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Imagine if a member of Congress, say, from Ohio, introduced legislation that would remove “STOP” signs from the streets of 49 states.
The proposal, the Congressman explains, would stimulate the economy, get people to work — or out to look for work — much faster. Time is money!
The auto body and funeral home lobbies would be solidly behind it, as would the Amalgamated Brotherhood of Tow Truck Owners and Operators.
Of course, the one state in which STOP signs would remain, and subject to existing laws, would be the Congressman’s home state of Ohio.
Well, similar is taking place in New Jersey, whose legislators habitually promote more legalized gambling as the solution to what ails it — despite decades of evidence to the contrary.
In this case, Gov. Christie, backed by bipartisan legislators, the gambling lobby, poll results and even the state’s largest newspaper, is eager to legalize gambling on collegiate and pro sports, bets to be made in casinos and at race tracks.
Christie and Co. figure the usual: Why let illegal bookies get all the action and the 10 percent on losing bets, when the state, running a clean, above-board operation, can rake its take.
Oh, there’s one stipulation: No college games that are played by Jersey teams or played in Jersey will be on the board. That’s a pre-existing law, and it seems everyone involved agrees it’s a good one.
But if Jersey’s is to be a clear, clean operation, what difference does it make? Why can you bet on Utah-Wyoming and Pitt-West Virginia, but not on Rutgers-UConn or Seton Hall-St. John’s? Why let the illegal books get the exclusive on large, local action?
After all, it’s either wrong or it’s right. How can it be wrong to gamble on Jersey teams and games, but right to gamble on teams every place else?
Or is it that the same folks who support this legislation also know that gambling is inevitably escorted by corruption, which is OK — provided the corruption occurs in the 49 other states.
Furthermore, if/when something does hit the fan in Jersey, those same legislators can avoid sharing the blame for promoting what they knew — or suspected — would happen, in the first place.
So Jersey encourages gambling on college football and basketball — come and get it! But, aware of what can, has and will happen, just keep Jersey schools out of it.
The entire package, then, becomes a tacit admission that these legislators know that it’s a dangerous ride they’re advocating, so much so that they want Jersey schools to be protected, as much as possible, from their own legislation!
Additionally, for those legislators who lack foresight — or choose not to see — this is a highly ripe time for college game-fixing and point-shaving.
More and more star college athletes, many on full scholarships to stay a year or two for no higher-minded reason than to win ballgames, are arriving from harder and meaner places. For many, they’re greatest allegiance — sometimes forced at the point of a 9mm — is to the street gang that forms their family, their values and their fears. To that end, game-fixing and point-shaving never have been easier, cheaper.
You’ll see: Where mobsters in trench coats, fedoras and 2-day-old beards once owned the stereotype of gangsters who fixed college games, street gangstas, with far greater access to players and who hold far greater power over them — often from the time they’re 13 — will be the new fixers, if they aren’t already.
In the meantime, N.J. legislators who demand legal sports gambling, do have an active sense that when the inevitable explodes, they make sure it’s over there, rather than here. Get rid of those STOP signs for all games, everywhere — except those played in our state.
Brings to mind the stenciled sign on the door to the visitors’ locker room in old Tiger Stadium. It read, “Visitors Clubhouse, No Visitors.”
Cardinals DE comes up big because, well, he’s big
During Thursday’s Cardinals-Rams, Calais Campbell, a 6-foot-8 Cardinals defensive end, jumped at the line of scrimmage, batting down a Sam Bradford pass.
But, once again, a standard, self-evident play was seen differently by NFL Network analyst/football forensic examiner Mike Mayock, who went into a spiel about Campbell being extra special in order to do that, as if being 6-8 — even taller when jumps — wasn’t enough.
“Watch him extend at the right time,” Mayock marveled during a replay.
Got it. But did Mayock expect that Campbell wouldn’t jump to deflect a pass thrown just over his head? Or did he expect Campbell to try to deflect the pass before it was thrown?
Meanwhile, the point worth making about this play went unspoken: On a second and 10 — a pass situation — Campbell was able to bat the ball at the line of scrimmage only because his pass-rush had been blunted by Rams guard Quinn Ojinnaka.
* One of the warmest, sustaining presences in Madison Square Garden, John Andariese, a Knicks’ radio and/or TV analyst since 1972, yesterday announced, somewhat expectedly (he’s 73) that he’s packing it in. A nicer man never has served the Garden or its TV/radio audiences — or those assigned to cover TV/radio.
And those chops-busting, dead-ball sessions between Andariese and Marv Albert — “Johnny Hoops” always finishing second by a laugh — could make fun telecasts of bad games.
Andariese will be replaced on radio by Brendan Brown, 41, the son of Hubie. A former NBA scout, college and high school coach who last season filled in for Andariese on road games, Brown’s a Northwestern grad, with a degree in journalism.
* The strangest at-bat of the entire postseason may have occurred Friday, in the second inning of the first game played.
First, Atlanta’s David Ross had his at-bat saved by an inch or so when Cardinals’ first baseman Allen Craig seemed hesitant to catch his pop foul that barely made the stands.
Then, on a 1-2 count, Ross swung and missed to strike out — and end the inning — but the plate ump ruled that he had honored Ross’s request for time out, thus no pitch. Ross hit the next pitch for a two-run homer.
* I blew a detail in the Cam Newton item here Friday. The Carolina QB’s late-game fumble was not recovered by the Falcons, but it did force a punt. Atlanta kicked the winning field goal 49 seconds later.