Other than occasional wagers with friends for token items like lunch or the title to our car, and far-too-infrequent trips to Vegas -- someone needs to have a bachelor party. Like, soon. It's been more than two years since we've been to Vegas -- we don't wager on sporting events. They are too unpredictable. We stay away.
Still, we are fascinated by the gambling aesthetic -- point spreads, bad beats, bailouts, parlays, the whole thing. As such, the end of the Cowboys/49ers game Sunday continues to interest us.
You might recall that Jesse Holley -- who made it to Cowboys training camp in the first place only because he won Michael Irvin's reality TV show -- caught a 77-yard pass to set up a very short field goal in overtime, capping a frantic Dallas comeback from 10 points down in the fourth quarter. The Cowboys won 27-24. Everyone with an interest in Dallas is happy, right?
Well, yes ... everyone except the gamblers.
The Cowboys, you see, were three-point favorites on the road. Being "America's Team," as they have often claimed and/or been described, it stands to reason a lot of the betting action was on Dallas to win. Just how much? Per RJ Bell of Pregame.com:
An estimated $100 million was bet worldwide on the Cowboys/49ers game, with an estimated 86% of that action on Dallas. The Cowboys as a 3-point favorite would have cashed for bettors. Instead, all monies were returned on a tie (called a "push"). So, an ultimately meaningless shoe-string tackle resulted in bettors winning $0 instead of an estimated $72 million.
You see Holley in the picture. At around the 6-yard line, he raises the ball up as if he thinks he's about to head into the end zone. Instead, he's tackled from behind at the 1. Dallas then has two choices: Run a couple more offensive plays to see if they can just pound the ball in for a TD, or immediately kick the chip-shot field goal. With Tony Romo hobbling around -- apparently with a broken rib and punctured lung -- Dallas kicked. A touchdown there gives the vast majority of gamblers a win. Instead, only the estimated 14 percent who were about to lose on San Francisco are happy. Or at least not as [redacted] upset as they were in the fourth quarter when the 49ers were blowing that lead.
For anyone who had money on Dallas, here is one more agonizing look at the money play. After he makes the catch, there seems like no way Holley won't score. And this is why we don't gamble often.
