It wasn't too long after the National Women's hockey team coasted to a 4-1 victory in Torino - it may have been just mere hours, actually - but it came.
Springtime.
Granted, it's still February and the Jays are still in the sunny pastures of Florida and the World Baseball Classic is still on the horizon and there's still 14 feet of snow covering something like another 2 feet of solid ice outside - but there's baseball brewing.
The Jays of the last few years can be seen as a metaphor for all that is wrong with Canadian sports - all too often the Toronto teams have relied on talent that either didn't work with the system in place (Mats Sundin, Vince Carter, T-Mac, Roger Clemens)or on players well past their prime that were cheap/fan favorites (Wendell Clark, Doug Gilmour, Eric Lindros, Jose Canseco) - and it was always a short term success. The Jays finished a few games below .500, the Raptors made the playoffs for a few years and Toronto made the Eastern Conference finals a few years back.
But these plans all failed in the long run: The Maple Leafs, like the Boston Red Sox of old, were relying on old talent while getting rid of hot young players and were usually the worst team to make the playoffs. The Raptors, who were once full of young talent, collapsed as their management drove their best players out of town on an all-to-often basis. The Blue Jays signed - and then lost - players that were big names but never had the talent to back them up.
It was the Argonauts, our local CFL team, that was doing it right: They had the solid vets (Damon Allen, Pinball Clemens) that could win games with the right mix of young talent to back them up - and they went to the Eastern Finals for three years in a row, winning the Grey Cup in 2004.
Now the Blue Jays, always near the bottom of Toronto's popularity, are making the right steps: They have the solid role-playing vets (Doc Halliday, AJ Burnett, Vernon Wells), young talent (Gustavo Chacin, Gregg Zaun, McGowan) and - most importantly - solid management in JP Riccardi.
This could be a new dawn - a springtime - in the cellar of sports in Toronto. Since the Jays went out and filled their holes in the Rotation (January) the Raptors have traded away Jalen Rose (opening up some cap room) and fired Rob "Saddam" Babcock - and have become a legitimate threat to finish in the top twenty. Will the Leafs follow suit and dump Pat "Can't win Quinn" and trade away Mats Sundin for some good youngsters?
(And yes, you know you're talking to a Toronto Sports Fan when they talk about sub .500 seasons in a positive light - after all, we've haven't had two of the three major teams finish above .500 since 2003... One final thought, too: The rookie crop in Toronto has been great this year. First Gustavo Chacin rattled off one of the best rookie seasons in the League, then both Alex Steen, Kyle Wellwood and Charlie-V posted nearly as great rookie seasons. Yet another reason why Toronto has, potentially, a bright future on the horizon...)
Tuesday, February 21, 2006
Friday, February 10, 2006
The means and the motive - Part two
"Three may keep a secret if two are dead" - Ben Franklin
What leads an athlete to gamble? Is it greed, a mad desire for money? Is it for power - the same kind they once had on their field of play? Or is it something else, something to fill an empty void in their lives?
Pete Rose, like Wayne Gretzky, was not just an athlete - he was an artist, a virtuoso at third base. He was better then anyone before him and he remains better then anyone still. He started in professional baseball in 1960 as a minor leaguer and played his first major league game in 1963 - and won the award for Best Rookie in the National League. He played professional baseball until 1986, when he dropped himself (he was by then also the manager for the Reds) off the 40-man roster.
By 1989 he was banned from baseball.
With Wayne it was a similar story: he started for the Indianapolis Racers of the now-defunct World Hockey Association in 1978 at the age of 17 and retired 21 years later at the age of 38 in 1999 - he had spent the majority of his life, like Pete Rose, playing and perfecting the sport that he loved.
When a person, such as a watchmaker, retires after many years of working, they often find that they are restless - in Japan, this has a name: Retired Husband Syndrome. In this, the husband, is unable to cope with life at home with the kids and the wife - he's so used to working that he is unable to handle all the free time - and the wife ends up suffering.
Maybe this could explain Janet's involvement in the gambling ring - maybe not.
But what about Wayne? Like that fellow artist, Pete Rose, Wayne had spent the majority if his life playing a game he loved - and a game that had now passed him by. Like Rose, Gretzky went to work for hockey - first for the Canadian National Team, and later as a coach for the Phoenix Coyotes. But the competitive streak in him was left empty...
