Billy Joel Hopefully Sober For National Anthem

So here's something we hadn't realized: Billy Joel is singing the national anthem at the Super Bowl. Though we are impressed that the NFL remains current and cutting edge with their selection of everyone's favorite rapidly decaying crooner, we are also curious about just how long it's gonna take him to sing it. Paul Zimmerman historically times national anthems — he says the longest he ever timed was 2 1/2 minutes — and CNBC's Darren Rovell is curious as well.

an online sportsbook.com has the over/under at 1:44. Before I started to even get into this, I called up the guys at an online sportsbook to make sure I understood the bet right. They told me that it's not when the accompaniment starts. It's when Billy says the word "Oh." So I woke up this morning and sang the national anthem a couple times to see how long it would take. My regular version took 1:14. My slow version took 1:22 and my extra slow version took 1:32. I assume a smart bettor would go through the same drill and think, how is it possibly going to get up to 1:44? Well, a smarter bettor would go to YouTube, which I did. There's only one Billy Joel version of the National Anthem. His rendition from the 2000 World Series all timed out - it's 1 minute and 37 seconds.

We'd probably still take the bet; Rovell says no one has ever gone over under 1:44 (though Dr. Z, timing Beyonce from a couple of Super Bowls ago at 2:07). We just can't believe we're gonna have to look at Billy Joel for almost two minutes.

My Favorite Prop [CNBC] Singing The Blues [SI.com]