Much has been said of the erroneous call at the end of the Steelers game this past week. The Steelers won the game but did not cover the point spread, because of the aforementioned erroneous call people who bet on the Steelers lost large sums of money. The associated press has a more definitive description of the play if you are interested.
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/football/nfl/scoreboards/2008/11/16/3106_viewcast_recap.html
I am not saying the call was intentionally made to cause the Steelers to lose by the spread, but there are some who believe this to be the case. (I did a google search after writing this blog and to my surprise there are actually people on the Internet who believe this was a conspiracy. I know I was surprised too, people on the Internet are usually not quick to believe in conspiracies without hard evidence that proves them true.) Many NFL columnists and analysts were outraged by the call which the NFL later admitted was the wrong call. Most of these analysts stated they didn't care about the gamblers, but they were instead upset the NFL didn't give the points to the Steelers after realizing their error because of a seldom-used point differential tiebreaker. I'm sure there are some who have taken the side of the gambler, but I haven't heard many do it publicly. (After doing a google search on the subject it seems I was wrong. There are many articles or posts on message boards advocating the position of the gamblers who were wronged because of the bad call. There are also many articles in mainstream publications that discuss the gambling implications of the call, but it is not an issue that is being given serious consideration by the NFL or most people who cover the NFL for a living.) The trend among most journalists and analysts who cover the NFL is to demean the role the gambler plays in the success of the NFL and to speak ill of them as though everyone who wagers on NFL games is somehow a degenerate gambler. I don't usually gamble on the NFL and I still watch a large number of games. There are many people who only watch the games because they have money on them. It is legal to bet on the games in Las Vegas. The NFL knows this, but publicly acts as though they don't encourage or condone gambling. The NFL is what it is today due in large part to gambling legal or otherwise. The NFL may not have to acknowledge it publicly, but there are millions of hard-working Americans spending their money to bet on football games and they have the right to know the NFL understands they are a large segment of the fan base whom the NFL takes seriously. Instead they are mocked and treated like they are the uncle to whom the NFL is embarrassed to admit they are related. The Steelers won the game so it is easy to dismiss the bad call as meaningless. Just wait NFL until Thanksgiving when you have to eat dinner with that uncle that you are ashamed to be associated with and your wife yells at you because your aunt and uncle lost their house because of that bad call the official made. Who will be embarrassed then?
Well actually in the hypothetical scenario you should probably tell your wife that you will discuss it tomorrow. Do not mention that she is being unreasonable because she had too much to drink and that when she sobers up she will realize that your uncle shouldn't have bet his house on a football game. She will likely realize this on her own tomorrow and maybe she will even be willing to issue a public apology. This will of course be little consolation if you didn't take my advice and instead insisted on arguing with her. She has probably already made a scene in front of your entire family, thrown you out of the house and called your work to tell them how they should all be ashamed of themselves for costing your uncle his house. Like the NFL if you had gotten it right to begin with you would not have to deal with the ugly repercussions the next day. Another decision she regrets today is that after you argued with her and she threw you out she invited your aunt and uncle to stay with you until they got their finances in order. Upon further review it is time to send your wife to rehab for her drinking, your uncle to rehab for his gambling and of course it is time to send your officials for lasix corrective eye surgery. Yes that is in fact a modern version of the old joke about officials needing glasses. I understand it still a terrible joke in its new form and is akin to re-releasing a bad claymation movie made by an untalented high school student in high-definition. That being said everyone who watched that play at home knew they blew the call. The official went into the booth and watched it in high-def and still blew the call. Unless you want your uncle living with you or your marriage to be in trouble I suggest to you to make sure this sort of error does not take place in the future.
Hypocrisy in the U.S.A.
11 years ago
6 comments:
I understand the thrill of gambling, as per related by my friend Bo-Bo Joe Alpy, who would routinely plummet down in a booth in the diner and begin fervorishly filling out Quickdraw tickets with the zeal of an add-inflicted child who has gone without her Aderol. This behavior was all but lost on me, as per Bo-bo's own losing streak, ten miles wide, his fist developing into a white-knuckled clench as the last Quickdraw ball would plummet from above, like an incendiary missile coming from the sky, and landing in the wrong spot. Which, curiously, only goaded him on to further gambling spells and losing streaks.
