Cape Bretoner cashes in: Bet paid out almost 30 years after it was made
In the fall of 1994, two junior high school friends in Sydney made a bet on their favourite football teams.
"I said, 'Patrick, the Dolphins are going to win a Super Bowl before the Bengals even win a playoff game,’” explained Mavs Gillis, a Miami Dolphins fan.
When the wager was made outside the cafeteria at what was then Malcolm Munroe Memorial Junior High, neither Gillis nor Patrick McNeil – a Cincinnati Bengals fan - would have guessed it would take nearly three decades for one of those conditions to be met.
The two friends, who were 12 when the bet was made, are now both approaching their 40th birthdays. As the years went on, the pair says the bet became legendary.
"Someone would come up to me and say 'Ah, your bet's going on for another year because both the Bengals and the Dolphins are terrible,’” Gillis said with a laugh.
"I think somebody put it best on Facebook, congratulating both of us for the fact that we remembered a bet that we made in junior high,” McNeil added.
More than 27 years later, the bet was finally put to rest when the Bengals beat the Las Vegas Raiders in an AFC wild card game Saturday.
"When the Raiders were picked off on the goal line, I just kind of sat there in a bit of shock and kept saying 'It's over. It's over,’” Gillis said.
Currently, both men have careers in sports broadcasting. The two plan to go back to where the wager was made as young sports fans so that Gillis can pay up.
"And it's only for five dollars,” said Gillis.
“We didn't even adjust for inflation,” joked McNeil.
Adjusting for inflation, that $5 bet in 1994 would work out to $9.41 today.
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