It can be assumed that this could have been what led Pete Rose to gamble - as he got older, he was no longer able to compete at the level he once was... By the time he was a manager, he was unable to compete in the same way that he has before. And, so my reasoning goes, he turned to gambling - it allowed him to compete as he once did, thus filling his void - but the stakes were higher then he realized (he perhaps he did - and it raised the competition higher and higher for him) and the same thing happened to him that happens to anyone who gambles with large sums of money for an extended time: the house won. And, to boot, he was kicked out the game he loved so much; the game that he had been a part of for over 25 years.
Perhaps that is why allegedly Wayne could have started to gamble. With his hockey career over, he still felt a need to compete. And, unlike other athletes who return to their sport because of that urge (Michael Jordan, Bo Jackson, Mario Lemieux) he knew that he was unable to play as he once did - and perhaps gambling offered him the same thrill that he craved. Perhaps it was small, a minor bet on a football game on ProLine - or a major sum invested in a March Madness pool. It doesn't matter; it's all moot. What matters is that once somebody starts, they're not going to stop until the fire within them is extinguished (either by debt, fulfillment or by being caught).
But somebody close to him did start -they played with fire and it burned them - badly. And now one question remains: Did he gamble?
Nobody knows for sure, other Wayne himself, but almost anyone can make an uneducated guess...
(Continued...)
What leads an athlete to gamble? Is it greed, a mad desire for money? Is it for power - the same kind they once had on their field of play? Or is it something else, something to fill an empty void in their lives?
Pete Rose, like Wayne Gretzky, was not just an athlete - he was an artist, a virtuoso at third base. He was better then anyone before him and he remains better then anyone still. He started in professional baseball in 1960 as a minor leaguer and played his first major league game in 1963 - and won the award for Best Rookie in the National League. He played professional baseball until 1986, when he dropped himself (he was by then also the manager for the Reds) off the 40-man roster.
By 1989 he was banned from baseball.
With Wayne it was a similar story: he started for the Indianapolis Racers of the now-defunct World Hockey Association in 1978 at the age of 17 and retired 21 years later at the age of 38 in 1999 - he had spent the majority of his life, like Pete Rose, playing and perfecting the sport that he loved.
When a person, such as a watchmaker, retires after many years of working, they often find that they are restless - in Japan, this has a name: Retired Husband Syndrome. In this, the husband, is unable to cope with life at home with the kids and the wife - he's so used to working that he is unable to handle all the free time - and the wife ends up suffering.
Maybe this could explain Janet's involvement in the gambling ring - maybe not.
But what about Wayne? Like that fellow artist, Pete Rose, Wayne had spent the majority if his life playing a game he loved - and a game that had now passed him by. Like Rose, Gretzky went to work for hockey - first for the Canadian National Team, and later as a coach for the Phoenix Coyotes. But the competitive streak in him was left empty...
It can be assumed that this could have been what led Pete Rose to gamble - as he got older, he was no longer able to compete at the level he once was... By the time he was a manager, he was unable to compete in the same way that he has before. And, so my reasoning goes, he turned to gambling - it allowed him to compete as he once did, thus filling his void - but the stakes were higher then he realized (he perhaps he did - and it raised the competition higher and higher for him) and the same thing happened to him that happens to anyone who gambles with large sums of money for an extended time: the house won. And, to boot, he was kicked out the game he loved so much; the game that he had been a part of for over 25 years.
Perhaps that is why allegedly Wayne could have started to gamble. With his hockey career over, he still felt a need to compete. And, unlike other athletes who return to their sport because of that urge (Michael Jordan, Bo Jackson, Mario Lemieux) he knew that he was unable to play as he once did - and perhaps gambling offered him the same thrill that he craved. Perhaps it was small, a minor bet on a football game on ProLine - or a major sum invested in a March Madness pool. It doesn't matter; it's all moot. What matters is that once somebody starts, they're not going to stop until the fire within them is extinguished (either by debt, fulfillment or by being caught).
But somebody close to him did start -they played with fire and it burned them - badly. And now one question remains: Did he gamble?
Nobody knows for sure, other Wayne himself, but almost anyone can make an uneducated guess...
(Continued...)
