I am not a gambler. I am, from time to time, a risk-taker but that does not extend to gambling. Once in a very great while, I will buy a lottery ticket if the prize is about a gazillion dollars. But I don’t really expect to win. I do buy raffle tickets at the Marine Corps League and the motorcycle club I belong to, but that’s just really a way to donate to those organizations. I’ve never won there either and don’t expect to.
About the only time I remember gambling was getting pulled into a poker game when I was in the Marine Corps. I really could not afford to lose any money as I was making a few cents over $110 a month. So, when I won eight dollars, I pulled out of the game much to the displeasure of my fellow devil dogs.
So, when my friend, Bishop Gregory Ortiz, of New York, offered a wager on the outcome of the Super Bowl, I demurred. I didn’t decline, I just put it off.
But them, at half time, when the Atlanta Falcons dominated the New England Patriots by a score of 21-3, I contacted him and asked if he was still interested in that wager.
After a moment’s hesitation, he said something like, “Sure, why not?” So we agreed that the loser would buy dinner next month at a meeting we will attend in Orlando.
Afterwards, I told my wife, “I never bet, but a sure thing is not really gambling.”
She, a football fan, replied, “Well, as you often say, ‘There’s a lot of football left to play.’” I smugly settled back in my recliner to watch the shellacking.
But, as we all know, “it’s not over until it’s over.” The Patriots came alive in the second half and Atlanta died.
No team in the 51-year-history of the Super Bowl had ever come back from a 14-point deficit. But, with the score now 28-3, New England began to play.
And play they did. The Patriots scored 25 unanswered points and, at 28-28, sent the game into the first ever overtime period in Super Bowl history.
It didn’t take long. New England scored six points and the game was over. Atlanta has the distinction of being the only team to both blow such a commanding lead and to lose in a Super Bowl overtime. And I was out a dinner in Orlando.
Here’s what I have learned: (1) There is no such thing as a sure thing. (2) I truly should not be a gambler. (3) My wife is smarter than I am. (5) “Pride goeth before the fall.” (5) Never bet against Tom Brady and the Patriots.
All of these things I should have already learned, but sometimes lessons are learned the hard way.
However, I will pay my debt. Next time, if the Falcons ever get into another Super Bowl, I won’t bet. I will just pray for a miracle.
[David Epps is the pastor of the Cathedral of Christ the King, Sharpsburg, GA (www.ctkcec.org). He is the bishop of the Mid-South Diocese which consists of Georgia and Tennessee(www.midsouthdiocese.org. Epps may contacted at frepps@ctkcec.org.]
