The Super Bowl power outage: 5 conspiracy theories

Who blacked-out half the lights in the Superdome on Sunday evening? 49ers fans? Voodoo priests? A Harbaugh brother?

49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick
(Image credit: Mike Ehrmann/Getty Images)

If anyone knows what caused the blackout that plummeted New Orleans' Superdome, and Super Bowl XLVII, into near-darkness Sunday night, they aren't being very forthcoming. Entergy Services, the local utility, and SMG, the company that manages the Superdome, jointly blamed the power failure on a mysterious "abnormality in the system" that essentially tripped a giant circuit-breaker, adding that both companies "will continue to investigate the root cause of the abnormality."

However, what is pretty clear is that before the blackout, the Baltimore Ravens were cruising to a blowout victory, and after the 35-minute unscheduled break, the San Francisco 49ers roared back to within a few points (and questionable calls) of winning the game. So naturally, the internet did what the internet does best: Hatching and propagating conspiracy theories, many of them tongue-in-cheek. Here, five of the best:

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up
Peter Weber, The Week US

Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.