Thursday, February 09, 2006
Welcome to the new NHL - welcome to jail (part one)
Note: I had a post about Super Bowl XL all ready - a story about hotel room gambling, heavy snowstorms knocking out all outside communications and the headless-chicken-dance that Matt Hasselbeck pulled at the end of the game, when everyone that ever played any sort of football knew that you had to kick a quick FG and go for an onside kick, but then "Operation Slap Shot" came across like a bolt of lighting... Thusly, the Super Bowl Article will be delayed, as we all try and make sense of this saga...
Every sport has its heroes - baseball, basketball, soccer, hockey, football, cricket - whatever. They all have people that anyone and everyone looks down at as a true master of the game; Nolan Ryan, Wilt Chamberlain, Pele, Joe Montana, Wayne Gretzky. Almost anyone who knows anything about any of these men knows that they all excelled in their own sport - arguably moreso then anyone else.
And every sport has it's scandals. Basketball has had point-shaving allegations as far back as the 1950's. Baseball had the 1919 World Series thrown by the 'Black Sox'. And now hockey has it's own: Operation Slap Shot.
Wayne Gretzky has stated, for the record, that he "had no knowledge of the gambling ring". Yet his wife has been named as a major player, as was one of his personal friends - and fellow coach - Rick Tocchet. And now it's being reported that there are wiretaps that prove that "Wayne Gretzky knew about a gambling ring involving his wife and assistant coach Rick Tocchet". (Link)
This is Canada's Pete Rose story - and true to Canadian fashion, it's neither as big nor as scandalous as it's American counterpart.
Where Pete Rose bet on his team - always to win, as he has stated many times - Wayne Gretzky either just knew about the betting and never reported it or had his wife bet on sports (football and basketball, mostly) on his behalf.
In an age where the NHL is just starting to make headway in the United States, this is one of the worst blows it could have gotten - save Gretzky actually throwing games. Baseball took years to recover from the scars of the 1994 lockout, but it already had a large base of loyal fans in the US. Hockey has no such thing in the United States - it was dropped by ESPN and ABC and remains ranked fourth, arguably even fifth, in the professional sports leagues (Behind the NFL, MLB, NBA and Nascar). And with the allegations that it's been corrupted by gamblers, the NHL could have a hard time recovering from this blow.
And so will Gretzky's team: the Phoenix Coyotes. Since moving to Arizona in 1996, the average attendance has dropped almost every season until 2002-03 - except for a minor gain in the 1999-2000 season. The team has never been past the first round of the playoffs (although the Jets only did that once, in 1985 in a best of five series against the Flames) and has finished out of the playoffs 3 times in the last four seasons. This is a team in a non-established area with dwindling attendance that now has potential corruption charges against them (Perhaps this is why Brett Hull retired?). This could be the last blow that sinks the ship.
When this all clears up - which it won't do any time soon - the NHL should survive, as will Gretzky's reputation. But the Coyotes might not. And the game could take damage that will take years to undo...
to be continued...
Every sport has its heroes - baseball, basketball, soccer, hockey, football, cricket - whatever. They all have people that anyone and everyone looks down at as a true master of the game; Nolan Ryan, Wilt Chamberlain, Pele, Joe Montana, Wayne Gretzky. Almost anyone who knows anything about any of these men knows that they all excelled in their own sport - arguably moreso then anyone else.
And every sport has it's scandals. Basketball has had point-shaving allegations as far back as the 1950's. Baseball had the 1919 World Series thrown by the 'Black Sox'. And now hockey has it's own: Operation Slap Shot.
Wayne Gretzky has stated, for the record, that he "had no knowledge of the gambling ring". Yet his wife has been named as a major player, as was one of his personal friends - and fellow coach - Rick Tocchet. And now it's being reported that there are wiretaps that prove that "Wayne Gretzky knew about a gambling ring involving his wife and assistant coach Rick Tocchet". (Link)
This is Canada's Pete Rose story - and true to Canadian fashion, it's neither as big nor as scandalous as it's American counterpart.
Where Pete Rose bet on his team - always to win, as he has stated many times - Wayne Gretzky either just knew about the betting and never reported it or had his wife bet on sports (football and basketball, mostly) on his behalf.
In an age where the NHL is just starting to make headway in the United States, this is one of the worst blows it could have gotten - save Gretzky actually throwing games. Baseball took years to recover from the scars of the 1994 lockout, but it already had a large base of loyal fans in the US. Hockey has no such thing in the United States - it was dropped by ESPN and ABC and remains ranked fourth, arguably even fifth, in the professional sports leagues (Behind the NFL, MLB, NBA and Nascar). And with the allegations that it's been corrupted by gamblers, the NHL could have a hard time recovering from this blow.
