Monday Night Football (How I Met Your Mother)

Plot

Ted's favorite holiday is Super Bowl Sunday. He has everything planned out continuing their tradition of watching it together with hot wings. The gang's plans are cut short when they find out a worker at the bar has died. They are forced into going to the funeral, otherwise they won't be allowed back in the bar. The funeral starts at the same time as Super Bowl XLI, so they tape it figuring they'll watch it afterwards. The wake lasts too long and they run out of time to watch the game. They plan to not find out the score of the game until the next day to watch it together. Ted works at home so no one can tell him the score while Barney handcuffs himself to Ted's wall, so he can't find the score, because he has a lot of money on the game. Robin does the best she can to avoid the media, even though she works in news.

Finally, Marshall goes to class with Lily for show and tell, but must bribe one of her students not to reveal the score. Ted constructs a device so he can get the wings and not find out the score while he's in the sports bar, but must go back to get the dipping sauce. Meanwhile, Barney escapes from Ted's and tries as hard as he can to find the score of the game. He runs into many people including Emmitt Smith, who have all missed the game. Marshall continues to be tormented by the student until he gets him back by spraying juice on his pants and threatens to tell everyone he wet his pants. While Ted is back in the bar getting the sauce, he trips but doesn't find out the score, Barney checks the newspaper, Robin hears the winner at the station, and a janitor has the radio on in the kindergarten revealing the score of the game to Lily (who covers Marshall's ears to keep him from hearing too), thus almost all of them know the score of the game without even watching it. Marshall, Lily and Robin head to Ted's but don't reveal that they know who won, and Barney promises he won't tell - only to be heard loudly screaming in Ted's room that he lost every bet thus ruining the game for everybody, since Ted knew who Barney bet on. Despite this, the five decide to sit down and watch the game anyway and still manage to enjoy themselves as much as ever. Future Ted finishes the story by telling his kids that he doesn't remember who won or even who played, but he'll always remember the evening as a fun one he spent with his friends.

Staci Krause of IGN gave this episode a rating of 5.4 out of 10. This was the lowest rating given by IGN to any episode in the series, until "Ring Up!" in season 8, which received a score of 4.3.