Stan Smith
ESPNNFLBy Arthur Weinstein on

For all those conspiracy lovers out there who are convinced the NFL scripted Super Bowl LVIII, you should know about Stan Smith.

Who is Stan Smith? He’s the sports director for CBS affiliate KLBK in Lubbock, Texas, who correctly predicted not only that the Kansas City Chiefs would win Sunday, he called the unusual and very rare final score.

KC topped the San Francisco 49ers in overtime, 25-22, a final score that’s happened only 12 previous times in NFL history.

Smith boldly predicted that score during a broadcast on Friday.

“I’m going to go with 25-22, a little unusual,” Smith said.

Smith retweeted a video of his prediction and asked, “Do I have the script?” Many fans were asking that same question on X/Twitter, while others had different questions (“Will the Cowboys win a Super Bowl in my lifetime?” etc.)

How is it possible Smith got that score right? Smith told Awful Announcing Monday that he had been watching an episode of Pardon My Take earlier in the week when Chris Berman joked about some odd final scores and 25-22 came up.

That number stuck in his head, so when KLBK anchor Matt Stell asked him for a prediction on Friday night’s newscast, he went with that score.

“I didn’t know he was going to ask that, so when he asked that, I had to say, ’25-22,'” Smith said.

Smith immediately regretted his prediction.

“I went home that night after work and thought, ‘Why in the heck did I say that?'”

But as the game unfolded, Smith realized he might be on to something.

“When it gets to be 19-19 heading into overtime, I was thinking, ‘OK, it’s getting a little weird now,'” Smith said.

It gets even weirder: Smith said he played a Super Bowl numbers pool. Against all odds, he had KC with a 5 square, and the 49ers with a 2 square.

“This is just divine intervention here, if this were to hit,” Smith remembers thinking.

X/Twitter loved Smith’s correct prediction.

Besides that unusual final score, Super Bowl LVIII featured plenty of strange moments, from Travis Kelce’s outburst on the sidelines to CBS analyst Tony Romo singing along to bumper music on the way to commercial breaks.

Oh, regarding the X pundits who joked about Smith getting the game’s “script,” his girlfriend offered a brilliant response.

“Obviously the hot topic has been the script,” Smith said. “She said, if there were a script, why would they give it to a TV sports anchor in Lubbock, Texas?”

[Kayler Smith, KMID; Photo Credit: KLBK]

About Arthur Weinstein

Arthur spends his free time traveling around the U.S. to sporting events, state and national parks, and in search of great restaurants off the beaten path.

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