If you're lucky enough to have a ticket for today's marquee match between the New England Patriots and Steelers, you may want to make a stop on the way to Heinz Field.
The Rivers Casino, which is right in the neighborhood, is offering sports betting now. You can drop in and make a wager on the game, then go over and keep an eye on your investment.
Last week one of the TV stations interviewed citizens about the introduction of legal sports gambling and one guy said, "It's always more interesting when you have something riding on the game."
Of course, it's also always more interesting when you can't pay the electric bill, and maybe that will be part of the equation for some people.
You may not like slot machines or blackjack. Maybe you're lousy at picking lottery numbers and understand the long odds against winning.
But almost everybody has an opinion on sports, and some will back those feelings with hard-earned cash.
One of the few perks of a sports writing life is having a ringside seat for all sorts of aberrant behavior. A colleague once lucked his way into two paychecks and blew both of them betting. He wound up in bankruptcy court.
His autumn Sundays went like this: He would bet a bunch of the 1 o'clock NFL games. "How'd you do?" someone would ask. "Lost a little," was the closest he'd come to admitting defeat. That was invariably followed by, "I'll get it back on the 4 o'clock games."
But he rarely did. And his last-ditch salvage efforts on Monday night too often put him deeper in the hole.
Repeat that for about 16 weeks, and then you're looking for an attorney who specializes in bankruptcy cases.
Not everybody loses. Just most people. Sports betting is not new. But now you don't have to call Sonny's brother-in-law's cousin to make a bet. It's an impulse purchase, like a pack of gum or a Slurpee. Just more expensive
There will be lives ruined by legal sports gambling, and it starts today.
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Tim Neverett, who broadcast Pirates games for seven seasons, was cut loose by the Boston Red Sox's flagship radio station last week.
Neverett said he was told in June that he should start looking for a new job. The reason? The station wants a new approach to play-by-play in baseball-crazed New England.
The term "talk show approach" popped up, but the station denied that. It did, however, admit it thought a more conversational approach was in order. In other words, if the announcers are debating who should pitch on Saturday, that discussion takes precedence over strict attention to details like the ball-strike count or score of the game being played.
A long time ago, Bob Prince was fired by KDKA and the Pirates because he would ramble off topic and stray from the play-by-play.
Turns out the old Gunner was just 40 years ahead of his time.
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On the field, Bill Fralic was a monster, a search-and-destroy player who lived in the weight room and made opponents pay for that sweat.
Coaches said he brought a defensive lineman's mentality to the offensive line, and they were right. There was nothing passive about his game.
Fralic died of cancer last week at 56. One of his last acts was to pay the hotel bill for his alma mater, Penn Hills, at the state playoffs in Hershey. It was a last act of generosity for the hometown he never forgot.
As tough as he was on the field, Fralic was almost shy away from football. He tried to keep his charitable acts quiet.
When it came to Penn Hills and Pitt, his impact lasted long after he played football for those schools.
(John Mehno can be reached at: johnmehnocolumn@gmail.com)
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