And so will Gretzky's team: the Phoenix Coyotes. Since moving to Arizona in 1996, the average attendance has dropped almost every season until 2002-03 - except for a minor gain in the 1999-2000 season. The team has never been past the first round of the playoffs (although the Jets only did that once, in 1985 in a best of five series against the Flames) and has finished out of the playoffs 3 times in the last four seasons. This is a team in a non-established area with dwindling attendance that now has potential corruption charges against them (Perhaps this is why Brett Hull retired?). This could be the last blow that sinks the ship.
When this all clears up - which it won't do any time soon - the NHL should survive, as will Gretzky's reputation. But the Coyotes might not. And the game could take damage that will take years to undo...
to be continued...
Friday, February 03, 2006
The January Swoon/Super Bowl XL
It was the worst streak for the Maple Leafs of Toronto for this millennium – they dropped eight games in a row (they’ve since won one out of two games, making it a 1-9 record for their last ten games) – it was almost a vicious flashback to the recent dark ages for the Leafs, when they played in a decrepit arena called “The Gardens” and were captained by a man named Vaive…
When a team loses big games once or twice, the general idea is that the team has just hit a “skid”. If the team continues to lose a few more games, then it’s a losing streak. But if the team still continues to lose, like the Maple Leafs in question, it puts them in a special category – the same one that Columbus is in this year or that Ottawa was in back in the mid 90’s – The Swoon.
It comes on slowly and almost unknowingly – indeed, you never know that it’s here until it’s too late – but once it arrives, you’ll know it, baby. Children will be openly weeping in the stands, fans will be burning jerseys in the parking lot and the radio airwaves will be filled with angry, screaming callers, all demanding a pound of flesh from the management, the captain, the goalie – it doesn’t matter who, really, just so long as somebody pays in blood. Don’t believe me? Just ask any fan of the Philadelphia Eagles – they hung out Terrell Owens, Donovan McNabb and Andy Reid to dry this year as soon as the team hit the Swoon.
Yes, as soon as a team – especially one like the fan base that the Leafs have – hits the swoon, fans immediately have two reactions:
- They begin to refer to the team as “They” (as in “They lost on us again”), as opposed to when the team is winning, which is when the team is referred to as “we” (As in “We won again, eh?)
- They begin to froth at the mouth, screaming, swearing and shaking uncontrollably while in the midst of a rage against the team they loved to much, just weeks before, blaming each and every member of the team (including employees of the team – such as the popcorn maker, the guy who operates the skate-sharpening machine and the guy who changes light bulbs on the overhead scoreboard)
This is why the team has been so quiet recently, whereas that other winter Toronto team (The Raptors of the NBA) has been so loud – the Leaf fans might want Pat Quinn, Ed Belfour or Mats Sundin out of the team (indeed, maybe even out of the country), but they could never face a reality of the Leafs doing so: It would be akin to suicide at this point in the year, with a potential playoff spot (the #8 seed) up for grabs – and besides, what if they blame the wrong person?
The Raptors know that they can get away with their changes – their former GM, Rob Babcock, publicly denounced the team during the pre-season (Saying that the team was going to be worse then their 33 and 49 record), made the basketball equivalent of the Munich Pact with the New Jersey Nets/Miami Heat (when the Raptors essentially traded away Vince Carter for two nobodies and had to pay $30 million on top for the privilege of doing so) and drafted Rafael Araujo – who has proven, despite occasional flashes of greatness (mostly in the preseason, unfortunately) to be one of the biggest flops in the NBA – he almost certainly is one of, if not the, reason that the Raptors have not made the postseason in his tenure.
But with the Leafs it’s not that easy to blame someone – after all, this swoon is not the cause of any one single player: Mats Sundin, Tie Domi and Jeff O’Neill are under-performing. Ed Belfour’s goaltending is shaky at best. The Leafs defence is stretched dangerously thin – relying almost completely on Bryan McCabe. Their GM, John Ferguson Jr., let Brian Leetch go on the off season and passed on signing Curtis Joseph – they’re now having career years – and didn’t buy out contracts of underachievers as Ed Belfour or Nik Andropov. The Leafs failure is not the result of one single person – it’s the result of many different failures. None of them were major – but all the small mistakes are adding up quickly.
