What to Wear at a Super Bowl Party

Super Bowl 56 pits the Los Angeles Rams against the Cincinnati Bengals on Sunday, February 13, at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California. Unless you’re lucky enough to go to the game, you might be one of the many who watches all the action at a Super Bowl party. We’re here to help you plan out your wardrobe for the game.

In terms of party occasions, the Super Bowl is always one of the best. First of all, you get to enjoy the final game of the NFL football season surrounded by screaming fans. And, when you’re in a group atmosphere like that, it can be a blast to see all the surrounding events to the game, such as the commercials and the halftime show.

When you go to a Super Bowl party, you’ll probably be focused on the action. That could be because you have a rooting interest in one of the two teams playing. Or it could be because you’ve placed some bets on the action at top Super Bowl betting sites.

What you’ll be wearing to that game could be the furthest thing from your mind. But you don’t want to make a Super Bowl fashion faux pas. You don’t want the talk leaving the party to be about your ill-advised outfit.

We’re going to give you a good idea of what to wear at a Super Bowl party and some fashion no-no’s for the game. By the end of reading this, you should be ready to being your wardrobe “A” game for all your friends at the party to see.

Three Tips for Planning What to Wear at a Super Bowl 56 Party

There are three essential tips that can help you pick the best clothes for a Super Bowl party. That’s the starting point you need to consider if you want to make the optimal decisions.

Let’s check them out and see how each of them affects your choices.

Consider the Site

This is a crucial component of planning your wardrobe for the event. What you wear to one location might not be the same if you were going to another. For example, you might want to choose something special for a party at a bar that might not work at someone’s home.

In other words, the wardrobe for a Super Bowl party is extremely site-dependent.

Think About the Crowd

If you’re going to be watching the game with a bunch of people at a public bar where anyone can show up, you are freed from any real expectations about what you should wear. But the scenario changes if you’re going to a private Super Bowl party. At that point, you have to consider who is going to be there with you.

For example, if it’s mostly family and/or close friends who are going to be there, you can afford to be somewhat relaxed about your choices. But if you’re going to be hanging out with co-workers or maybe even work superiors, you should really get a feel for what expectations are for the wardrobe. Otherwise, you could end up embarrassed or, worse yet, in a little bit of trouble.

Remember the Comfort Level

Maybe you’re the type of person who is trying to impress with your Super Bowl attire. But you really should be more focused on a casual approach to what you’re going to be wearing. Above all, you want to be comfortable if you’re going to be in the same place watching the action for four hours.

You should also be wary of wearing anything too fancy if there’s going to be food at the event (which, if it’s any kind of a Super Bowl party, there certainly will be).

If you keep in mind the idea of casual comfort, your choice for your game outfit really can’t go too wrong.

Choosing Team Colors

This should be an enjoyable Super Bowl in terms of the matchup between the Los Angeles Rams and Cincinnati Bengals. For the fashion-conscious, these two teams also rank pretty high. If you choose one of these sets of colors, you surely won’t get lost in the crowd.

How can you show off these colors at a Super Bowl LVI party? Here are some ideas.

• Jersey: Imitation NFL jerseys are the most popular Super Bowl party attire of all. Barring some kind of dress code, it’s your safest bet.
• Team Sweatshirts or T-shirts: Going this route can be much easier on the budget since the jerseys can be a bit on the pricey side. Whether you go the route of the T-shirt or sweatshirt will largely depend upon how warm it will be in the location of your Super Bowl party.
• Baseball Caps: You can wear the cap as a way of accentuating what you’re wearing on your body. Or you can use it alone with something more normal below as your main outfit.
• Sweatpants: Jeans tend to be the standby for most Super Bowl parties. But if you really want to stress the comfort level, team sweatpants can be a way to show off the colors and really relax.

There is no hard and fast rule that says you must wear one of these items of clothing at a Super Bowl 56 party. But you also don’t want to be the only one there not participating. It is a party after all, and you want to try to have some fun while you’re there.

If you don’t have a Bengals or Rams jersey, some sort of football attire will do. Chances are, if you’re a fan of the sport, you’ve picked up something NFL-related to wear. You can also show off the colors of your favorite NFL team if you wish, supporting them even though they didn’t make it to the Super Bowl this season.

