Step aside, scriptwriters. It’s time for mentalists to tell us the future.
Conspiracy theorists have gone crazy this NFL season. From the Super Bowl logo hypothesis to claims that the NFL is “rigged” in favor of Taylor Swift and the Chiefs, fans have gone to great lengths to prove their outlandish claims.
The result has felt like a perpetual recreation of the oft-meme Charlie Kelly’s mailroom scene from “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia” – but I digress.
With the Super Bowl 58 matchup between the Chiefs and the 49ers, another fun but mind-blowing theory is making its way into the football world thanks to a preseason clip from “Hard Knocks” featuring Mecole Hardman and Oz the Mentalist.
Thanks to the clip, bettors believe they have found a way to get a head start on the betting houses for the big game. Here’s more on Hardman and Oz the Mentalist’s Super Bowl outcome prediction.
What was Mecole Hardman’s prediction for the Super Bowl?
During the 2023 version of HBO’s “Hard Knocks,” Oz Pearlman, better known as Oz the Mentalist, stopped by the Jets facility to perform some of his mind-reading magic.
Pearlman asked Hardman, who was playing for New York at the time, to give his prediction for this year’s Super Bowl, including the participants and the final result. The wide receiver, as expected, chose his own team as the AFC representative and the 49ers as the NFC opponent, with San Francisco losing 31-21.
Of course, Pearlman had already gotten into Hardman’s brain and knew exactly what his matchup and his score would be, pulling out a large poster board that echoed the wide receiver’s 31-21 prediction over the 49ers.
Mecole Hardman could have predicted her own future!! @AdamSchefter pic.twitter.com/kq8Vnexyw3
—Oz Pearlman (@OzTheMentalist) January 29, 2024
I would be remiss not to point out an important caveat in Hardman’s preseason prediction: The wide receiver was guessing the score would be 31-21 in favor of the Jets.
Hardman began the season in New York as part of the Jets’ revamped wide receiver room. With the arrival of Aaron Rodgers in the Big Apple, the team wanted to give the four-time MVP many weapons through the air.
Jets fans know what that was like. Rodgers tore his Achilles tendon four plays into the season and did not return for the rest of the season. In late October, Hardman was traded back to the Chiefs, rejoining the team with which he spent his first four NFL seasons.
Could the final score of the Super Bowl still be 31-21 in favor of Hardman’s team? Absolutely, and it’s impressive that he chose the NFC opponent.
But it’s not exactly the airtight argument that the headlines may make.
