Dungy Wins Bowl, Kills Gamblers Everywhere

Now that Peyton Manning proved himself capable of winning a championship, Alex Rodriguez will be deflecting questions about his ability to get a ring. Following Merril Hoge's assertion that the Miami weather would not be a factor "unless it was a monsoon" South Florida was able to contradict one of Hoge's countless dead-wrong guarantees.

Fumble after fumble, the "mist" that attacked the Orange Bowl forced Superbowl XLI into a turnover pandemonium. Another bang-up job by Merril. How does he still work for ESPN? Oh, yeah: shtick . . . shtick . . . and more shtick.

As for Tony Dungy, I'm glad that such a great human-being was able to achieve the summit of professional football, but I still have a bone to pick. Last week I put money down on the Colts, hoping they would be able to not only beat their longtime foe (Patriots), but also exceed the over/under mark (47.5). This leads me to the Superbowl.

Facing a fourth-and-six, holding a twelve point lead and well within field-goal position, Dungy decided to "go for" the first down. Indianapolis did not gain the first down and the Bears' subsequent failure to put any points on the board effectively killed my bet.

I took the Colts to win and took the over which was set at 47 points. If Hunter Smith had not shuffled the extra point try, I would have at least earned a push. If Dungy had not inexplicably gone for it on fourth down and instead sent Vinatieri to kick the field goal, I would have won myself some money.

Neither scenario came to fruition and my wager went down the drain - the final score adding up to 46 points. I will sleep well on the realization that there are hundreds of degenerate gamblers who placed far more moolah on the same parlay, losing much more green in the process.

P.S. - Maybe when Lovie Smith was sending so much love toward Car-Rex Grossman in hopes of boosting the youngster's confidence, he should have instead been telling offensive coordinator Rod Turner to teach Grossman how to take a sack. Those were some atrocious rainbows he threw for interceptions in key spots.

Also, if the Colts had not blown that extra point try and (engaging common sense) kicked that fourth-quarter fieldgoal, the final score would have been 33-17. Only a blown fieldgoal (plus one) away from my prediction of 37-17. No, I do not have an upcoming interview with Merrill Hoge.


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Somewhere Marlon McCree was watching the game thinking: if I had just hit the deck the same way I dropped into my sofa, we might be hoisting the Lombardi trophy ourselves. They should have beat the Patriots, would have beat the Colts and might have totally embarrassed the Bears. The Chargers are by the far the best team to not win (or at least reach) the Superbowl in recent memory.