First 2 TD's scored last night were made by former Miami Hurricanes---

[trumad]

in Miami. The smartest thing Dungy did last night was kick away from Devin Hester.

[Awsi Dooger]

1. Hester scoring the first touchdown was great for the small bettors

I know at least a dozen people who were chirping about it Sunday night, collecting a big payoff for small money. Hester was 30/1 or even slightly higher to score the first TD. That's always a popular betting prop. This year you obviously had to put Hester at high odds since he touches the ball so seldom, and scoring the first TD is even more unlikely than later in the game, but bettors took a shot on him and it paid off. The last prop I can remember that had so much benefit to the small bettor was picking Fridge to score a TD in '85 against the Patriots.

Here's a summary on the way the game went from a Las Vegas standpoint:

http://www.reviewjournal.com/lvrj_home/2007/Feb-05-Mon-2007/sports/12400173.html

"Walker said wagering was heavy on the Bears until the final hours before kickoff.

"The money was really 10-to-1 on the Colts in the last couple hours. It was a complete and utter onslaught of Colts money," Walker said. "I'm a little disappointed with the final outcome. A backdoor touchdown would've made an unbelievable impact for us."

MGM Mirage books took fewer six-figure bets than in past years, Walker said. The two biggest bets were for $400,000 each on Indianapolis minus-7. He said there also was a $250,000 money-line wager on Chicago.

Walker said he dropped the money line on the Colts as low as minus-215 because he was seeing so many tickets written on the Bears.

"There was a lot of interest in the underdog in the game," Avello said. "The money-line underdog always gets bet in the Super Bowl.

"I believed the Colts were going to win the game. I think there were a lot of so-called sharp and fairly sophisticated guys who gave out the Bears."

A majority of sharp bettors played it under the total, which fell from 49 to 47 partly because of poor weather in Miami, where it rained heavily most of the game. The books took a minor hit on the total.

"What really hurt us was every teaser combination covered," said Walker, pointing out Bears' bettors cashed tickets at plus-13 on a 6-point teaser.

Proposition bets were mostly favorable for the books, with one exception.

Chicago's Devin Hester returned the opening kickoff 92 yards for a touchdown. Hester was getting 30-1 odds to score the game's first touchdown.

"That's the biggest hit we've ever taken on a player to score the first touchdown," Las Vegas Hilton sports book director Jay Kornegay said. "It was an accumulation of $20, $10 and $5 tickets, but they add up pretty quickly when you're paying 30-1."