Thanks. After gambling for a while you can really start to tell when you're in good shape and you aren't. Missed XPs are the bane of my existence. I've had them happen in like, the 2nd quarter and I immediately start preparing to lose.
When we were up by 14 the math gets to be really in my favor. Even if they somehow went to OT a TD in OT is enough for a push at -6.
I kinda forgot about the bet for most of the game, though, because opening game of the season at home is too exciting.
Really weird story (somewhat on topic) just about betting in general, and I’m wondering if anyone has had a more unlucky bet than this.
It comes from my earliest memory of gambling in 1999 (actually the Super Bowl from the 1998 season.). The game was Broncos (defending champions) vs Falcons. That was the Elway-Davis team and the dirty birds with Jamaal Anderson and Chris Chandler (bleh.). Also the game where Eugene Robinson got busted with a hooker the night before.
Anyway, my dad was in one of those “squares” pools where you try to get the last digit of each team’s point total at the end of each quarter. It was a really big pool and the winner of the final score was going to get several thousand dollars. He had a lot of debt and it was a tough financial time for us, and this would have been a godsend. Back then a few grand was a lot more than a few grand now.
My dad had 4 for Denver and 0 for Atlanta for the final score.
With 2:04 left in the game, the Falcons scored a TD to cut the lead to 34-19. My dad went absolutely bananas as he was about to hit a huge win, albeit lucky, and was gushing about how he was going to spend the badly needed money. He jumped up and down in excitement and hugged my mother.
And then...inexplicably and totally randomly, the Falcons attempted, and failed, on a two-point attempt, cementing the final score of 34-19. I’ll never forget my dad’s incredulous, jaw-gaping face and profanity-laced tirade, demanding to understand why they would go for 2 when 1000 times out of 1000 you’d kick the extra point.
To this day I’ve never see a worse loss than that. I mean, I’ve seen hail mary’s, garbage points, pick 6s on the last play, but all of those happen as part of the game. The decision to go for 2 in that situation is completely random and illogical. I tried to read about the reasoning behind it but never found any explanation. It really does defy all logic.
To confirm my memory is correct, look at the scoring summary of the game:
Super Bowl XXXIII - Wikipedia
Anyway, just wondering if anyone else has a similar story about an unlikely win or loss, but I’m not sure that can be topped because it was just a totally random, counterintuitive, and irrational coaching decision, rather than an actual play.
