Originally posted on 09/24/2017:

So....
Earlier this afternoon I'm at the deli next door to the vendor of charisma where "Buzzy the local book" conducts his Sunday NFL business.

I pay the teenage girl at the deli register for my pound of pastrami, half pound of Swiss cheese, and a couple of other assorted sundries, poke my head in to pay my regards, as me and Buzzy have know each other for years.

Buzzy says to me "Hey Billy, how ya doing?" I reply "I'm splendid" and Buzzy offers me a beer.
It's 12 noon, I don't like to start drinking that early so I settle on a coke, pull up one of those wooden bar stools and we start chewing the fat.

After 5 minutes of chit chat we get around to shop talk, I ask Buzzy "what's the play today, who's betting what?"
Buzzy tells me in that raspy voice of his that was shaped from years of cigarette smoking "Billy, I need the Bears bad, but it's not just me, the 'syndicate' needs the Bears bad, everybody and their mother in law is on the Steelers, it's uncanny Billy, I'm not joking, 80 percent of the money on that game is on Pittsburgh, and it's not just the spread Billy, Joey the Whale phoned in 1/2 hour ago money line parlay Philly and Pittsburgh one dime, and it's not just me Billy, my office, the people I have to answer to, they have a shitload more Pittsburgh action then I do, not just the spread, but there's an unusual amount of money line bets on Pitt as well............"

After 10 more minutes of small talk I bid Buzzy a fond afternoon, explain it's lunch time and I still need to get the dogs out for their daily run at the lake. As I'm walking to my truck I'm rehashing our conversation in my head, and say to myself, "if the book really needs the Bears, watch the Bears win, seems like almost always what the book needs, the book gets"

I get home, I log on to the laptop, check out a few sites, notice that Pitt moved to 7 flat off of 6.5.
Just for shits and giggles I put a C note on Bears +7 and a double sawbuck on Bears money line.

Fast forward to 4 pm.....
Sure as shit, if shit can be sure.

Chicago 23
Pittsburgh 17 (in overtime yet)

Funny how it seems what the book needs, the book gets.