WESTBROOK, Minnesota (STPNS) -- Who would think a wrong call by a professional football referee would bring on a national crisis. Of course I am referring to the questionable call by a replacement referee in last Monday night’s game of the Seahawks and the Packers. The call coming on a “Hail Mary” play at the end of the game ended up giving the Seahawks the controversial win, leaving  the Packers at 1-2 for the season.

    With the benefit of instant replay it sure appeared that the Packer defender intercepted the ball in the end zone. But by the time the referee got there a Seahawk had wrestled the ball away and the official called it a touchdown. Even after the referees reviewed the play it was confirmed as a touchdown because there was not enough evidence to overrule the call.



    Then both teams exited the field, but were made to come back to kick the meaningless extra point. Well actually it probably wasn’t meaningless for Las Vegas bookies who had a lot of money on the over and under spread. I heard that about $150,000,000 changed hands on that one game.

    I guess the NFL rules require teams to kick the extra point even after the game has ended, even though it would not make a difference in who wins or loses. The sad part of it is I understand that rule was instituted just to accommodate the betting.

    It makes you wonder just how bad is our economy, when $150,000,000 is bet on just one NFL game. With 28 teams playing I am assuming that over a billion dollars is wagered every week during the season. But that is probably a low figure considering it is only for one sport!

    It seems we Americans really like our entertainment, When a new movie comes out, often box office receipts for just one weekend are well into the millions. Of course that is probably small potatoes to what people pay for a variety of professional and college sporting  events.

Have a great week and do good!

    Thought for the day  . . .    In  the cartoon Family Circus, P.J. saying his prayers said, “I’m glad God hasn’t decided to retire yet.”