19th Hole: The Readers Take Over

THE POINTS
Sirs:
I was elated to read Tex Maule's accurate description of the danger which accompanies betting on any athletic contest, whether it be professional or amateur (The Shadow Over Pro Football, Jan. 28). Certainly, the discovery of point-shaving in professional football would greatly injure the sport as it, did college basketball in 1951 and 1961. Everything should be done to prevent such a disaster, as Mr. Maule so aptly points out.
JOHN JACOBS
Williamstown, Mass.

Sirs:
I smell some realism in the "hypothetical" point-spread example cited by Tex Maule. It sounds suspiciously, in fact exactly, like the circumstances in which Green Bay defeated Detroit in their first meeting during 1962.

If I could make "hypothetical" predictions like Tex Maule creates "hypothetical" point-spread cases, there would be no doubt about gambling in pro football. I'd bet every cent I have.
MARK G. ULEVICH
Philadelphia

Sirs:
Tex Maule's prejudices are showing again! But he goes too far when he uses as an "example" of the point-spread system almost the exact situation that occurred in this season's first Detroit-Green Bay game.

This thinly veiled accusation docs great harm to the fine effort of two great pro football teams by implying that Detroit threw the game by trying to get a three-point spread on Green Bay rather than sitting on a one-point lead.

I think SPORTS ILLUSTRATED owes Detroit (and Green Bay) fans a clarification of its position and a clear statement of what it implied or didn't imply by this "example."
DAN HOULIHAN
Stevens Point, Wis.

?Any resemblance between Novelist (Jeremy Todd, Footsteps) Tex Maule's fictional football score and that of any actual football game, living or dead, was purely coincidental.—ED.

Sirs:
Alex Karras was honest and sincere in telling the NFL big shots that he bet. I am positive it was a friendly bet and no foul play was involved.
EDWARD G. GHANTOUS
Mount Pleasant, Pa.

MOSSIE BACKERS
Sirs:
Many thanks for the most amusing but tremendously intuitive story of Mossie Murphy's Crusade (Jan. 28). It proves that the era of the individual is still with us, thanks to men like Mr. Murphy who have their singleness of purpose sewn on their sleeves.
KARL POMEROY
Canaan, N.Y.

Sirs:
Your article on Mossie makes me think there's hope after all for this stuffy old world, especially in a sport such as basketball, which has suffered such scandals.