kaufman@uiucdcs.UUCP (11/19/84)
[on any given sunday, monday, thursday, saturday, or even friday ...] Start with the disclaimer: I am neither rich enough nor foolish enough to gamble on football games. I do, however, make 14 picks a week against the spread in order to keep my friends and myself amused (and occasionally amazed). Last week I had the Bears giving 7 1/2 points against the Lions. That game was televised here. As you probably know, Bob Thomas kicked a field goal with 2 seconds left, giving the Bears a 16-14 win. What you probably don't know - Brent Musburger never bothered to allude to it, I don't think - is that on the ensuing kickoff (a squibber), the Lions attempted that old Cal-Stanford lateral-to-everyone-but-the-water-boy play. The first lateral went well, but the second one was way off target. A Bear scooped it up on one bounce and took it right into the end zone. I jumped up and shouted, "They covered the spread!" but it was called back with the ruling that the ball could not be advanced from the point of pickup. Hence, Bears ball on Lions' 30, game over. I have no doubt that the play was correctly called, though I never understood the rationale for that rule or the logic therein. Still, that has to be one of the great money-changing-hands plays of all time. The best part is the fact that the Bear defender almost caught the ball on the fly, and if he had, I'm pretty sure he could have run it in. Ken Kaufman (uiucdcs!kaufman)