Off you go: US employers brace for 16 million Super Bowl sick days

America should just make the Super Bowl a national holiday.

Well, not the actual game, but the day after. As the Super Bowl spectacle shines ever brighter, so have reports of people not showing up for work on the Monday after the NFL crowns its champion.

So-called Super Bowl Monday is routinely named as one of the least productive days on the calendar. About 16 million people are expected to skip this year after the Kansas City Chiefs topped the San Francisco 49ers in overtime, according to an estimate based on a survey by UKG Workforce Institute.


"Folks are going to be playing sick," said Jarik Conrad, president of UKG Workforce Institute. "They're probably not going to be very truthful."

So what should be done about the Super Bowl flu?

One solution pitched in a bill last year by two Tennessee lawmakers was to have the Monday after the Super Bowl be a holiday. There's also been speculation about the matchup being moved a week later to President's Day weekend. That would mean millions of workers would have Super Bowl Monday off as a scheduled holiday.