Seventy-Five Bucks

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Perhaps I shouldn't teach my boys about football pools. Yet going to my niece's birthday party was too much to resist - so prior to the party we put together a board to set up squares for the super bowl.

Problem is - it's hard to sell 100 squares the day of the game. We nearly did it - but were twenty short at the end. Of course, I bought the final 20 and assigned a child's name to each square.

The game was awesome and my 7-year-old was geeking out as he tried to figure out who would win if New England scored a touchdown, or if the Giants kicked a field goal.

The game score changed twice in the last 3 minutes. The New England score allowed my brother and brother-in-law to dream about a rather huge pool win. We, as a family, were rooting that the score didn't change. It certainly would've been nice.

The final Giants touchdown stripped my brother and brother-in-law of their windfall, and a strange silence gripped the household. I turned to my 7-year-old who looked to be crying. I said - "Uncle Jeff and Uncle Chuck will be all right."

He smiled through the tears - "I'm sorry for them, but I won 75 bucks" he said.

He wasn't crying because he was sad - those were cheerful tears. Best Super Bowl moment I ever had. I couldn't wait to give him the cash.

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