Super Bowl Coin Toss - Real Time?

[JSngry]

So...me and a bunch of other people have been going years thinking that the SB CT ceremony that we see on TV is strictly ceremonial, that the real coin toss is held beforehand...I thought this was "common knowledge", but today I ran into a group of people who had never heard such a thing before, they thought this was the most insane thing they'd ever heard, citing the few glitches over the years as proof that it was a real time event (never mind that yes, the ceremony itself is a real time event, so there's always room for fuckups), and they show the coin, etc, etc, etc. all of which can be explained, but now I'm wondering, maybe this "common knowledge" that the determinative coin flip occurs "back stage" is just some urban myth? If so, I've been hornswaggled, and so have many others!

But I do want to get it right, so, can anybody say with a provable certainty what the deal on this really is?

[TedR]

I heard that the coin flip has taken place at various locations in Iowa.

[GA Russell]

I know that for decades the NFL coin toss has occurred maybe an hour before kickoff to give the coaches the opportunity to organize their team's early-game strategy.  But there has been no bogus ceremony before the games - the league has always been candid about it.

It never occurred to me that the Super Bowl coin toss has been a re-enactment.  The announcers behave like it's legit, don't they?

[jlhoots]

What about overtime coin tosses??