Last call for Bee Super Bowl Challenge

SANDPOINT — To the procrastinating prognosticators out there who’ve yet to submit an entry into the free Bee Super Bowl Challenge, and chance to win $100 in cash, act fast as the deadline to enter is tonight at 8 p.m.

If there is a familiar theme among the entries so far, other than a lot of high scoring predictions, it’s a prevalent dislike for the New England Patriots.

Clark Fork teacher and coach K.C. MacDonald listed “Properly Inflated Football” as his MVP choice in submitting his entry, a humorous quip alluding to the infamous “Deflategate.”

For all of his greatness, and it’s easy to call him the greatest quarterback ever, there will always be a little stink on old Tom Brady. The deflated footballs could have been forgivable, cheating or not, but tossing your equipment guys under the bus and never owning up to what happened will always reek.

Chad Russell wrote with his entry that he’s not sure most people can stomach another Super Bowl win for the Pats. He’s right, even though many of those same people half expect a Pats’ win. It’s what they do.

John Hendricks had a humorous entry, with Fair Play beating the Cheaters by a score of 27-24. He added that defense wins championships, but cheaters never prosper (except a few times), and as a Dolphins fan he’s pulling for Atlanta.

The aforementioned sentiment is fairly universal outside of New England proper, as nobody likes a cheater, this sports editor included.

Was anyone else curious about the reporter who accidentally grabbed Kyle Shanahan’s backpack, which just happened to contain the Falcons’ playbook, on Media Day? Seeing as it only took a couple minutes to deflate a bag of game balls, how long would it take a Pats’ staffer to copy a playbook, before the sheepish reporter returned it with an oops? Of course they didn’t, but you can’t put anything past them at this point.

Looking for a great Super Bowl bet? Right now the tri-fecta odds on Brady throwing three touchdowns, Russell Westbrook getting a triple-double and a PGA player making a hole-in-one at hole No. 16 in Phoenix on Sunday are 2,500/1.

There are also odds on which advertiser will win USA Today’s Super Bowl Ad Meter, with Anheuser-Busch at 9/4, Hyundai at 5/1, Snickers at 6/1, Pepsi at 10/1 and Avocados from Mexico at 12/1 the early favorites.

More football related bets include: Odds Steve Young’s single-game Super Bowl record of six TD passes is tied/broken at 9/1; odds the game breaks record for highest-scoring Super Bowl of all time at 3/1; odds Jerry Rice’s single-game Super Bowl record of 215 receiving yards is broken: 12/1.

The current Vegas line hasn’t moved so much as half a point, which means the betting is pretty evenly split so far with the Pats as six point favorites.

So will it be Pats or Falcons? Want to win a $100 bill?

Then enter the Bee Super Bowl Challenge. To enter, simply email your name, the score for each team, and choice for MVP, to “eplummer@bonnercountydailybee.com.” The deadline to enter is tonight at 8 p.m.

On Super Bowl Sunday, the Bee will print a master list, with tie-breaking criteria, for participants to follow along with during the game.

May the luckiest fan win.