3 Before 2? · 10 January 2015
I am not a betting man, but if I was, I would bet on the Seattle Seahawks winning a third Super Bowl in a row.
I know people will say that I made a typo or that I am jinxing the Seahawks who have not even won their second championship. Yet. But I am just thinking of the odds a person might get on a simple bet like that.
From what I understand about sports books, they take bets (where it is legal, of course) on just about any sporting event. Even those that may never happen. So right after the Seahawks won Super Bowl XLVIII would have been a great time to place a bet on them winning XLIX. People might even have gotten some pretty good odds in the middle of the season when the pundits were wondering if they would even make the playoffs. Now, a bet on the Seahawks as the next Super Bowl champs would probably only get even money. But a bet on Seattle winning Super Bowl 50 might get some decent odds.
History is, of course, against Seattle winning even its second Super Bowl. Only a handful of teams have done that. And nobody has won three in a row yet. So making a bet on Seattle winning Super Bowl 50 as a third in a row would be a great bet to make. After all, the definition of a good bet is little risk and a lot of potential reward.
I can imagine sports books covering bets like that calling it easy money. Nobody has won three in a row yet so the odds ought to be pretty good for the person making the bet. And the Seahawks need to win four more games this season so that the bet even has a possibility to be won. For it not to be easy money for whoever is covering the bet.
Still, I imagine that odds makers might want to hedge their bets. If too many people make that silly bet, the odds go down. It is just the nature of the beast. The sports books need to be able to cover their losses. And then, each week that Seattle wins, the odds would go down more. They might even get down to even money when the Seahawks win their second Vince Lombardi trophy.
But I am getting ahead of myself. Or at least ahead of the team.
In truth, I am a Johnny come lately. I do not watch each game like my mom does. In fact, it has been a long time since I have actually enjoyed watching professional football. I know it is almost considered sacrilege to say such a thing in these United States, but I have not liked watching a bunch of professionals with poor attitudes playing a game I love. I just hated seeing them treat the fans as if they did not matter and the game as just a job.
Then, I started watching the Seattle Seahawks again these last couple years. I still do not watch every game, but every time I see them, I think, “They play the game right.” They play with passion. They play with enthusiasm. They actually play the game like they are having fun. I can imagine them in the park playing a pickup game and having the same fun they have each week during the season. Football like that is fun to watch.
The other reason I like to watch the Seahawks now is not because they are world champions. I like the Seahawks because they believe in the process and they believe in themselves. From the outside looking in, they appear to be following the path to success that I teach my students and athletes. They understand that discipline and hard work come before success. They trust their coaches and the system they have in place. They get that they are each an integral part of the whole. And they understand that the whole is so much greater than the sum of its parts. The players have bought in to the culture of success that is the Seattle Seahawks. All of those things are worthy to be emulated on the football field, in a company, or in a classroom. Believe it or not, that system of discipline and hard work are the reason I like watching the Seahawks. For that system translates into enthusiasm. It translates into success. It translates into great football that is fun to watch.
It has been a long time since I have watched a lot of football games let alone bet on any. But it might be fun to place a small bet on the Seahawks. (Never bet the farm.) But with the way Seattle is playing, sports books might not be so keen on taking too many bets on the Seahawks winning a third Super Bowl in a row. Even before they win their second.
© 2015 Michael T. Miyoshi
| Share on facebook | Tweet |
|
Published 31 December 2014 in Take 2 | The Seattle Times
Comment
Commenting is closed for this article.
| Somebody Is Watching Me | Shameless Self-Promotion |