I remember, vividly, the first time I encountered someone betting on a football game. I was in high school at the time and a friend and I were visiting a mutual friend of ours at a nearby university he was attending - "Run the clock out you pricks! I got this you motherfucker!" Why he was acting so uptight over a game in which his team was winning handily was a mystery to me at the time. The team he told me he needed to win (Notre Dame) was leading by four touchdowns with less than two minutes to go - "You got this in the bag. They are up by four touchdowns. What is your problem? It is impossible for them to lose." The Fighting Irish punt to the opposition with less than a minute left and the punt is subsequently returned for a touchdown. Roy goes ballistic - "You worthless motherfucker!" He yells at the top of his lungs - "I'm going to lose because those morons can't cover a punt. Fuck you Holtz!" He was referring to Lou Holtz who was coach of Notre Dame at the time. He was a high strung guy to begin with, but I couldn't help but find his behavior overboard.
"What's the problem with Roy? Why was he so upset over a game in which his team won by twenty one points?" I ask Deek as we are driving home, "It didn't matter that his team won. They didn't cover and he lost his bet," is his answer. I scratch my head and the say - "What do you mean they didn't cover? " He looks at me and says - "You really are a dumb son of a bitch. The line was twenty three and they only won by twenty one." Since that day I have not looked at college and professional athletics the same - Fast Forward thirty years:
"I am boycotting the NFL because they are all a bunch of ungrateful bastards. From hear on out I will not be watching another one of their games." I chatted with Roy today and his panties were in a bunch because of President Trump's comments about players being disrespectful by not standing for the national anthem. I'm not quite as naive as I was when I was young, so, basically, I let him know I didn't believe him in no uncertain terms - "Give me a break Roy. You have been watching football every fall Sunday for the last forty years, and betting on it for the last thirty, and now, all of sudden, you are going to go cold turkey. I don't believe it for one minute. This is not yesteryear my friend. If you are going to boycott the NFL because the politics don't align with you. Well, quite frankly, that is the dumbest thing I have ever heard."
He babbles on about how pissed he is at the NFL for allowing their 'employees' to be so disrespectful to the country and how he is sick of all the 'overpaid crybabies' and if they don't like this country they should move to another country and try to make their millions - "Okay," I say to him sarcastically, "Does that mean you are going to drop out of the three fantasy football leagues you have been in for the last twenty years? It's going to be hard to play fantasy football and then boycott the NFL at the same time. Don't you think?" There is a brief silence and then he spurts - "I don't have to watch in order to play. I will just get the stats from the internet and go from there." - "Yeah, sure," I say with more sarcasm - "Look, your idol Trump will find something else to spout off about this week and you and all the other clowns will forget about the boycott and we both know your ass will be planted in front of the TV come Sunday with the remote in one hand and a beer in the other."
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