Captain Morgan and Burlington's Matty Benedetto Stir the Super Bowl (Party) Action 

We can think of a few Super Bowl inventions that are necessary: a stellar squad on special teams, a wardrobe that functions (see Janet Jackson, Super Bowl XXXVIII) and seven-time Super Bowl champ Tom Brady.

The list of unnecessary Super Bowl inventions is probably longer. It includes a Jeep commercial starring a boringly earnest Bruce Springsteen, TV coverage that starts six-and-a-half hours before kickoff, and every halftime show that isn’t Prince in Miami in 2007.

This year, along comes a game-day product that straddles the line — like a QB anticipating a sneak — between a necessary and unnecessary Super Bowl invention. The item, the Captain Morgan Super Bowl Punch Bowl, is stirred by a local hand: Matty Benedetto, the whiz-kid creative force and social media star behind the Unnecessary Inventions brand.  That's him in the ad below introducing the punch bowl.
Just because something is unnecessary, Benedetto noted, doesn't mean it's not useful. And it sure doesn't mean it's not fun. Enter the super-sized punch bowl: Necessary if you and your pals want to slurp gallons of sticky punch and never miss a touchdown; probably unnecessary if you're satisfied with a beer and chips.

The Captain Morgan Super Bowl Punch Bowl is both a basic and high-tech creation. The bowl holds four gallons of rum-spiked punch (or other liquid). That’s the basic part — especially on Super Sunday.

The smart punch bowl will also signal Super Bowl developments as they occur during the February 13 showdown between the Los Angeles Rams and the Cincinnati Bengals. It has a live scoreboard on its front, and LEDs that glow red when a team advances into the red zone. When something big happens in the game, built-in Bluetooth speakers and subwoofers are activated, mixing the  punch with vibrations .

In all, 12 to 15 different sounds and light-up patterns are keyed to game events, according to Benedetto. Needless to say, that’s the high-tech part.

“It’s really cool,” Bendetto told Seven Days on Friday. “Mine was supposed to show up this morning, but the snowstorm put a little damper on that.”

Benedetto, a Burlington resident, has more than 7 million followers throughout his social media channels. He turned 32 on January 31, the day a plaque arrived celebrating his one millionth (1.05 million) YouTube subscriber. Benedetto's Instagram feed has 1.2 million followers, and he has another 4-plus million on TikTok.

“At this point, I have a pretty decent reach,” Benedetto said. “And I try to make inventions that hit different corners of the Internet.”

The Captain Morgan team reached out to him about three months ago to talk about collaborating on a Super Bowl project, Benedetto said.

“They knew they wanted to do something fun and lighthearted for the Super Bowl,” he said. “We started planning different ideas of what would be fun for the project.”

Benedetto added an Unnecessary Invention of his own to the punch bowl: his “sift-and-pour ladle.” The two-tier ladle allows the user to scoop up punch only, ice only, or both.

“We knew we wanted to have some sort of ridiculous [item] that went with it,” Benedetto said. “This idea matched it well.”
There are only 20 Super Bowl Punch Bowls, including the one whose scheduled delivery to Benedetto was delayed by Friday's snowstorm.  Benedetto expects it will arrive Monday, when he'll present a “full unboxing” of the product on social media.

“I’ll give people a little bit more of a deep dive into all the features,” he said. “The snow is nice, but it would’ve been nice to have my Super Bowl Punch Bowl.”

A couple of days after he dishes on the bowl on his networks, Benedetto will fly to Los Angeles to watch the Super Bowl at SoFi Stadium.

“I’m very excited,” he said, adding that he’ll root for “the team of whoever I’m surrounded by wants to win.”

Benedetto recently appeared on "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" pitching the product with former NFLer Victor Cruz. The wide receiver played for the New York Giants and won a Super Bowl when New York beat the New England Patriots, 21-17, to cap the 2011 season.

The promotional pair form an apt “duality,” Benedetto noted. “There’s the diehard football person and the person that’s just there at the party to enjoy the punch,” he said.

People who want to spice up the game while they’re watching at home on TV, can enter a lottery to win a Captain Morgan Super Bowl Punch Bowl. Entrants must be 21 or older. The deadline is Sunday, February 6, by midnight.

Meanwhile, before he heads to L.A., Benedetto said he might lend his punch bowl to some homebound friends for the game.

 "I would use it myself," he said. "If I wasn't lucky enough that I'll be at the Super Bowl."