Sports Betting: You Gotta Have Heart
Written by Daniel Turner, Friday January 30 2009
As I recover from an angioplasty performed last Thursday, January 22, I’ve had a lot of time to contemplate the importance of the heart. It’s an amazing little engine that merits praise. Kind of like the Pittsburgh Steelers.
The Steelers have heart in abundance. Do they have more of the precious organ than the Arizona Cardinals? I think they do. Like the heart they continue to function at peak efficiency when all is well. And, like that aforementioned body part, they manage to get the job done when less than 100%. Just like my damaged heart kept me alive long enough to make me realize that something serious was happening, the Steelers shake off Big Ben’s concussion, a bounty on Hines Ward; along with his possible Super Bowl threatening injury and off field distractions like what will become of the team’s ownership. Through it all they putter along pumping out wins and expelling possibly damaging plaque; like Plaxico Burress.
Do the Cardinals have heart? Indeed they do. They got past three good teams in their impossible quest to reach the Super Bowl. Is their losing the big game inevitable? No it isn’t. But, the Steelers are not a team that rests on its laurels. They don’t even have laurels. They are a blue collar organization that shuns such trappings.
Emotion was the catalyst behind the Cardinals playoff success. Everyone doubted them and they weren’t going to take it lying down. They proved they could play sharp defense and avoid the stupid penalties that bogged down their regular season. But, as the Eagles proved, emotion only takes you so far. Basically, it takes you up to the point where you face the superior team. The Steelers are a team that is superior to the Cardinals. They proved it throughout the season by building momentum as the Cardinals had to depend upon a weakened NFC West for the chance to play three good games.
The Steelers are giving 6.5 points in the biggest game of the season. Troy Polamalu could cover that with one interception return. Big Ben could net a TD and the defense could sit in the Cardinals for the rest of the game. I like the attitude both teams are displaying leading up to Sunday’s meeting. They are keeping their mouths shut and avoiding anything that the opposition could use for fodder.
However, that’s the way the Steelers have always played it. Let the other guys shoot their mouths off, play the game on the field and prove that talk is cheap. The Cardinals appear to have become sentimental favorites of many, but sentiment doesn’t play into to it for me. The heart is wonderful, but I will continue to think with my head and it tells me that the end of the line is here for the guys from AZ.
They had a good run and may offset the economic woes of the nation by inspiring their fans to frequent their stadium more often next season. It was an improbable run that had to end and the team with the bigger heart will close the door on Sunday. Take the Steelers giving 6.5 and don’t ignore the warning signs of cardiac disease. That second piece of advice is even more important than the first because even if you hit on my pick, you can’t take it with you.
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