From their reliance on getting veteran players in Free Agency and from trades, to a steady flow of talent away from Toronto’s blue line to all their major players either underachieving (Mats Sundin, Ed Belfour, Jason Allison) or being sidelined with injury (Eric Lindros, Bryan McCabe, Darcy Tucker) – the Leafs, as a whole, are to blame for this Mid-Season Swoon.
Even so, the Leafs have a steady core of rookie and prospective players: Both Kyle Wellwood and Alex Steen are enjoying great seasons, while players like Justin Pogge will provide a bright future for the Leafs in a few years – right now, this is the major distinction from the other Leaf teams in years past – all too often, Maple Leaf Sports Entertainment was only too keen to trade away young players for already proven – and aged – talent. This is how Toronto ended up with Doug Gilmour, Brian Leetch or Wendel Clark in recent years – and look where they’ve taken the team.
Besides, it’s not even halfway through the season – at least wait until the Olympics are over before we worry about the Playoffs.
Super Bowl Sunday predictions:
Seattle Seahawks vs. Pittsburgh Steelers (Vegas Line: Steelers –4)
My pick: Pittsburgh
Not only does Big Ben look more and more like one of the greatest quarterbacks in the league, the Steelers are looking stellar: they’ve upset three teams in the playoffs so far, all games that they were supposed to have no chance in, to get here… and with a week off, the team should be rested enough to play at their fullest.
Seattle, on the other hand, has Shaun Alexander; the most explosive running back in the league – but is playing a defence that has only allowed one 100yd runner in this postseason, is ranked 3rd overall against the run and will utilize a 3-4 defence (Seattle lost their last game against a team that used a similar defencive scheme [13-10 vs. Dallas]) – which should diminish the chances that Alexander will get. If nothing else, this game will show Alexander for what he is – either a MVP level back that can carry his team to victory or a running back that has succeeded in a easy division…
We can’t forget the intangibles either: Jerome Bettis is from Detroit and many Steeler fans are making the trip up to Detroit for the game (whereas many Seattle fans will be sitting at home, watching the ABC-TV feed) – this will make this game almost a home-field advantage for the Steelers. On the other hand, though, the Steelers have had a week off and are the favorites: The adrenaline from their 3-0 run through the postseason could have worn off by now and they’re used to playing against the crowd, against the Vegas Casinos and against, seemingly, all odds; but now that they have all the advantages in their favor, will they be able to work up the same drive and stamina that they needed against the favorites? If they can, the game is all but theirs. If not, then the game’s victor suddenly becomes uncertain and the desperate gamblers in Vegas will be hoping that the Steelers at least cover the spread.
One thing is for sure – this will continue the trend of great Super Bowls that we’ve had since 2000. Look for this game to show up in the wee hours on Classic Sports in a few years, okay?
When a team loses big games once or twice, the general idea is that the team has just hit a “skid”. If the team continues to lose a few more games, then it’s a losing streak. But if the team still continues to lose, like the Maple Leafs in question, it puts them in a special category – the same one that Columbus is in this year or that Ottawa was in back in the mid 90’s – The Swoon.
It comes on slowly and almost unknowingly – indeed, you never know that it’s here until it’s too late – but once it arrives, you’ll know it, baby. Children will be openly weeping in the stands, fans will be burning jerseys in the parking lot and the radio airwaves will be filled with angry, screaming callers, all demanding a pound of flesh from the management, the captain, the goalie – it doesn’t matter who, really, just so long as somebody pays in blood. Don’t believe me? Just ask any fan of the Philadelphia Eagles – they hung out Terrell Owens, Donovan McNabb and Andy Reid to dry this year as soon as the team hit the Swoon.
Yes, as soon as a team – especially one like the fan base that the Leafs have – hits the swoon, fans immediately have two reactions:
- They begin to refer to the team as “They” (as in “They lost on us again”), as opposed to when the team is winning, which is when the team is referred to as “we” (As in “We won again, eh?)
- They begin to froth at the mouth, screaming, swearing and shaking uncontrollably while in the midst of a rage against the team they loved to much, just weeks before, blaming each and every member of the team (including employees of the team – such as the popcorn maker, the guy who operates the skate-sharpening machine and the guy who changes light bulbs on the overhead scoreboard)
This is why the team has been so quiet recently, whereas that other winter Toronto team (The Raptors of the NBA) has been so loud – the Leaf fans might want Pat Quinn, Ed Belfour or Mats Sundin out of the team (indeed, maybe even out of the country), but they could never face a reality of the Leafs doing so: It would be akin to suicide at this point in the year, with a potential playoff spot (the #8 seed) up for grabs – and besides, what if they blame the wrong person?
