It’s time again for the big Sunday extravaganza that includes a football game. The weeklong event is already in full swing so some predictions can be made.
First let’s see what Guido and the Bloomberg News Service have to say about Sunday’s football game. It is the most bet-upon single game of the year with a projected $90 million to be wagered this time.
Guido, my composite Nevada sports book guy (actually, “he” now includes a woman too!) says there was $96 million bet in 2006 and last year it was about $82 million. “You know we’ve had a dip in the economy, but it’s coming back now,” said Guido. I wonder if betting is a leading economic indicator. It probably should be.
I just printed out 35 pages of possible bets you can make on the Super Bowl.
You can bet on who wins the coin toss, will James Harrison (Pittsburgh) have more tackles and assists than Miami’s basketball player Lebron James will have assists on that same day, who will catch the first pass, will Charles Woodson intercept a pass, who will win the MVP (Aaron Rodgers, Green Bay quarterback is the big favorite), which team will score first, will either team score in every quarter, total number of penalties, how many times the announcers will say the words “lockout” and “Brett Favre”, and so on. Guido said they would consider other bets. Most of the above came from betters in past years.
Anyway, it appears that the close spread (Packers by 2 1/2) also brings out the betters as well as the popularity of the two teams. The Packers are the third most popular team in the NFL with the Steelers at number 4.
“Just love this time of year,” said Guido. “People bet on the Super Bowl who don’t know what a football is. What could be better?”
And that’s true. It’s estimated that over 25 percent of the people who attend Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Texas, have not ever attended a regular season football game. That’s okay, I’ll attend my son’s Super Bowl party and watch it on a giant TV screen and the bathrooms will be closer and the food will be free. And it’s good food too!
I predict that grandpa Harry will not be awake by the start of the game. He starts watching the pregame shows about 9 a.m. and is sound asleep by the 3 p.m. start.
Son Dave will finally learn that the white carpet in his huge TV room should be a different color. Is there a beer color?
Pop Tart, son’s big dog, will again show that he is just tall enough to reach the beef ribs on the counter, even if he’s told “no!”
BYOB will again mean Bring Your Own First Bottle, I’ll Get the Rest.
The same people always forget to BYOB every year.
I will be embarrassed when some other people’s bad language will slip out in front of the kids. The kids will look at me embarrassed that someone said a bad word in front of me!
I predict that people will forget their bets they made with one another and chaos will ensue. I will suggest we just go with the squares and they will think I’m square and chaos will ensue.
I predict I will try and tell the kids why I hate Green Bay and that the Rams used to play here. They will again look at me with blank stares.
And, as you know, some people watch this time slot to see the commercials. They are all new and a lot of them are very creative. They should be for $2.5 million for 30 seconds. By the way, you may read that the ads will cost almost $3 million but they give “discounts” and they are just about sold out.
The huge number of advertisements and promos will mean the players will be well rested. So will the partygoers at home. You’ll see why I say it’s four hours of advertising with breaks for the football game.
And finally, Oh yeah, the football game, Pittsburgh will beat Green Bay, 28-24. Pitt’s defense is just too good.
