A Super Bowl spike?

El Cabrero is not a big fan of watching ball sports. I plan on observing Super Bowl Sunday by running in a 10K race. Still, the topic of Super Bowl came up in a conversation with the Spousal Unit yesterday. It turns out that there is an oft-quoted belief out there that domestic violence incidents peak on Super Bowl Sunday.

It makes sense when you first hear it. I mean, think about it, there are going to be a bunch of beered up sports fans out there responding to the thrill of victory or the agony of defeat.

That doesn't appear to be the case, however. I checked it out on Snopes. While it is undoubtedly true that the domestic violence rate is too high all the time, there doesn't seem to be a trend over time for a significant spike on this day. Let's hope that's the case this year as well.