Bobby Joe's example did not bode well for my own future in gambling, and so I never did. But it's hard not to guess that he would probably side with the gamblers, too. But he never really got along too well with his family either, whatever that means. I guess my family were big football fans, too.
I do occasionally gamble. When I gamble I think betting on horses or football games is preferable to quick draw or keeno as it is known in most places.
The point is that the NFL benefits greatly from gambling. It would be like them saying they do not condone drinking. They can't because they get much of their advertising dollars from companies who sell alcohol. So instead they have ads encouraging people not to drink in excess. Not all people who gamble do so in excess just like not all people who drink do so in excess. If the NFL wanted to prevent Vegas from allowing people to wager on games I'm sure they could. Of course they would instead just do so illegally like people in other states do. It would make more sense to allow betting on sports to be as legal as betting on quick draw. Why allow quick draw or betting on horses but not betting on sports. It is completely arbitrary.
I would also like to comment on your comments defaming the honorable Bobo. Although much of what you say is true. I don't know that he would appreciate it being described on a blog that will soon be read by millions. Also I find it objectionable that you would compare him to a female child. I think that is stereotypical and unfair. Of course like I said your comments are entirely accurate and they bring about old memories both positive and negative that at this point are all amusing.
Maybe he would appreciate it if you wrote a song using similar description. It seems like the sort of thing he would have listened to years ago. An ode to Bobo the quickdraw playing mofo.
As evidenced by his own losing streak (if not his own sordid and haphazard lifestyle, which may include waking up in ditches and on random people's porches at any given time, totally unbeknownst as to how he arrived there), I would like to venture that the friend in question probably does not own a computer and may in fact entertain vast conspiracy theories about the inter-web. I hope pray) that I'm wrong, and that at some undetermined point in the future I open my door to find him standing there, to confront me after too much to drink--at which point in time i would hurtle a watermelon twenty feet in the air, to distract said espouser of theories wide and sweeping--but i just don't know about all that. Guess we'll have to wait and see.
I wish everyone could understand just how truly funny that last comment you made was but you would have to know the man to appreciate it fully.
I think it is more likely you will pick him up on the side of the road somewhere and he will act as if you had done the same thing yesterday and the day before. He will then try to pick a fight with you about how Hamilton was better than Jefferson. He will then proceed to get drunk and make you drive him to the battlefield in Saratoga.
Ryan is quite right and I was quite the degenerate gambler and yes...alcoholic.It has taken me a long time to get a handle on my emotional issues and turning my back on drinking,drugging and gambling was the start.
Contrary to what Mr.Kemp suggested,I do in fact have a computer and you can imagine my suprise in finding this "Sordid" little gossip mill while trying to look up my great-granfather for the purpose of researching my family tree.
I wish I could deny Mr.Kemps charges,but the truth is he's quite right...as was the final poster who I suspect was Steve Stanilka.I am not at all there so to speak,but a clean life and some well timed therapy have gone a long way to making me more "Normal" by todays standards.
Mental health is precarious and I wish that I were as Gifted in that area as Ryan and Steve seem to be,but alas it was not meant to be and I must make do with the gifts God gave me.
You can keep your watermelon old friend.Should I find myself on your doorstep,I can guarantee you it will not be with drink on my breath or anger in my heart.Those things and others have cost me more than you can know Ryan and as to Steve,you probably are well aware of what it cost me.I do go to the battlefield Steve...I always go sober and with a heavy heart and always to 'Benedict's Boot'.
I would hope that these two friends of mine would be happy to know that I have dedicated myself to work and study and have chosen to set aside addictions(i still smoke cigs)for a life of work and study.As to my mental health it's a daily struggle that I'm just begining to understand,but I hope you boys can forgive me for not having the instant cure for that problem,but what can I say...that's life.I've never felt I could make it in this world and becoming a responsible citizen with a job,a car and an apartment were things that I always thought were beyond me...apparently you guys thought the same.Thank God we were all wrong.I always thought I needed love and support to make it,but as it turns out I didn't.You'll both be disappointed to know that the failure of friends and lovers to remember me for who I am or remain by my side in the dark times,has not made me a cynic or caused me to lose hope in the basic goodness of mankind.
Best of wishes Ryan and Steve.I wish I'd given you better reasons to have as happy a memory of me as I have had of you two.
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