Selecting the Jersey to Wear

If you are going to go with one of the jerseys of the teams involved in Super Bowl 56 at your party, it’s a good idea to choose a particular jersey that has some meaning to it. There are two popular ways you can go about this. You can either choose a jersey of a current player, or go back a bit further with the jersey of a famous player from the past that played on either the Rams or the Bengals.

In either case, you should try to find jerseys from one of the more popular players, past or present. Here are some suggestions for this year’s teams.

Current Cincinnati Bengals

• #9: Joe Burrow – In just his second year in the NFL, Burrow took the Bengals from last place to first place in the AFC North and then to their first AFC Championship since the 80s. He’s also gained a reputation for his cool, both on and off the field. If you want to get fancy, a jersey of Burrow as an LSU Tiger, where he won a national championship just three years ago, would be a hit.
• #28 Joe Mixon – Mixon has been the Bengals go-to running back throughout his career, but he often dealt with health issues. He stayed on the field this year and delivered his best season ever. The former Oklahoma Sooner ran for 1,205 yards and scored 17 total touchdowns, most on the team.
• #1 Ja’Marr Chase – Chase, who played with Burrow at LSU, delivered one of the most electric performances ever by a rookie wide receiver. He racked up 1,455 receiving yards, and 13 touchdown catches. No player in the league was as much of a big-play threat.
• #91 Trey Hendrickson – The Bengals defense doesn’t get as much press as the big-play offense. But it was the defense’s performance that made the difference in the upset win over Kansas City in the AFC Championship Game. And Hendrickson, who was signed to a big free agent deal in the offseason after a breakout year with New Orleans, is the most impactful player on that unit after racking up 14 sacks in the regular season.
• #2 Evan McPherson – Wearing the jersey of a kicker would usually get chuckles at a Super Bowl party. But McPherson, the rare rookie kicker to be drafted, has become a legend with his confidence and accuracy in big situations (he hasn’t missed in the postseason and is coming off back-to-back game-winning boots.) Also known as “Money Mac” and “Kick-Pherson,” he is the perfect inspiration for fans looking for offbeat Super Bowl jerseys to wear.

Classic Cincinnati Bengals

• #78 Anthony Munoz – Munoz was largely considered the best offensive lineman of his era. A left tackle who played his entire career with the Bengals, he was part of both of their Super Bowl teams. If you asked the experts who the greatest Cincinnati football player of all time was, Munoz would be the consensus pick.
• #14 Ken Anderson – Like Munoz, every snap that Anderson played in his career was with the Bengals. He holds most of the team’s quarterback records, as he started games for the team in 15 seasons. The highlight was in 1981, when he led the team to the Super Bowl and won the NFL Most Valuable Player Award.
• #30 Ickey Woods – Woods was spectacular as a rookie running back in Cincy’s Super Bowl season of 1988, scoring 15 touchdowns. And after those touchdowns, he did a unique dance known as “The Ickey Shuffle” that immediately made him of the league’s most famous players. A knee injury the following year cut his career way short, but he’s still a Cincy legend.
• #7 Boomer Esiason – As Ken Anderson’s career wound down, Esiason took over as Bengal quarterback and enjoyed great success. Esiason was the quarterback for the Bengals 1988 AFC Championship team that lost a heartbreaker to San Francisco in the Super Bowl. He has been ubiquitous as a television commentator and radio talk show host since retiring from football.
• #85 Chad Ochocinco – In the 2000s, the Bengals had a string of successful seasons, and this brash receiver who changed his name from Chad Johnson to reflect his NFL number led the way. He infuriated some fans for his antics on and off the field. But it was hard to argue with his production, which included 6 straight seasons of more than 1,000 yards receiving.

Current Los Angeles Rams

• #9 Matthew Stafford – After spending the first dozen years of his career with Detroit teams that were often woefully overmatched, Stafford was acquired by the Rams in the offseason to be their quarterback. He responded with a brilliant season, throwing for 41 touchdown passes. Come Super Bowl Sunday, he’ll no longer be listed as one of the best players in football never to have reached the big game.
• #10 Cooper Kupp – Kupp had been a very productive, if often-injured, weapon for the Rams at receiver throughout the first four years of his career. But a healthy season and a wonderful connection with Stafford transformed him into an unstoppable force at receiver this season. He became the rare wideout to lead the league in receptions, yards and touchdowns in a single year
• #3 Odell Beckham Jr. – When he came into the league in 2014 with the Giants for the first of three straight 1,000-yard seasons with double-digit touchdowns to start his career, “OBJ,” as he’s often called, was #13. Injuries and an unproductive stint in Cleveland dulled his luster. But after the Rams acquired him in the middle of this season, he has started to regain some of his game-breaking ability.
• #99 Aaron Donald – Eight seasons into his career, Donald is already one of the greatest Rams ever and is showing no signs of slowing down. The defensive tackle has been named NFL Defensive Player of the Year in two of the past three seasons and could win again this year. He’s a certain Hall of Famer down the road and will get his second crack at a Super Bowl title after the Rams came up short three years ago.
• #5 Jalen Ramsey – Ramsey came up as a difference-maker in the secondary with the Jacksonville Jaguars and became an immediate All-Pro. The Rams traded for him in 2019 to transform their back end. He’s coming off arguably the best season of his career, as the Rams used him all over the field to best display his talents.

