Amateur refs could lead to professional gamblers

If any gangster types are thinking about fixing NFL games, now would be the time. After all, if some of the fill-in refs have been proven to be gushy fantasy-football-playing fans, then it’s likely that some of them could be convinced to take a bribe as well.

Hey, it’s not like these temp refs have a long career to lose, right?

Besides, the NFL is all about gambling—that’s why they play the game. And I’m fine with that, unless the fix is in.

Is the fix in?

I just saw a Green Bay Packer defensive back get mugged on Monday Night Football, yet the refs called him for interference. In fairness, he did block the receiver’s hand with his face.

Seriously, is the fix in?

I don’t gamble on football, professional or otherwise. I prefer to put my money into sure things like beer. You buy it, you drink it, you get a buzz. Every time.

But I might start betting on the NFL, if I can find the right advisors. Connected guys. Guys with diamond pinkie rings and colorful nicknames like Bobby The Hammer or Mickey The Bat or Joey The Guy Who Fixes NFL Games.

Then again, maybe I’m wrong about this thing of ours. Maybe the mob isn’t fixing the games. Maybe it’s some other man, the 12th Man. The crowd. Mob rule. Did you watch the other games this week?

The Titans upset the Lions. At home. The Raiders beat the Steelers. At home. The Vikings surprised the 49ers. Also at home. The Ravens just squeaked by the Patriots, in Baltimore of course, and the Seahawks beat the Packers in Seattle with a Hail Mary pass.

There’s no place like home. With that good home cookin’ and all the fixin’s.

Look. The NFL is right, I’ll keep watching. I watched during strike-shortened seasons, so why wouldn’t I watch during a strike-corrupted season? It’s only a game, right? Why shouldn’t it be hilarious?

By the way, the Vegas spread had Green Bay winning by 4-1/2 points. If that last-second Seahawks pass Monday night is ruled an interception, the Packers win by 5.

Seriously, is the fix in?
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Rudy, Rudy… Woodhead, Woodhead

Now that more than two weeks have passed, I think I’m ready to write about the Super Bowl.

Who won again? Right, the NY Giants, 21-17 over the New England Patriots.

But that isn’t the first thing I think of when I think back to the game. No, when I think back to the game, one play stands out above all others.

Danny Woodhead caught a touchdown pass in the Super Bowl. Holy hell.

A newspaper reporter friend of mine, Frank Graham, interviewed Woodhead for his hometown paper, the North Platte Bulletin. Woodhead told Graham he spent his entire football career having to prove himself at every level, from Pop Warner to high school, to college, to the pros.

Woodhead even got to watch himself get cut from the NY Jets on film in the 2010 version of the HBO series Hard Knocks.

But in the second quarter of Super Bowl XLVI, Danny Woodhead caught a touchdown pass. Eat that Jets coach Rex Ryan.

Just kidding, Rex. Looks like you’ve already eaten too much.

Woodhead has been compared to Notre Dame’s Daniel “Rudy” Ruettiger at times by, well, me. A little guy by football standards, Woodhead stands 5-foot-8 and 3/4 of an inch, and I’m really not sure if that’s in bare feet or not. He weighs a muscular 195 pounds.

Ruettiger—who stood 5-foot-6 and weighed 165—was a walk-on at Notre Dame who played on the practice squad. Rudy only played in one college football game his entire career, and it was the last Notre Dame home game of his final season.

He stayed in for two plays, and on the second one sacked Georgia Tech quarterback Rudy Allen.

Ruettiger was one of only two football players in Notre Dame history ever to be carried off the field by his teammates following the game. Later, Hollywood made a movie about him.

Danny Woodhead caught a touchdown pass in the Super Bowl. Wonder what they’ll make for him?

A statue in North Platte would be nice.

* * *

Rod Babers—ex-NFL football player, lifetime Longhorn, and broadcaster for 1300 The Zone in Austin—got the opportunity to interview NFL Hall of Fame running back Earl Campbell recently.

The interview will run sometime next week, but Babers did give up one tidbit yesterday during The Sports Buffet drive-time show.

Campbell, who ran like a bull in the streets of Pamplona, would often run over defenders if it meant more yards gained. But one day he got hit so hard by a defender, it made him reconsider his running style altogether. Perhaps he should run out of bounds more, he thought.

So who was the man who knocked Campbell silly? Another Hall of Famer, the late, great Oakland Raiders’ defensive back Jack Tatum, nicknamed “The Assassin.”

Tatum once hit Patriots wide receiver Darryl Stingley so hard he was paralyzed from the chest down. And that was in a preseason game in 1978.

Tatum’s one of the reasons the NFL came up with new rules for legal hits. It only took 30 years.

* * *

Yes, I’ll be getting to basketball soon, both college and the NBA. It’s kind of a March thing for me and B-ball’s not my forte, I’ll admit it. Besides, my background as a short wrestler kind of makes me slightly antagonistic toward the sport.

Slightly.

But I will make one comment about the NY Knicks point guard sensation Jeremy Lin.

I think the big deal with Lin is that he came from Harvard, not that he’s an Asian basketball player.

Growing up, I recall many good or great Asian basketball players in junior high and high school. College? Not so much.

Where do these kids go? Do they just quit? Or do the college scouts overlook them?

Beats me.
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