Here's a Super Bowl prop bet you won't find

Pick your own personal reason to watch Sunday's Super Bowl XLVI.

The buffet of options include the athleticism, the point spread, Madonna's halftime show, the good commercials, the bad commercials, maybe even the game itself.

If you tune in for the concussions, you aren't alone.

An Associated Press story in the Daily Herald on Saturday quoted a current media consultant/former TV executive who suggested that the concussion issue contributes to the public's fascination with the NFL.

What a country!

That's what football, including the Super Bowl, has come to: Along with a point count you have a head count, so to speak.

First a guess on the score: Giants 26, Patriots 23, Bears 0.

Now a guess on concussions: Patriots 3, Giants 2, Bears 1 (probably Brian Urlacher sitting on his couch pondering his recent babbling on the subject).

Sunday, fans can discuss among themselves whether that Giants receiver's bell rang, this Patriots star was seeing stars, that Giant returned to the game woozily, this Patriot was able to count to zero, that hit was helmet to head or head to helmet, this perpetrator was felonious or merely a misdemeanor.

Vegas posts prop bets on everything from the number of Bill Belichick belches to the number of Tim Tebow mentions, but there isn't one on the number of concussions in a game.

The reason there's no over-under on brain scrambles is players like Urlacher vow to hide their symptoms from team doctors.

The Bears middle linebacker's recent comments made it doubtful that he'll be able to spell his name — Brian, much less Urlacher — by the time he reaches 50 years of age.

Those comments also are why oddsmakers skip the head games, not out of sympathy but out of necessity.

“If I have a concussion these days,” Urlacher told “Real Sports” on HBO, “I'm going to say something happened to my toe or knee just to get my bearings. I'm not going to sit in there and say I got a concussion, I can't go in there the rest of the game.”

This is like a cigarette smoker reading the health warning on the package and lighting up anyway.

Later, of course, attorneys for players file litigation against big tobacco, uh, make that big football. The concussed are starting to slap the league with nearly one lawsuit for every Super Bowl viewer.

NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell talked at his annual Super Bowl week news conference Friday about the league's intent to make the game safer for players.

Goodell knows as well as anyone that safer isn't safe and that part of football's appeal is that it's unsafe.

This game consists of men weighing between 200 and 400 pounds running into each other, sometimes with their heads getting in the way of the collisions whether they want them to or not.

If two countries went at each other as recklessly, the United Nations would impose sanctions on each faster than an NFL player could forget what city he is in.

Yet football proceeds at its own cruel pace, and more fans feel compelled to watch the carnage.

So Sunday — in between the nachos and the dip — I'll go with the flow, flow with each blow, and try to count how many players stagger to the wrong sideline.

If Vegas ever does decide to prop up an over-under on concussions, I'll bet the over every time.

mimrem@dailyherald.com