THE SIDELINES : Oregon Lottery, NFL Tie Questioned

Gov. Neil Goldschmidt says he’s skeptical about the Oregon Lottery’s proposal to use National Football League games as the basis for a lottery contest.

Under the proposal, contestants would buy $1 cards each week to decide how many NFL games to predict against the point spread. The more games they predict, the more they win for a perfect card.

Goldschmidt said he could understand the concerns that NFL Commissioner Pete Rozelle expressed in a letter sent to Goldschmidt and other officials last week. “It sounds like the kind of gambling we’ve been trying to clean out of organized sports for a long time,” the governor said Monday.

However, Lottery Director Jim Davey said he thinks the NFL’s concerns are unfounded and that he plans to meet with the governor to discuss the game.