Earlier this year, the Rams offered a paltry $100,000 to the fan who accomplished the virtually impossible task of exactly predicting the team’s 2014 regular-season schedule. The Colts have given fans an equally (if not more) unrealistic chance of winning five times as much money.
From now through August 7 at 12:01 p.m. ET, fans can guess the kickoff temperature for all four preseason and 16 regular-season games, along with whether the roof will be open for the team’s home games. Anyone who nails all 30 variables will be eligible to win the $500,000.
If more than one person gets everything right, they’ll share the money. If no one gets the kickoff temperatures and the open/close decision right for all games, no one wins the $500,000.
Here’s our prediction: No one will get all the variables right.
So why not offer a lot more than $500,000? Make it $5 million. Hell, make it $50 million. The insurance premiums can’t be all that expensive for what amounts to a 20-ball lottery ticket with a range of roughly 20-to-30 possible winning numbers for the first half of the games and a range of roughly 30-to-60 potential winning numbers for the second half of them.
Then again, why even assume a miniscule additional risk for something that will get plenty of buzz when the grand prize is only $500,000? After all, we’ve written a post about it, which is exactly what the Colts want us and others to do.
Here’s the caveat we’ll add: It’s an obvious ploy to generate attention, and the rules are designed to make it incredibly hard to win. Just like the Rams’ contest.
So in other words, it’s a scam.
