Gronkowski: 'Almost isn't enough' on Hail Mary pass
Football Betting Lines
02/06/2012 - Indianapolis, IN (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - It took Rob Gronkowski nearly an entire half to make his first catch in the Super Bowl.
Later, the injured Patriots tight end was several tortured inches away from snaring a Hail Mary pass that would have won the game.
"We almost had it," Gronkowski said, sullen after his team's 21-17 loss to the New York Giants on Sunday night. "But almost isn't enough."
Gronkowski played despite suffering a high ankle sprain in the AFC title game two weeks ago and had two catches for 26 yards.
But the bigger plays ended up being two catches he couldn't make, including a Tom Brady heave on the second play of the fourth quarter that was intercepted by Giants linebacker Chase Blackburn.
On the game's final play, after the Giants had taken the lead with 57 seconds remaining, Brady let loose from beyond midfield on a pass that tracked toward tight end Aaron Hernandez in the end zone.
Hernandez was socked in, surrounded by three Giants defenders as he leapt for the pass, and Gronkowski was in front of the pack.
"It was a jump ball," Gronkowski said. "Aaron did a good job."
But Gronkowski didn't react quickly enough -- or couldn't react quickly enough -- after the ball was deflected. He stumbled forward and reached, but the ball fell incomplete just out of his grasp.
A picture showed Gronkowski's white-gloved hands tantalizingly close to the football in the middle of the end zone, with a referee nearby ready to make a call.
It could have been an all-time great moment in the NFL. Instead, the ball hit the turf and New York celebrated its second Super Bowl win over the Patriots in five seasons.
"I kind of saw it at the last second and I was close," said Gronkowski. "But that doesn't matter. I didn't get it."
Gronkowski set single-season NFL records for tight ends with 1,327 receiving yards and 17 touchdowns. The only real mystery leading up to Sunday's game was how healthy he would be.
His first catch of the game was a 20-yarder for first down during a 96-yard touchdown march near the end of the first half that tied a Super Bowl record for the longest drive.
Later, Gronkowski flashed open and waved his hand to get Brady's attention as three defenders closed on the quarterback. But he just wasn't able to recover in time to get position on Blackburn, who picked the pass off at the Giants' eight-yard line.
"He just made a good play," Gronkowski said. "He backed me up pretty well and went up and made a good play."
Gronkowski, who was wearing a walking boot up until earlier in the week, shook off questions about his injury after the game, saying he was ready to play.
"I was out there," said Gronkowski. "I was 100 percent."
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SPORTS BETTING - Tennis is an underrated and under-utilized bettors' sport.
Ten years ago, at just about this time, I called Alan Boston in Vegas and left him a voicemail that went something like this (abridged version): "Hey Alan, Chad Millman from ESPN The Magazine calling. I want to do a book about wise guys, you in?"
A couple weeks later I got a message back (abridged version): "I don't know, maybe," Boston said. "Call me and we'll talk about it. But not later today. I got $1,000 on Andre Agassi to win the French Open at 40-1, and he's in the finals."
Here's what happened next (abridged version): Agassi won his tourney. Boston won his $40,000. I wrote sportsbook.
In the ten years since, how much has been wagered on the big-time tennis events? Put it this way: The Nevada Gaming Commission doesn't even track the number year by year because it's so small.
"Tennis makes up about one-tenth of one percent of our take," says Lucky's bookmaking boss Jimmy Vaccaro. "The last big golf major we probably had $100,000 worth of bets. In tennis, we might have written two big tickets."
Tennis' lack of popularity amongst the American bettoratti is no surprise, really. For starters, the biggest sports betting holidays -- the Super Bowl, the NCAA tourney -- are must see TV. People, at least the degenerates I know, plan vacations around watching those events in Vegas sports books.
But Wimbledon? Doesn't exactly reel in the whales. "Seriously, it's the nuts as an event," says Boston. "But who even knows when it's on?"
Here's another reason that helps explain why golf gets traction, something I call "The Bubbe Theory." My Bubbe is pushing 95 and has cataracts so bad that, to her, even the most crystalline Chicago day is mostly cloudy. But she still listens to the Cubs games, and she still calls me in a fit if she disagrees with something Rick Telander writes in the Chicago Sun Times. She's a sports fan. If she doesn't know you, you're just filling a niche. And niche players, even historically good ones like Roger and Raf, don't drive betting volume. Only the highest profile names attract square money, which inflates wagering totals like a shot of saline to the lips. Bubbe, and the public, loved Agassi, tennis' last cross-the-rubicon, mainstream draw. She also has a crush on Tiger. She's given me standing orders to put a sawbuck on the big cat whenever I walk through a sports book (or mistakenly tap into one via my Internet machine.) That explains why the Masters is getting $100K in action at some books while the four tennis majors might not get that combined this year.
This isn't a case of tennis being a difficult sport to bet. In fact, in Europe, it's probably the second most popular sport for gambling after soccer. Granted, as the WSJ football betting last week and The Mag's Shaun Assael examined in even greater depth last year, that might be because gamblers across the pond see it as an easy game to fix. But it could also be because, over there it holds the kind of sway the big two do over here.
Street corners in Spain are peppered with public courts and kids doing their best Raffy impressions. In some war torn parts of Eastern Europe poverty-stricken kids view tennis as an escape route, like football or basketball here. A couple years ago The Mag's Lindsay Berra wrote a great piece about Belgrade's Jelena Jankovic, Ana Ivanovic and Novak Djokovic. They learned the game as kids while bombs were raining down on their homeland. They practiced in drained swimming pools. Not exactly Nick Bolletierri conditions.
In the United States, casual fans think tennis is played four times a year. But on the tightly packed European continent, national interest in homegrown talent runs deep every weekend. Of the ATP's current top 20 players, only two, tennis betting and James Blake, are American. Fourteen are from Europe, representing six different countries.
No wonder fans from Lisbon to Bhudapest get jacked up for the net game, whether it's Wimbledon or a low-level tourney like the Estoril Open in Portugal (congrats to Spain's Albert Montanes for winning that one, btw). Chances are good that someone representing their flag will not only be playing, but have a shot at winning.
And that's all any bettor can ask for.
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