DannyBoyinExile

If the number one adult babysitter for inmates is a tablet – the number two is surely football. Baseball may have once been called America’s national pastime – but that was back in the 1800s. In today’s America, football dominates, and prison is no different.
Now that football season is here again, its impact is obvious. For four nights a week (Saturday, Sunday, Monday, and Thursday), the dayrooms will be packed with inmates making all the noises that excited humans make: yelling, cheering, clapping, stomping, table-slapping, groaning – and occasionally, sobbing!
Some guys love a certain team, or even love to hate another team. Sometimes it’s a particular player that people love, rather than the entire team. For example, think of all the Tampa Bay fans of the past few years who have all disappeared since Tom Brady retired. Now they’re all Dallas Cowboys fans, if they have any sense! (just kidding)
Admittedly, one of the reasons that football is so popular in prison is because of all the gambling it produces. There are always die-hard fans in the dayroom who get emotional and make irrational outbursts. “The Texans are gonna blow out Jacksonville today!” And someone else is usually there to call them on it. “Bet a dollar!”
Besides straight betting, there are always guys who keep up with all the point spreads, and are quick to give or take some points with their team. Or they’ll just bypass the official spread and haggle until they decide how many points they’re willing to give or take.
Then there’s the “parlay”, where each inmate will make a prediction for each game on the schedule that week (including the point spread, of course), along with a tiebreaker number to eliminate any ties – and the person with the least losses wins. If someone is lucky enough to win – even if he just guessed on the teams, or tried to get fancy and take all the home teams or favored teams – you will hear for DAYS (from him, of course) about what a guru he is, because he won.
My personal favorite is the ” pick em”. That’s where you can look at the whole schedule of games, including point spreads and an “over and under” – and pick just four of them. If you get them all correct, it pays out 8-to-1 odds. But if you lose one game (or even TIE one game, which also counts as a loss!), you lose your money. That in itself is worth it to me, just to make the games and scores more interesting to keep track of. If you put a dollar on your ticket – or even just a soup! – it’s a tidy little profit, if you hit. I’ve been consistently good at hitting them in the past, though I don’t usually put very much money on it. I just enjoy challenging myself, and placing my wits against those of the guy who’s running the operation! I’ve BEEN the guy running it, in years past, but these days I prefer to bypass all the stress and hassle, and just play other people’s pick ems. (Besides – it IS illegal, after all!)
There are also the various “boards”, wherein each player will buy a square, then they’ll draw and assign numbers, and if the score matches your number – you’ll win a nice piece of change. Like Obama said, we do need change! =-)
So whether your interest is watching a good game, or wanting to be the guy who picked the correct teams to win – football can help you pass the time, if nothing else… And if you happen to make a few dollars while you’re doing it, it’s exactly what they’re doing on the other side of the fence! So says DannyBoy.