know, Stranger Things is quite familiar with product placement. Despite the popular opinion, I think this serves the greater narrative to bring our attention to capitalism/consumerism and isn't just gratuitous, but that's for another post.

I want to talk specifically about Gatorade being used this season, and how it might just the clue no one would think to look for as to if/when we're going to get a sneak peek at more content, specifically during Super Bowl LX on February 8, 2026.

Creator Credits: The start of this theory can be credited to information provided by the lovely TikTok creator @ marissakumari, who posts often about sports-related news and references in pop culture. Link here if you want to view it on TikTok https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZThScEYA4/. PLEASE WATCH FOR FULL CONTEXT

It also helps to read this post I'll refer to as HellmansGate by @mixu, as well as this post originally made by @whispering-goat. The first provides context for the potential connections between the NFL Super Bowl and Stranger Things, and the second provides insight to their current pattern of marketing post- Vol 2/Episode 8.

Alright, strap in, because this is a long one!

Now, let's get into my thoughts on why the info in this video is significant, keeping in mind the context that already points towards a potential Super Bowl LX announcement.

At the time of seeing this video in early December, I immediately clocked that this Gatorade dunk reference tied not only to Steve, but even more closely to Jane. If we think back to Season 2 which took place in 1984, Jane and Hopper's relationship was still in development and Hop was acting quite authoritatively, as Jane puts best "Like Papa!"

The scene that brought it all home for me is from Ep 3: The Turnbow Trap:

I even made a comment at the time about the connections I had noticed! [Edit: Note that her Gatorade battery has been replaced by the beef jerky. Slim Jim, I'm onto you]

We also have evidence of an ongoing ad partnership between them and Netflix as of 2025, and a prior relationship with the New York Giants specifically as well (middle and right photos from ad posted on 12/21/2022)

[TikTok links here x, x]

So now we have narrative ties for Jane to a reference for an event involving a new product placement, one that has long-standing ties with the NFL and the Super Bowl Championship, AND we know the network has their own partnership deal as well.

But why? What has football got to do with Stranger Things? It’s the one sport out of the American Big 3 (Baseball, Basketball, Football) that we never see played, which seems especially out of place in the 80s. We'll get into my thoughts on that later, but first, we need to look at the history. Let’s start out with a bang, shall we?

The first official American Football game took place on November 6,1869 (YUP). The game was played between two college teams, the Rutgers Scarlet Knights and the Princeton Tigers.

The first game to ever be played professionally by a player (as determined by payment of $500) took place on November 12, 1892 in Pittsburg, PA (The City of Bridges). That player was named William “Pudge” Heffelfinger, and he had an interesting start in football in 1888. Yale College captain William “Pa” Corbin gave him a spot on the varsity line his freshman year and later wrote about an incident in which one of the coaches tried to stir up ferocity in Heffelfinger by writing him a strongly worded letter in blood (supposedly from a slaughterhouse).

The National Football League (NFL) that we know today got its start as the American Professional Football Association in the Midwest. It was founded in 1920 by a group of teams representing 4 states (Indiana, Illinois, New York, and Ohio).

Ironically, an earlier attempt to create the predominating pro league in the country was made in 1902 in Philadelphia, PA, also under the name National Football League. This League was backed by baseball at the time, and without much heart in the game, the owners failed to generate enough fan interest, and folded the league the same year.

As a reminder, Philly is where we hear the 4 older teens planning to meet up in the epilogue. This is also the location of the first known contact with Dimension X by the USS Eldridge as part of scientific projects known as "Project Rainbow" and "The Philadelphia Experiment".

New York, as previously referenced/mentioned, seems significant due to associations with a few other key things withing the show:

It's where Hopper and his ex-wife lived between 1972 and 1978, until he moved back to Hawkins after Sara's death.

It is the location of NYU, the university Jonathan has always wanted to attend (and is said to be attending during the epilogue)

It is implied that Will moves here for college as well during the epilogue

It is the location of infamous Montauk, home of the Montauk Project- the government conspiracy that inspired the creation of Stranger Things in the very first place.

So, we have pretty clear connections to our show and American football teams/events on the East coast of the USA.

If we look to the West, the 2026 Super Bowl LX (60) is being hosted in Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara, California, and this is the 2nd time that the championship has been hosted here. The first time was for “The Golden Anniversary” Super Bowl L (50) in 2016, the same year Stranger Things was released. The teams that played that year were the Carolina Panthers and the Denver Broncos, with the Broncos beating the Panthers 24-10 despite the Panthers being favored to win. Some other notable facts I can’t ignore:

The Carolina Panthers rep both Carolinas, but play out of Charlotte, North Carolina which is The Duffer’s home state. 

The Panthers are one of the “silver cats” in the NFL and have an underdog status due to their late addition to the league (1995) and 0 Super Bowl Wins. 

The city of Charlotte became the official home of the Panthers at Bank of America. Stadium in 1996, although they played their first season in 1995. The stadium was fully funded by an astounding 40,000 fans who purchased Private Seat Licenses, allowing for the stadium to come at no cost to local taxpayers.

Cam “Super Cam” Newton was their starting QB in 2015/2016 and was known for being a star breakout in his rookie season and a beacon of hope for Carolina to finally clinch a Super Bowl win. Unfortunately, this did not come to fruition before his career ended in 2021.

