You know how radio DJs always are doing something crazy to attract attention? Well, the hosts of the Morning Show at KOMP 92.3-FM did something a little more philanthropic before the Super Bowl to call attention to themselves. They made four proposition bets on the big game for homeless Las Vegans. Two of the bets paid off.
It is 90 minutes before kickoff of one of the worst Super Bowl games ever played. Three XLVIII-sized boxes are sitting with their lids open on a stainless steel countertop next to the hulking pizza oven at Rosati’s Authentic Chicago Pizza.
Instead of an instant classic, it was an immediate meltdown. Peyton Manning and the Denver Broncos — and throw in everyone who bet on them — suffered through four quarters of emotional torture.
It was a little more than 35 years ago when Miss November — Miss Linda November, a Jewish kid from Brooklyn with a lilting soprano singing voice — walked into a drab sixth-floor office at the famous Mayfair Studios at 47th Street and 7th Avenue on a sweaty day in Manhattan.
If there is a betting storyline the public hates to hear more than any other, this is it. The squares are on Peyton Manning and the sharps are on the underdog. The battle line has been drawn.
I always felt the best comedians were ones who didn’t need to use profanity to make a point. The ones who relied more on imagination than indecency.
It was 7 p.m. on the nose when Kevin Durant, Tiger Woods and various other nonfootball stars became Super Bowl betting subjects. The giant board went dark for a few seconds, then suddenly it lit up like a fireworks show on New Year’s Eve as hundreds of proposition bets scrolled.
It’s obvious Peyton Manning is wildly popular, and not just in Denver and Omaha. But the power of the public’s attraction to Manning seemed to catch some Las Vegas oddsmakers by surprise.
