🎰 Betting On Yourself (Gone Wrong)

You know those intrusive thoughts you get from time to time as you’re driving over a bridge or in a serious social situation that go something like:

“What is the worst possible thing I could say or do right now?”

Well, 99% of us are smart enough to let those thoughts pass, but I’m about to introduce you to someone in that 1%.

Here are our stories this week:

🗞 The Big Story: Betting on Yourself (Literally)

📉 Biggest Loser: The NFL’s First Mistake

🏆 Winner’s Circle: Green Bay’s Failed Mascot

🗞 The Big Story

A college football player placed so many bets, it took the police 6 months to arrest him.

Background: Kayshon Bouttee was an LSU wide receiver from 2020 to 2023 - when he was drafted by the New England Patriots in the 6th round.

He was arrested last week for placing nearly 9,000 illegal bets between April 2022 and May 2023.

For reference that’s over 22 bets per day, but it gets worse.

By the Numbers: According to Bouttee’s arrest warrant, the former LSU Tiger registered under the fake name Kayla Fortenberry and deposited money using his mom’s credit card.

• Deposited a total of $132,147.53

• Won a total $556,267

• Withdrew over $50,000

This led FanDuel to notify the authorities that “a prohibited, collegiate athlete” was placing bets on their platform.

But FanDuel contacted the police in July of last year and Bouttee wasn’t arrested until last week, so what took so long?

It Gets Worse: If I had to guess, the cops probably had to go through each of the 8,900 wagers Bouttee placed to decide how bad this situation really was.

And let me tell you, it’s worse than you think.

For starters, authorities found that will still at LSU, Bouttee bet 17 times on college football games, which included placing six wagers on his own team.

In fact, in one game against Florida State on September 4th, Bouttee placed a parlay that included him scoring a touchdown and going over 82.5 yards.

He finished the game with two catches, 20 yards, and no touchdowns.

Beginning of the End: For whatever reason, a month after Bouttee got drafted by the Patriots, he stopped betting.

He then proceeded to play his rookie season where he caught just two passes for 19 yards, and then he turned himself in to the cops and posted a $6,000 bond to be released.

Bouttee’s currently being charged with:

• 1x Felony count of computer fraud

• 1x Misdemeanor count of underage gambling

Both of which only carry total a maximum penalty of $11,000 and 5 years in jail.

And honestly, I’m not sure he’s going to face any more punishment than that.

I mean, as far as the NFL is concerned he didn’t do anything wrong while in the league and he’s already graduated so I don’t know how the NCAA could even punish him.

Talk about betting on yourself.

📉 Biggest Loser

The biggest mistake in Super Bowl history caused LA’s mayor to apologize for bringing the game to his city.

Choosing a Venue: It seems crazy now, but there was a time when cities didn’t care about hosting the Super Bowl.

In fact, when the game was first played between the AFL and NFL champions, three owners from each league got together a few months before the game to decide where they should even host it.

They settled on Los Angeles, mainly because of the nice weather but also because of the large population base the league wanted to attract.

The city agreed and said the game could be played in the LA Coliseum - which could hold over 93,000 spectators.

For their part, the stadium would receive all concession stand revenue plus 10% of ticket sales up to $50,000 and the league projected a million-dollar sellout.

There was just one problem, nobody in Los Angeles was actually allowed to watch the game.

Super Bowl Blackouts: Of course, they could buy tickets (which went for as cheaply as $6) but commissioner Pete Rozelle planned to black out the game in the 75-mile radius around LA.

Enraging local fans, journalists, and politicians alike:

• One resident sued the league

• A columnist compared Rozelle to Italian dictator Benito Mussolini

• A local radio station even told listeners how to make an antenna from a broomstick and five coat hangers to watch the San Diego broadcast

But unfortunately for LA football fans, none of it worked.

Super Dud: The game went on as planned, but without much local excitement since no one in the city could even watch it live.

Still, a combined 50 million people watched across the country on both CBS and NBC - the only time the game has ever been aired on two different networks.

However, in LA, there were tens of thousands of empty seats inside the Coliseum, with the crowd of just 63,000 people being treated to a 20-minute halftime show that featured 10,000 balloons, hundreds of pigeons, and two men in jet packs.

Apology Tour: Afterwards, Commissioner Pete Rozelle called the game, which ended in the Packers beating the Chiefs 35-10, a “tremendous show.”

However, a few weeks before the game, LA Mayor Sam Yorty had already apologized for “working so hard to bring the Super Bowl to Los Angeles” saying that more of his residents could have seen it if it was hosted somewhere else.

For what it’s worth, LA residents were finally able to watch the game on tape delay at midnight.

Meaning in 1967, before DVR, they could have gone to the game and then seen it later on TV.

🏆 Winner’s Circle

The Green Bay Packers once threatened to arrest their own mascot, which led to one of the worst mascots in sports history.

Better Than Nothing: In 1978, a local Packer fan named Robert Wagner started dressing up in a green wig, face paint, tights, a t-shirt, and a cape and calling himself Gang Green - the unofficial mascot of the Green Bay Packers.

And since Green Bay never had an official mascot, the team let Wagner run up and down the stands during games to hype up the crowd, even letting him on the field.

That was until 1983 when Wagner started annoying fans so much that the team sent a group of Sheriffs to arrest him during the fourth quarter of a game against the Jets.

New Look: Then, in 1984, the NFL launched a program called “Huddles” which gave each team a cuddly-looking mascot as a way to attract young fans.

Wanting to turn the page after firing their coach and former Super Bowl-winning QB, Bart Starr, the team adopted their NFL-issued “Huddle” figurine as their official team mascot ahead of the ‘84 season.

Doomed From the Start: ‘Packy Packer’ was a sausage-carrying bearded foam giant whose costume was so heavy that the guy hired to wear it, Bruce Manderschied, had to leave in the second quarter of his first game because of heat exhaustion.

But to make matters even worse, in October of that year Bruce went on TV and described how the mascot was perfect for the state of Wisconsin because:

“Most of the people who are Packer fans are short, fat butchers with big feet.”

Fans were, of course, upset by this, and just two years later, in 1986, the team discontinued the mascot for good opting to stick with Cheeseheads.

⏱ In Other News

• The Baltimore Orioles were just sold for $1.725 billion making it the second biggest team sale in MLB history (Dodgers sold for $2B in 2012).

• The smallest Power 5 school in the country is out-raising its largest rivals.

• Sports are for the girls now, and brands agree.

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👋 Happy Friday! I’ve been thinking a lot lately about how I can enjoy this ride of being a full-time content creator more.

I think it starts with just saying ‘thank you’ more to people I respect. So this one goes out to those of you who read this newsletter every week, and made it to the bottom:

Thank you! Smart people like you are what inspire me to hone this craft of storytelling. You guys make all the work worth it.