No, Terry didn't push Mrs. Mara
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There is one New York Giants veteran injured last week who won't show up on the injury report going into Super Bowl Week.
Bettors shouldn't be worried, though. Tom Coughlin isn't trying to hide anything.
Just hours after confronting Fox analyst Terry Bradshaw in the winners' locker room for never picking the Giants -- a mostly light-hearted verbal spat that made the rounds on the Internet -- Ann Mara , 82-year-old widow of late team owner Wellington Mara , fell at church and broke her shoulder Monday morning.
In an email to ESPN-- NewYork.com, John Mara , Ann's son and team president, joked that his mother is "probable" for the Super Bowl.
With a week before the big game, the Patriots are 3-point favorites to beat the Giants. But that isn't the number that has Nevada sports books sweating. After the New York Giants lost four in a row in late November and early December, books bumped the futures odds for them winning the Super Bowl to as high as 80-1. The New York Times reports that a number of the books took significant bets on New York at those odds before they fell as the Giants began their run to the NFC title. To put those odds in perspective, a $10 bet on the Giants at 80-1 would earn the bettor $800 if New York hoists the Lombardi Trophy in Indianapolis.
"When they hit that losing streak, it went up," said Jay Kornegay , the director of the sports book at the Las Vegas Hilton. "I mean, they lost to Vince Young and the Eagles."
However, it could have been worse. Odds on the Tim Tebow -led Denver Broncos' went as high as 5,000-1 in some places during the season. Kornegay said he took numerous bets on them. At those odds, a mere $20 down coupled with a Broncos miracle that seemed semi-possible in mid-January would have yielded a $100,000 payout. So yes, it could have been worse.
Not long after he hooked that 32-yard field-goal attempt wide left last Sunday, costing his team a shot at the Super Bowl, Baltimore's Billy Cundiff was thinking about something bigger than football. In the locker room afterward, speaking to reporters, he somehow found it in himself to talk of more than how he missed the field goal or why he missed the field goal or how it might affect his life going forward. He mentioned his two kids at home. "There are some lessons I need to teach them," he said. "First and foremost is to stand up and face the music and move on."
At least one ticket to this Super Bowl rematch between the Giants and Patriots sold Friday for $16,480, according to the National Football League's official resale site. It eclipsed the previous high of $11,883 for a ticket that sold Jan. 23. The seat sold is in the lower level at the 40-yard line, along the Giants' sideline. The face value of Super Bowl tickets is from $800 to $1,200 each.
Commissioner Roger Goodell says the recession has helped build TV audiences for NFL games. Speaking on CBS' "60 Minutes" for a segment that airs tonight, Goodell says of nearly 60 million people tuning in to watch last Sunday's conference championships, "People want to feel part of a group and right now during these difficult times, they can turn on free television and watch the greatest entertainment that's out there."
"Namath," a joint venture between NFL Films and HBO Sports, premiered Saturday night on HBO. The film looks at Joe Namath's youth in Beaver Falls, his time as a New York Jets superstar and his life today. HBO will offer several encore showing over the next few weeks, including 8 p.m. tonight.
First Published January 29, 2012 12:00 am