The QB for the Denver Broncos in 2015, 2016 was Peyton Manning, nicknamed “The Sheriff” who is known as one of the best QBs in the league. His career was mostly spent playing for the Indianapolis Colts, where he led them to victory in the 2006 Super Bowl XLI over the Chicago Bears, "The Monsters of Midway". He was released from the Colts following an injury in 2012 with the owner doubting his ability to win another championship due to his age (he was 36 at the time). His win in Super Bowl L scored him the record of Oldest QB to win a Super Bowl, at age 39.

The Colts actually got their start in Baltimore, MA, and the relocation decision to move the team to Indianapolis, IN in 1984 was steeped in controversy and “conspiracy”. There were legal battles that concluded with Maryland state legislature granting the city of Baltimore the right to seize ownership of the team through eminent domain laws, but the owner at the time quite literally snuck the team out in the dead of night to move to Indianapolis, going without approval from the NFL.

The Colts currently play in a stadium called Lucas Oil Stadium.

Alright quick break, you still with me?

So far, we’ve found Super Bowl connections to the birth year of Stranger Things, a silver cat, the West, the 3 home states of the Duffers AND our characters in the show + two other significant locations within show lore, the year of 1984, and some interesting parallels narratively to real life stories of underdogs, unexpected losses/wins, betrayal, conspiracy, community pride and capitalistic interests of those in power. 

So where does blue and yellow come in?

Well, the very first recognized Super Bowl Championship Game (1966) took place in Los Angeles, California. The stadium this game was held in, the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, was home to the Los Angeles Rams between 1946 and 1994, and the decision to allow the team to play there made the NFL the first pro sports industry to span the US coast-to-coast (East to West). Their team colors are Blue and Yellow.

In 1979 the Ram's owner Carroll Rosenbloom died by drowning, leaving 70% ownership of the team to his widow Georgia Frontiere. She assumed full control of the team after firing her stepson Steve Rosenloom, and she was the only women at the time to own an NFL team, and technically the 2nd woman with ownership majority in the league (first was Violet Fults Bidwill Wolfner, who inherited the Chicago Cardinals- now located in St. Louis, MO.

During their initial run in LA, the Rams saw a significant decrease in relative popularity in LA compared to other the 4 other teams who made their home their (i.e. the LA Dodgers (MLB), LA Lakers (NBA), the LA Kings (NHL), and another team within the NFL, the Oakland Raiders who had moved to LA in 1984 to capitalize on the growing audience potential). Despite blocks and legal pushback, Frontiere was able to follow-through on a pre-planned deal to move the team to St. Louis, MO in 1995. This city is known in American history as the “Gateway to the West” for its role in western expansion.

In 2016, the Rams returned home to LA after spending 10 years in St. Louis. And they’re not the only ones. That SAME YEAR, the San Diego Chargers also relocated to LA, where they hadn’t called home since 1960, 55 years later. Their colors are also Blue and Yellow, making them affectively twin teams who finally met back in the West.

The Oakland Raiders, the team who had booted the Rams out of LA in 1995, were in turn forced to relocate after both the Rams and Chargers returned. They officially moved to Las Vegas, Nevada in 2020.

So yeah, I’m pretty confident these are no mere coincidences, and they laid the very first clue to unravel this in the Gatorade. This twist has been written into the narrative since very early on, maybe not from the show’s inception but certainly between S1 and S3. It's plausible that they could have planned for the timing of this year's Super Bowl, as the locations are decided years in advance, much like the location of the Olympics- which are coincidentally being held in LA soon as well, for the summer of 2028.

Why do I believe football has been so deeply integrated into the show and yet completely hidden? Well, that’s exactly what American Football does to Queer men, as well as Black men for that matter. While there are beautiful stories of victory, hope, and overcoming the impossible weaved within the history of the sport, the dark side of the industry has always been tied to capitalism, patriarchy, and white supremacy. As of 2024-2025, an estimate of nearly 2/3 of NFL players are Black, and yet there are 0 majority owners of a team that are Black. It is an industry dominated financially by white men, who directly profit off of their players' bodies. It’s not an exaggeration to compare the NFL Draft to a human auction, where they have men perform physically demanding tasks in order to determine who is best to purchase. It’s also well-known at this point that the extreme bodily risks to players within the league is under constant scrutiny (see this report for historical CTE related deaths). I find it synchronistic that the stadium hosting Super Bowl LX is the one the houses the San Francisco 49ers, the team on which Colin Kaepernick started for when he took a knee during the national anthem, one of many protests he participated in during the Black Lives Matter movement. He was infamously (allegedly) blacklisted from the league not long after.

Much like the NHL, there are almost no players in the NFL that are currently active and out of the closet. In the 7th round of the 2014 NFL Draft, Michael Sam became the first openly gay player to be drafted to a team, and that team was the St. Louis Rams. However, despite a promising pre-season performance, overwhelming support from fans and even verbal support from President Barack Obama, he was cut from the Rams before the regular season could even start. In 2015 he signed as the first out gay player with the Canadian Football team Montreal Alouettes, but only played one game on August 7th, and announced his decision to step away for mental health on August 14th of that same year. In 2021, Carl Nassib became the first active player to come out as gay, while playing for the Las Vegas Raiders, but he retired in 2023. As of 2026, there are 0 active, openly gay players in the NFL.

This post is already so long, but there are TON’s more interesting allusions to specific stories in the NFL. I will save those for part two, as well as my thoughts on what the code means on a deeper level with these connections. As always this is just a THEORY based on my own interpretation of the show. But you can bet I’ll be watching the Super Bowl this year.

Bonus gif of Defensive Tackle Will Byers: