As I See It: Karl Farbman
As part of a new running feature, each Friday one franchise owner will have the opportunity to write whatever they want in this space. This week’s we are hearing from an old favorite: Karl Farbman. Karl take it away….
Last week, Don Mattingly’s story about the Chiefs reminded me of something. It’s the story of the greatest gambling moment I have ever been a part of.
In the fall of 2004, I was studying in London for the semester. Even though there was a big time difference, my roommates and I would stay up to watch Sunday and Monday Night Football each week (which started around 1:30am GMT). During the 2004 season, my online gambling account was dormant. I told myself at the beginning of the year that it would be too hard to follow the injuries and the ebb and flow of the season to bet the games week in and week out.
In late October, I got an email from the online site that said something like, “Where have you been? We’ve missed your business. We’d like you to come back, so here is a free $200 in your account.”
Now, it just seemed like a no-brainer to bet games. If I lost the money, no big deal. If I won, I vowed to withdraw it from the account once I returned to the States.
Those next six weeks or so, I was up and down with wins and losses. I was relying on a lot of online research during the week to make my picks, which was still no where near how comprehensive it is today. I spent a couple hours every Thursday in the university computer lab trying to read as much as possible. While I was doing this, my fellow students in the lab were raving about some new internet site called, “Facebook.”
With one week to go in the semester, there was a meaningless December Monday night game on the docket. It was the Chiefs playing against the Titans in Tennessee. Both teams had no chance of making the playoffs, so pride was really all that was on the line. The Chiefs were 1.5 point underdogs. I had a feeling they were going to win big, riding the golden arm of Trent Green. I decided to bet the adjusted line, which made the Chiefs a big favorite, but paid off at 3 to 1. So I put a considerable chunk of my account on Kansas City favored by 7.5.
The game was a shootout with a lot of twists and turns. First the Titans went up by 14 (putting me down by 21.5 early), but the Chiefs came roaring back. In a see-saw battle, the Titans kicked a field goal with 2:26 to go to take a 38-35 lead.
I was sunk. No way I could cover the 7.5 spread. Two minutes to go and I would need two touchdowns to do it.
The Chiefs got the ball back, and Green engineered a magnificent drive down the field, finding Eddie Kennison in the end zone to take a 42-38 lead with 32 seconds to play.
It was an entertaining game, but I was pissed. The Chiefs had played good enough to win, but not to cover the adjusted spread.
The Titans got the ball back and threw a couple of incomplete passes. With about 20 seconds left and some 70 yards to make up, they needed a big play. Billy Volek dropped back to pass and threw a short slant route. The Titans tight end attempted to lateral the ball to a streaking receiver, but the timing was off. The ball was fumbled.
Chiefs defender Kawika Mitchell picked up the ball and ran untouched into the end zone, scoring with 8 seconds left. Chiefs win 49-38.
I was going insane at 4:30 in the morning across the pond. The play happened so quickly that I thought I was delirious and making things up. But then I watched the replay over and over. The impossible had happened. The announcers saw it as a meaningless final score, but to me it was a miraculous finish.
I recently unearthed a video of this game (pay attention to the last 45 seconds or so): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W7cb8-BkQBk
Also, the box score of the game in question can be found here: http://espn.go.com/nfl/boxscore?gameId=241213010
It’s the type of story I’ll tell my grandkids.