The Raptors know that they can get away with their changes – their former GM, Rob Babcock, publicly denounced the team during the pre-season (Saying that the team was going to be worse then their 33 and 49 record), made the basketball equivalent of the Munich Pact with the New Jersey Nets/Miami Heat (when the Raptors essentially traded away Vince Carter for two nobodies and had to pay $30 million on top for the privilege of doing so) and drafted Rafael Araujo – who has proven, despite occasional flashes of greatness (mostly in the preseason, unfortunately) to be one of the biggest flops in the NBA – he almost certainly is one of, if not the, reason that the Raptors have not made the postseason in his tenure.
But with the Leafs it’s not that easy to blame someone – after all, this swoon is not the cause of any one single player: Mats Sundin, Tie Domi and Jeff O’Neill are under-performing. Ed Belfour’s goaltending is shaky at best. The Leafs defence is stretched dangerously thin – relying almost completely on Bryan McCabe. Their GM, John Ferguson Jr., let Brian Leetch go on the off season and passed on signing Curtis Joseph – they’re now having career years – and didn’t buy out contracts of underachievers as Ed Belfour or Nik Andropov. The Leafs failure is not the result of one single person – it’s the result of many different failures. None of them were major – but all the small mistakes are adding up quickly.
From their reliance on getting veteran players in Free Agency and from trades, to a steady flow of talent away from Toronto’s blue line to all their major players either underachieving (Mats Sundin, Ed Belfour, Jason Allison) or being sidelined with injury (Eric Lindros, Bryan McCabe, Darcy Tucker) – the Leafs, as a whole, are to blame for this Mid-Season Swoon.
Even so, the Leafs have a steady core of rookie and prospective players: Both Kyle Wellwood and Alex Steen are enjoying great seasons, while players like Justin Pogge will provide a bright future for the Leafs in a few years – right now, this is the major distinction from the other Leaf teams in years past – all too often, Maple Leaf Sports Entertainment was only too keen to trade away young players for already proven – and aged – talent. This is how Toronto ended up with Doug Gilmour, Brian Leetch or Wendel Clark in recent years – and look where they’ve taken the team.
Besides, it’s not even halfway through the season – at least wait until the Olympics are over before we worry about the Playoffs.
Super Bowl Sunday predictions:
Seattle Seahawks vs. Pittsburgh Steelers (Vegas Line: Steelers –4)
My pick: Pittsburgh
Not only does Big Ben look more and more like one of the greatest quarterbacks in the league, the Steelers are looking stellar: they’ve upset three teams in the playoffs so far, all games that they were supposed to have no chance in, to get here… and with a week off, the team should be rested enough to play at their fullest.
Seattle, on the other hand, has Shaun Alexander; the most explosive running back in the league – but is playing a defence that has only allowed one 100yd runner in this postseason, is ranked 3rd overall against the run and will utilize a 3-4 defence (Seattle lost their last game against a team that used a similar defencive scheme [13-10 vs. Dallas]) – which should diminish the chances that Alexander will get. If nothing else, this game will show Alexander for what he is – either a MVP level back that can carry his team to victory or a running back that has succeeded in a easy division…
We can’t forget the intangibles either: Jerome Bettis is from Detroit and many Steeler fans are making the trip up to Detroit for the game (whereas many Seattle fans will be sitting at home, watching the ABC-TV feed) – this will make this game almost a home-field advantage for the Steelers. On the other hand, though, the Steelers have had a week off and are the favorites: The adrenaline from their 3-0 run through the postseason could have worn off by now and they’re used to playing against the crowd, against the Vegas Casinos and against, seemingly, all odds; but now that they have all the advantages in their favor, will they be able to work up the same drive and stamina that they needed against the favorites? If they can, the game is all but theirs. If not, then the game’s victor suddenly becomes uncertain and the desperate gamblers in Vegas will be hoping that the Steelers at least cover the spread.
One thing is for sure – this will continue the trend of great Super Bowls that we’ve had since 2000. Look for this game to show up in the wee hours on Classic Sports in a few years, okay?
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