Why I’m not hedging my Cardinals Super Bowl bet

Last August, my lovely wife and I visited the Suncoast to catch a weekend movie. They have those darned "art" films at the theaters there. I'm not a big fan of reading my movies, but I digress.

If you're familiar with the joint, when you park in the garage, you must then walk by the sports book to get to the movie house. As we walked by that evening, we noticed that the Super Bowl future bets were posted, so we took a look.

The Arizona Cardinals were 40 to 1 to win the Super Bowl. So, as we do almost every year, we put $5 on our beloved Cardinals to go all the way. While you might think that risking $5 to win $200 is a good deal, I actually thought at the time it was a crummy deal. The Cardinals have not only not ever won a Super Bowl, the last time they won even one play-off game was 1947 -- when they were the Chicago Cardinals.

I thought to myself as I paid the guy at the window that the odds should be 4,000 to 1. But I didn't say anything, and the ticket taker made some kind of crack like: "Hey, miracles happen."

Well, if the Cardinals win Sunday, a miracle will have happened. And I'll be down at the Suncoast cashing in my ticket.

And, no, I'm not going to hedge the bet. That means I'm not going to go down and put $75 on Pittsburgh to win, thereby insuring that I'll cash some kind of check after the game. I'm not going to do that because, well, that would just be bad karma. I'm convinced the Cardinals will win Sunday and I don't want to do anything to jinx them.

If I lose on Sunday, well, I'm out 5 bucks. But, if I win, I'll be playing on the house's money. I'll be able to bet $5 on the Cards every year until 2049.