SUPER BOWL BETS

At this time, five hours before game time, the Green Bay Packers are favored to win the Super Bowl over the Pittsburgh Steelers by two and a half points. (Full Disclosure: I’m a Franco Harris fan since before his 1972 “Immaculate Reception.”) I don’t have money on the game, but I do have a suggestion.

There are now many imaginative wagers on this game. Sports books found more ways to draw in more money from fans looking for more action, these are known as proposition (a.k.a. prop) bets. For example, one can bet on the duration of Christina Aguilera's performance of the national anthem. In Chicago, we remember the betting on whether Chicago's 380-pound William "Refrigerator" Perry would score a touchdown in the Bears-Patriots 1986 Super Bowl XX game (which he did).

Elected officials have their personal bets. This time, if the Steelers win, Green Bay Mayor Jim Schmitt will shovel snow from the walkway of a Steelers fan in Green Bay, while clad in Steelers attire. He'll also fly the Pittsburgh city flag at Green Bay's city hall for a day and send Pittsburgh Mayor Luke Ravenstahl a package of local food products. If the Packers win, Mayor Ravenstahl will shovel the walkway at St. Rosalia in Greenfield, the family church of Pittsburgh-born Packers head coach Mike McCarthy. Mayor Ravenstahl also will fly Green Bay's flag at the City-County Building and donate Pittsburgh food to a Wisconsin food bank.

The nonprofit world has gotten into the act. The Director of the Carnegie Museum of Art in Pittsburgh has wagered the temporary loan of their Pierre Renoir “Bathers with a Crab” (1890), to the Milwaukee Art Museum, should the Steelers lose. The director of the Milwaukee Art Museum, the closest art museum to the Packers, has agreed to loan Gustave Caillebotte’s “Boating on the Yerres” (1877) to the Carnegie.

We can all get in on the win-win proposition of doing good for the big game: Make a donation to your favorite charity in honor of which ever team wins!