All Bets Are Off for Reagan on Super Bowl Sunday

The traditional office pool on the Super Bowl won a vote of disapproval Sunday from President Reagan in a pregame interview as he settled down at the White House to watch the annual football game on television.

NBC anchorman Tom Brokaw asked Reagan how he felt about estimates that Super Bowl wagering will amount to $2 billion.

“I think when it gets up to that kind of money, then there is too much temptation to try and fix things, and human nature being what it is, we know from past history that sometimes they get away with that,” said Reagan, who played football as a guard at Eureka College in Illinois and became a radio sportscaster after graduation.

Reagan said he once devised a delayed-action version of “the first instant replay.” It went this way:

Eureka had the ball on its own 35-yard line with 20 seconds to go. An off-tackle play called for Reagan to lead the interference with a key block. He missed the block, but the quarterback eluded tacklers anyway and ran 65 yards for a touchdown and victory.

Auditioning the next season as a sportscaster, Reagan had to describe an imaginary football game.

“I chose that game, because I knew enough of the players’ names so I could get by,” he said, “and then I called that play. But this time, I nailed that man in the secondary. I claim this as the first instant replay, only it wasn’t instant; it was a year later.”