Few events are as exciting or as enjoyable as a football watch party, which combines delightfully casual vibes with a festive and often competitive atmosphere. You won’t find many other events that provide this enjoyable mix of relaxation and excitement.
While football viewing parties typically deliver wonderful memories, these events start to feel a bit stale over time. Yes, it’s a blast to eat greasy food and cheer with your friends — but what if you’re ready for more? Why not amp it up with special games and competitions designed to enhance every aspect of the viewing experience?
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If you’d like to level up your football viewing party, you could throw a family-friendly party or an adults-only event in which you and your best buds are encouraged to let loose. Either way, this is your chance to transform an ordinary game day into an extraordinary occasion. Below, we highlight a mix of football party ideas for adults and kids alike that will make your event the talk of the town. These aren’t just for football watch parties either. If you’re throwing a football-themed birthday party or tailgate event, many of these ideas work great too!
Here’s what you can expect:
- Complete Football Pick ‘Em Questionnaires Before the Game
- Football Bingo
- Bean Bag Toss & Cornhole
- Football Trivia
- Darts
- Drinking Games
- Cook-off
- Touch or Flag Football
- Football Toss Contest
- Football Charades
- Pin the Football
- Football Party Photo Booth
Complete Football Pick ‘Em Questionnaires Before the Game
Whether your guests are football experts or completely clueless, invite them to try and predict the game’s outcome before you settle down to watch. This is a great option for those who aren’t into gambling but could benefit from the added excitement of making predictions — and hoping they play out.
Be sure to add an enticing prize to the mix to make your questionnaire that much more thrilling. After the game is over, you can scour the answers or even read them out loud to determine who came closest to the actual results. That person will win not only the prize you so carefully choose, but also, much-deserved bragging rights.
Prior to the party, create a questionnaire, complete with the names of each team and the name of the person answering the questions. This person should predict which team will win and by how much. Other questions may highlight the anticipated number of sacks, interceptions, or field goals. Keep it simple, unless you’re willing to scour through long pages of answers.
Football Bingo
Similar in some respects to a pick ’em questionnaire — but played actively during the football game — bingo will ensure that even casual NFL viewers remain tuned in to every aspect of the event. And since football games are jam-packed with memorable moments taking the form of exciting touchdowns, big hits and even end zone dances, paying homage with a game of bingo is a lot of fun. It’s also a great way to get new fans or younger attendees to learn the game.
Prior to the party, create unique football-themed bingo boards with spaces featuring specific moments that typically occur during football games. For example:
- The ref blows an obvious call
- The announcers get a name wrong
- One of the coaches yells at the referee
- Kickoff return exceeding 30 yards
- The athletes participate in a touchdown victory dance
Spaces such as “coach screaming on sidelines,” “official blows an obvious call,” and “fan in the crowd wearing a ridiculous outfit” combine nicely with traditional spaces for expected events such as long touchdown passes or missed field goals.
“Punting Deep” by Timmy F. is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0
And don’t forget to include some eye-rolling TV commercials and studio host cliches! Bingo cards could also focus on commercials, with spaces highlighting ads for beer, trucks, pizza, and other football game standards.
The regular rules of bingo should apply. Consider playing a new round per quarter so multiple people have the opportunity to win a small prize.
Amp up your bingo game with larger-than-life cardboard cutouts of bingo boards (contact us for a life-size custom cutout )and break your guests into teams to compete for top prize! These are great for regular or annual watch parties, and a wonderful tradition everyone will look forward to.
There are plenty of blank Bingo templates online that you can print out and customize. Or if you want something quick and easy, you can print out pre-made football bingo cards, such as these or these. There are also some professionally printed cards you can buy from Amazon such as this kit with 30 cards or this NFL branded bingo kit featuring your favorite team.
Bean Bag Toss & Cornhole
You don’t need a rocket for an arm to enjoy an old-fashioned game of bean bag toss. Liven up this game by assigning football-related point values to each space. If one team achieves a huge lead, cut down the deficit by landing a bag on the “safety” spot, which provides additional points as well as another toss. Cornhole can also be modified to fit into the overarching football theme. Red bags, for example, form excellent “challenge” bags. If these land in a specific hole, they can be used to overturn your opponent’s last score.
Our professional cutouts make great bean bag toss bases or backs, and you can customize them with the team colors and logos of your choice! We recommend our corrugated plastic cutouts for more durability.
Football Trivia
Determine exactly how much your guests know about football and their respective teams with a lively game of trivia. Casual or competitive, you’ll find that this adds quite a bit of intrigue to your event. Depending on the scope of the party, this activity can either be arranged as team trivia or a free-for-all.
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When selecting questions, go as generic or as specific as you desire, based on the expertise of your guests. You can highlight the season thus far, basic team tidbits, or even facts that apply to the NFL in general.
UsefulTrivia.com has a huge list of trivia questions for every NFL team, which makes setup easy. There are also mobile apps that allow for multiplayer trivia competitions such as Fan Quiz for Apple or Android.
Hardcore fans will especially enjoy answering questions about their favorite team’s history. These questions can be asked prior to the big game or peppered throughout the event to add interest. Don’t forget to select an enticing prize for the winning individual or team.
Darts
Darts are always fun, but dedicated football fans particularly enjoy any game that allows them to desecrate images of their least favorite players from opposing teams. Hence, the value of including a rousing game of darts at your NFL party.
