17-Across: Winner of next Sunday's Super Bowl LVI (!)

Question

If you're like me, you're excited for the big game this weekend. Here's a crossword puzzle to enjoy while we wait.

To solve in browser, I recommend accessing this link from the east coast and this link from the west coast.

Here are the crossword details:

Across

1. Sultry scarf substitutes
5. Like Iron Man, not Elastigirl
10. Ariana Grande's "___ You"
11. Three-time Grammy-winning country rocker Steve
12. Patty/cake
13. Political opponent of Pericles, an anagram of CLONE
14. The Queen takes hers with milk
16. Palindromic attention-getting sound
17. Winner of next Sunday's Super Bowl LVI (!)
21. Sinus doc
22. "Who ___?", chant for 17-Across (maybe)
23. Talk ender
25. Chronicles aftermath
29. Cobbler, at times
30. It often occurs following a car wash, seemingly
31. Olympic blades
32. It might be tight or tough

Down

1. Race tag
2. Number of years Matthew Stafford has played for 17-Across (maybe)
3. What seven did to nine, in a joke
4. Cicada sound, depending
5. Punishment for a repeat offender
6. Different ending
7. Peggy, in Berlin
8. Expression of defeat
9. European teeth
15. Game concerned with flying formations
17. Word in a "Dear tenant" letter
18. ___ form (superb)
19. It's worth 1 point in Scrabble
20. They tend to accumulate in Central Park
24. Winner's sign
26. Microwave
27. Jesus weighs over 600 tons here
28. Picnic regular

Answer 1

Here's the solution!

But wait!

Turns out, both potential winning teams are valid solutions to the puzzle!

Turns out this puzzle is:

one with two possible solutions based on the outcome of a future event, a type of puzzle famously exemplified (and possibly first done?) for the 1996 US election puzzle published in the NYT, and I believe repeated fairly recently there as well. Very fun and looking forward to the game!

Answer 2

The other answer already fills in the crossword, so in this answer, I wanted to highlight the

Schrodinger/quantum/simultaneous clues/solutions.

Across:

There is a single clue:
17. Winner of next Sunday's Super Bowl LVI (!): Los Angeles / Cincinnati. These are the two teams participating in Super Bowl LVI: the Los Angeles Rams and the Cincinnati Bengals.

Down (left to right):

There are ten clues, one for each letter for the across clue, with each letter having two possibilities.
17. Word in a "Dear tenant" letter: lease / cease. Presumably this is because the letter might be about the terms of the lease, or perhaps to tell the tenant to cease some activity.
18. ___ form (superb): on top / in top. "in top form" is a common phrasing; "on top form" is a little stilted, but attested on Google.
19. It's worth 1 point in Scrabble: s tile / n tile. There are ten one-point tiles in Scrabble, including all vowels as well as the consonants "lnrst".
4. Cicada sound, depending: soft "a" / soft "c". The first "a" in "cicada" is pronounced as a soft "a" in some (but not all) pronunciations. The first (but not second) "c" is a soft "c" (that is, pronounced like an "s") in all pronunciations.
15. Game concerned with flying formations: Ender's / eiders. "Ender's Game" is a short story, novel, film, and more where the main character, Ender, plays a "game" that involves formations in space. Eiders are ducks that are hunted (hence game), live in large colonies, and fly in formation.
5. Punishment for a repeat offender: recage / recane. This is a bit of a stretch, but amusing. Prisoners can be caged or caned, and presumably if they offend repeatedly, this may be done multiple times.
20. They tend to accumulate in Central Park: eyers / NYers. Apparently "eyers" is a word synonymous with onlookers or observers. Meanwhile, residents of New York might be called NYers. I guess people-watchers in New York City might go to Central Park.
7. Peggy, in Berlin: Gretl / Greta. Peggy is a diminutive form of Margaret in English. The German name Margareta or Margarete has the primary diminutive form Greta, but apparently Gretl is attested as well.
8. Expression of defeat: "I lose!" / "I lost!". This is perhaps the most straightforwardly ambiguous (and least clever?) clue among these ten Down clues.
9. European teeth: dents / denti. A huge stretch: dents is the word for teeth in French, while denti is the word for teeth in Italian.

Furthermore:

22-Across. "Who ___?", chant for 17-Across (maybe): dey. "Who dey, who dey, who dey think gonna beat dem Bengals?! [Nobody!]" is a famous chant from Bengals supporters, now frequently mentioned in news articles because of the upcoming Super Bowl. This answer would only apply if Cincinnati was 17-Across.
2-Down. Number of years Matthew Stafford has played for 17-Across (maybe): one. Matthew Stafford is the current quarterback for the Los Angeles Rams, having been traded from the Detroit Lions last year. This answer would only apply if Los Angeles was 17-Across.