As I See It: Babe
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 guest writer is Babe. He’s got a reaction to last week’s ‘As I See It.’ Babe, take it away….
When the Executive Director asked me to write up this week’s “As I See It” I wondered how I would follow up the history lesson dished out last week. And then it hit me…
Seven days ago 26 of us threw away 10 – 20 minutes of our lives re-hashing a day that will live in Funny Money infamy. Sure, we were all able to witness the birth of the game we all know and love, but we were also treated to some very important lessons in both gambling and life.
Number One – Nothing good can come out of a group of men getting together and giving themselves a nickname – The FUBARS? Really? This was like reading a drunk college girl’s AIM/Facebook profile a la “Love my girlies” or, my personal favorite, “You’re only as strong as the alcohol you drink, the tables you dance on and the friends by your side.”
Other notable “ambiguously” all male groups:
• New Kids on the Block
• Backstreet Boys
• *NSync
• New Edition
• Boyz II Men…OK, this last one is the exception rather than the rule.
Number Two – Quitters never win – We’re led to believe that a heartbreaking gambling loss drove a group of friends to throw in the towel, stop betting real money altogether and start up a relatively risk free, friendly game. However, that’s merely the excuse to mask the series of avoidable betting mistakes that drove these grumpy old men to give up football betting. Which brings me to #3…
Number Three – Gambling mistakes to avoid – What eventually led to all of us blindly placing our faith in our own abilities to play the odds against the weekly lines was a collection basic gambling no-no’s.
• Never bet for or against a team in your team’s division – A group of Browns fans picked the Steelers to win. Bad Karma. Period.
• If the worst gambler you know jumps on the bandwagon, then you must immediately jump off – To paraphrase the Sports Guy, this guy sucks the luck out of any pick he touches.
• Beware the suck bet – Every week there are one or two games where the odds seem unbelievably stacked in one team’s favor with a ridiculously small point spread. In this case a Steelers team stacked with future HOF’ers is favored over a misfit group of Raiders (from LA) on a frozen field in Pittsburgh.
As I see it, we all have a lot to learn from our Funny Money forefathers. For one, get out of the game early enough as to not end up looking like Brett Favre. Just let the kids play. And, finally, the only thing more depressing than losing your money to a bookie is losing it to your idiot friend you know just asked his girlfriend to pick the Lions +4 vs. the Jets.