If you invite guests who cheer for both teams, feel free to add a little extra competition in the form of cardboard cutouts featuring each of the day’s featured quarterbacks. These can either highlight the player’s head (such as our BigHead cutouts) or entire body. Either way, guests will be eager to throw accurately and take down their NFL nemesis — at least in cardboard form.
Drinking Games
Drinking forms a core component of most adult football watch parties. Typically, however, it’s limited to chugging beer while staring at the TV screens. Take the fun of drinking to the next level by incorporating a variety of beverages and an even wider array of games.
Classics such as beer pong are always appreciated during football-themed parties, but it’s also fun to incorporate the actual game of football. If you prefer drinking games to bingo, instruct guests to take a swig every time something important or interesting happens. For example, players can take a drink when they spot an irate coach getting in the face of an unsuspecting referee. If you prefer to keep it simple, take a drink for every touchdown, field goal, or opposing team interception.
Commercial-based drinking games are also a blast. Choose a topic or company expected to appear multiple times during the game. Budweiser, for example, is a top candidate. Every time the chosen item or name is mentioned, take a drink.
Cook-off
The right foods can make or break your football party. Guests look forward to chowing down on wings, pizza, guac, and more. Why not get them actively involved in this key aspect of party planning? Feel free to stage a cook-off competition, in which attendees strive to impress one another with their culinary skills.
Wings are a popular option. The wings can be prepared ahead of time and kept warm in chafing dishes.
Not only does this free you from the need to provide all the fixings, it brings a unique element of food-based adventure to the event. Allow guests to vote on their favorites from various categories, with the winner of each earning a special prize.
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Touch or Flag Football
Why let NFL athletes have all the fun? Nothing should stop you from playing your own exciting game of football — except, perhaps, excessive food consumption. Keep it safe by removing tackles from the equation. Touch and flag football are just as fun but won’t end with a trip to the hospital.
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Ask attendees who plan to play football to bring extra shirts in one of two selected colors to make it easier to distinguish between teams. When determining who goes on which teams, consider sticking to a theme (Giants versus Jets fans, for example) or letting pre-selected captains do the work.
Football Toss Contest
Break out the pigskin and get your throwing arm loose with a game of toss. Depending on how much you value the items in your house, this game can be played both inside and outside. Place prized around the playing field and assign point values to them. If these items are pegged by a flying football, the thrower receives a specific number of points. A cardboard cutout of your favorite receiver can also serve as the perfect target for your less-than-perfect spiral.
Football Charades
Charades is always a crowd-pleaser, but the football-themed version will be an especially popular addition to your party.
During this goofy game, players are encouraged to act out or reenact some of the most iconic, ridiculous or famous moments in football lore, such as the New York Jets butt fumble, the Immaculate Reception (or the 2.0 version), or the Lambeau Leap.. Other examples of ideas to act out include:
- The mascots for various teams
- Specific types of players, such as quarterbacks or field goal kickers
- Common player behaviors, such as end-zone celebrations or spiking the ball
“NFL Network ID” by Brett Morris is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0
If you want to get extra creative, allow players to act out scenes with partners. These can feature key moments from your favorite team’s history. Minnesota Vikings fans, for example, could act out the Minneapolis Miracle, when Stefon Diggs made an unexpected catch against all odds. Others might prefer to play Randy Moss mooning the Packers. Likewise, Giants fans should enjoy recreating the iconic helmet catch.
Pin the Football
Pin the football will have everyone in stitches! This game functions almost the same as pin the tail on the donkey, except that the pins should look like footballs and the display should reflect a field goal. This is a great option if you’re on the hunt for DIY football party decorations, as it adds instant pizzazz to your party.
Another option: using cardboard cutouts of your favorite mascot. For example, fans of the Detroit Lions can play pin the tail on the lion. Athlete-based games can also prove hilarious, such as pin the cheesehead on Aaron Rodgers or pin the Vince Lombardi trophy on Tom Brady. The options are virtually endless, so don’t hesitate to think up something truly original for your party. Football player cutouts are a fun and popular option with our customers. They also make for great selfies at parties, which brings us to our next suggestion…
Set up a Photo Booth
A photo booth is a great way to add some fun and excitement to your event. Guests can step in front of the camera and strike a pose with their favorite team’s logo or football-themed props.
You can build a DIY photo booth out of cardboard or order a custom full size photo booth frame from us, which would be durable and reusable. Another option is to set up a backdrop on a wall that you set aside for photo opportunities. You can order an NFL team backdrop online and hang it up or get a custom wall mural for a more professional look. You could look like a fan in the stands, a player on the field, or be in the team’s locker room!
You can print out props too. Canon has some great free printable football props and there are lots of other cheap printables on Etsy. You can print props out on thicker card stock, attache a wood skewer or popsicle sticks as a holder, and that’s it! Easy, fun photo props!
Plus, they’ll have a keepsake to take home with them after the party is over. So, if you’re looking for a unique way to celebrate the big game, be sure to set up a football party photo booth!
Football Party Games Are Fun For Everyone
Whether the guests at your party are hardcore fans or casual viewers, the right games and activities will ensure that they feel both welcome and entertained. BigHead and life-sized cardboard cutouts can take both your games and decor to the next level. To learn more about your options for incorporating cardboard cutouts into an epic football watch party, contact Cardboard Cutout Standees today.
