Why You Should Never Gamble

Back in 4th grade, I bet my buddy Garrett five bucks on a St. John's-Seton Hall game. High stakes - that was like two weeks allowance. Anyway, I had the Johnnies (they might have still been the Redmen back then), no spread, and they were at home. This thing was in the bag. Only $40 more and Super Mario 3 would be mine.

But then Danny Hurley hits a halfcourt shot at the buzzer to send it into OT, and you can guess what happened in the extra period. Seton Hall wins the game, I lose five bones. So the dangers of gambling hit home at an early age. That, and I saw the movie Parenthood.

Anyway, with the exception of fantasy sports and suicide pools and NCAA brackets and the occasional drunken "Dude, 10 bucks I sink this shot!" (Beirut), my bets are kept to a minimum. Usually.

And after what happened this past weekend, how could you feel safe gambling?

Exhibit A: Saturday night, USC leads Stanford 45-17 with 3 seconds left. The spread was 23. Stanford coach Jim Harbaugh sends his field goal team out so he can "get the last points," but everyone watching knows it's because he and Pete Carroll hate each other. So Carroll calls timeout to put his field goal block unit on the field because everyone knows he and Harbaugh hate each other. But as play resumed, Harbaugh sent his regular offense back out so he can "get the last points," but everyone knows it's because he and Carroll hate each other. Naturally, Stanford scores a touchdown on the last play of the game and covers the spread. Wild.

Exhibit B: The end of Chargers-Steelers has been well-documented. Troy Polamalu's fumble returnd for a TD gets reversed because of an errant illegal forward pass call. Steelers don't cover even though they should have. Millions of dollars go to the wrong people. And if you don't think that the league is aware of gambling, then how come a meaningless TD from a won-loss standpoint was reviewed?

So what was the bigger gambling moment of the weekend (season)?