Classic Los Angeles Rams

• #11 Norm Van Brocklin – Van Brocklin was one of the best NFL quarterbacks of the 1950s and led the Rams to the NFL Championship Game in 1955. He also enjoyed a long coaching career in the league after his playing days were through. If you can score a Van Brocklin jersey, you’d be dealing with one of the classic uniforms of its time.
• #74 Merlin Olsen – Olsen was one of the famed “Fearsome Foursome” defensive line for the Rams in the 60s and 70s (that also included Rosey Grier and Deacon Jones, which would also be excellent jersey selections.) He went on to a long broadcasting career. And like several other ex-Rams, he had a successful acting career as well, most famously in Little House on the Prairie.
• #29 Eric Dickerson – Dickerson was a first-round selection of the Rams in 1983 and came busting out of the gate with four straight 1,000-yard rushing seasons. Included among those was his magical 2,105-yard season of 1984, which broke the all-time NFL record. The Rams traded him away in 1987 to the Colts, but his years in LA were the pinnacle of his success.
• #13 Kurt Warner – Warner was a 28-year-old undrafted free agent when he ended up the Rams starter in 1999 because of injuries. He led the Rams to their first ever Super Bowl title that season as the architect of “The Greatest Show on Turf” offense. To add to his record, he would take the Rams to a second Super Bowl a few years later, win the MVP award twice, and break every total offense record in the Rams’ record book.
• #28 Marshall Faulk – A dozen years after the Rams traded away Eric Dickerson to the Colts, they returned the favor by pilfering Faulk, already a multiple Pro Bowler entering his sixth season in the league at that point. In his first year with LA (their 1999 championship season), he managed 1,000 yards rushing and receiving, and a year later he won the MVP. Faulk’s three-year stretch from 1999 to 2001 with the Rams might be the best ever statistically by a running back in league history.

What Not to Wear to a Super Bowl 56 Party

Up to this point, we’ve been giving you all the options that you should consider when it comes to a Super Bowl 56 party. But we should also give you some of the ways to go wrong when it comes to your party attire. In this way, you’ll hopefully get steered in the right direction simply by knowing what not to do.

Don’t Wear Something That Will Cause Trouble

Again, this is a matter of reading your audience. And it’s all about making sure that you aren’t wearing something to deliberately troll them or trying to rub salt in their wounds. You shouldn’t go to a party actively trying to antagonize folks, and you have to remember that some folks get a little sensitive about their football fandom.

Think about being courteous to your fellow party-goers so that everybody gets along.

Don’t Wear Something That You Might Want to Preserve for Other Occasions

We touched on this before, but we thought it would be a good idea to emphasize it. If you have something fancy or expensive and you’re waiting to break it out on Super Bowl Sunday, you might want to think twice about it.

The only option you have if you do want to wear something that’s overly fancy, you should consider not eating. And that’s really no way to enjoy a Super Bowl party. Try to find a balance between something that looks good but also won’t break your heart if you get it a little dirty.

Don’t Go Overboard

The idea of dressing up to support one team or the other is certainly part of the Super Bowl party tradition. But you shouldn’t go to the extremes that make you look a little ridiculous. You can end up overdoing it and ruining the effect.

Always remember that moderation is always a good idea when it comes to Super Bowl party wardrobe choices.

Conclusion

If you take the tips we’ve given you in this article, you should do just fine dressing for the Big Game. You’ll be showing your fandom without going over the top.

But what about other people? If you feel interested in what the star at the halftime show will wear and would like to place a bet on their wardrobe, you should check our post on the top sites for Super Bowl halftime show bets.