Friday, Oct. 31, 2003 | 9:50 a.m.
Sal DeFilippo's pro football picks column appears Friday. Reach him at [email protected] or (702) 259-4076.
If you've ever lost a parlay on a last-second field goal off the crossbar, or had a player fumble on the 1 with a minute to go when you had the "over," well, Nick and Robin Bakay can relate.
In fact, that's exactly what they do -- every Monday, on ESPN's "SportsCenter"broadcasts.
The Bakays' weekly review of NFL action focuses on the bad beats that bettors suffer through.
"It's reactive to what happened over the weekend. We look for the games that can make the funniest highlights. Ideally, something that happened in the last two minutes for a heartbreaking loss," Nick Bakay said Thursday from Los Angeles.
Nick, a consulting producer of "The King of Queens" who also provides the voices of Salem the Cat on "Sabrina, the Teenage Witch" and Norbert of Comedy Central's "The Angry Beavers," is no stranger to sports.
A lifelong Buffalo Bills and Sabres fan, Nick is a regular contributor to ESPN.com's Page 2 columns, as well as his frequent "Tale of the Tape" segments. Nick and Robin have compiled a book on the latter, which is scheduled to be released in May.
"Ever since ESPN2 launched, I've been involved in different things. They're great at ESPN," Nick said. "I started doing the weekend recaps on ESPN News two years ago, and last year on SportsCenter. One weekend they suggested I pretend I was on the lam because of bad picks, so Robin filled in for me. We've been doing it together ever since. The married couple element to it has created a whole new dynamic."
A dynamic duo, in fact. Holy matrimony, Robin. But make no mistake, Mrs. Bakay loves being involved.
"I kind of fell into it, but you can't be married to someone for 14 years and not have it rub off," Robin Bakay said. "Our house is Football Central on Sundays. At first I wasn't a major fan at all, but I'm getting there."
Marriage, after all, requires teamwork. To have and to hold. For better or worse. On favorites and underdogs. For overs or unders.
"I knew Robin was becoming a big fan when I had some friends over for draft day several years ago," Nick said. The broadcasters were talking about when Dat Nguyen would be picked, and Robin says, 'The Saints should take him, just so everyone can say "Who Dat?" ' Eight out of the nine people there had no idea she was talking about the Saints' rally cry -- it went right over their heads."
The Bakays will be taping their SportsCenter segments from Las Vegas this weekend. Ironically, it took the Bakays several visits to Las Vegas before doing any betting at all.
"We have an addiction to Vegas," Robin said. "It's funny, because for about six years, we'd come to Vegas a couple of times a year without doing any gambling. We'd just go to have fun and see the sites and shows.
"Then we discovered that, um, money thing. The first weekend I bet on football I just picked against everything Nick said and I won $1,803. I remember the amount because I cashed out at 4 o'clock in the morning and took the $3 and tossed it into a slot machine on the way to our room and won another $180."
Though the Bakays play hard-luck losers every Monday, in reality, their sports betting experiences have been favorable.
"I don't gamble scary big amounts on games," Nick says, interrupted as "LIAR!" is heard screaming in the background, "but I love to put a little bit of action on football, and usually we do really well."
So what teams might the Bakays be risking a little of "that money thing" on this weekend? I asked Nick and Robin to give us three NFL picks, as I do with myself and our weekly panel of celebrities.
"We like the Patriots plus the points against Denver on Monday night," Nick said. "That's our best play. I'd probably even just take them on the money line. We'll also take the Vikings minus 4 over the Packers -- Brett Favre historically doesn't play as well in domes -- and, our kind of bizarre pick is the Raiders at the Lions. The Raiders are atrocious but we're thinking they'll get healthy this week."
First, pray for a massive fire in a neighboring state. Then, host a game on Monday night and give tickets away for free. And mostly important, make sure the Cardinals aren't in the game.
How many people do you think will willingly cough up money to watch Arizona host annual top-draft-pick-rival Cincinnati this week? The attendance might compete with the over/under line.
Still, I just can't get past seeing Cincinnati on the left side of the parlay card, especially on the road. The Bengals as a favorite? I'll take the Cardinals plus 3, along with the Steelers plus 4 over the Seahawks, and over 44 1/2 points in the same game. A tough 1-2 last week (I had the Browns plus 5 1/2, and the Patriots kicked a late field goal to win by six) puts the season mark at 11-13.
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