The Seattle Seahawks are Super Bowl champions after a resounding victory over the New England Patriots on Sunday evening. The Seahawks win a second-ever championship, guided there by second-year head coach Mike Macdonald.

In the days and weeks to come, Macdonald will take the plaudits for overseeing a dominant defensive performance to win a Super Bowl. On Sunday, however, he took a tub of yellow Gatorade from his gleeful players.

This was a first taste of the iconic Super Bowl tradition for Macdonald, who picks up his first championship ring in his second year as a head coach. He joins the illustrious list of Super Bowl-winning coaches, many of whom have had to endure the Gatorade shower tradition.

What are the origins of the Gatorade shower?

The famous incident actually came in a regular season game in October 1984, when the Giants managed a statement 37-13 win over the defending NFC champions Washington Redskins. Parcells had reportedly been hard on Jim Burt in practice that week and the Giants nose tackle took revenge shortly after the game.

Burt was the first to dole out a Gatorade shower but teammate Harry Carson took the idea and ran with it. It was Carson who continued the tradition from then on and through the 1986 championship-winning season Carson marked nearly every Giants win with a Gatorade shower.

The practice gained national prominence when it was featured on the CBS coverage of the playoffs and the tradition grew from there. For their part in the boundless free advertising, Carson and Parcell went sent $1,000 gift vouchers by Gatorade.

Gatorade shower becomes big business

In the past 40 years the Gatorade shower has grown from bizarre celebration into a nation-wide tradition. In recent years, the exact flavor on Gatorade in question has become a big pregame preoccupation.

Sports fans can now bet on the color of the sports drink used in those post-Super Bowl celebrations and it draws a remarkably large interest. ESPN reports that betting on the Gatorade color is now a million-dollar market, despite the fact that the only US states to allow the wager are New Jersey, West Virginia and Illinois.

A wide range of factors are considered by participating bookmakers ahead of the Super Bowl each year. The ESPN BET trading team explained: “When setting odds for this market, our team looks at a variety of factors, including what color was poured on last year’s winning coach, any recent instances of the participating teams doing a Gatorade bath, such as recent Super Bowl appearances or after a conference championship win, and even the color of the team’s jerseys.”

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