ALMOST a half-century ago, two teams were getting ready to play at Yankee Stadium for the championship of the National Football League. The game was not yet the big deal it has become today. Each member of the winning team stood to take home an official prize of less than $5,000.
But it was a very big deal to the people involved, and Weeb Ewbank, the head coach of the Baltimore Colts, was taking no chances. As was his usual practice, he had scripted the first three offensive plays of the game. After that he would let his quarterback, John Unitas, call the plays.
The first of Ewbank’s plays was bizarre. It called for the tackles and guards on the offensive line to position themselves to the left of the center, Buzz Nutter. The idea was to startle the New York Giants’ vaunted defense into confusion. Surprise was key. As he stood in the locker room to remind his team of the trick play, Ewbank did not dare to speak. He mouthed the play call. Ewbank was certain that the Giants were spying on him, that the locker room was bugged.
Roger Goodell, the commissioner of the N.F.L, announced last week that he has closed the league’s investigation into the secret videotaping of the sideline signals of opponents by the New England Patriots, who have won three Super Bowls in recent years. Bill Belichick, the head coach, has confessed to a limited use of the practice, and the team was fined and docked a draft pick. But that hasn’t been enough to dampen all the outrage. Arlen Specter, the Republican senator from my home state, Pennsylvania (and an ardent fan of our Philadelphia Eagles, whose defeat by the Patriots three Super Bowls ago continues to sting), continues to make noises about dragging Belichick before Congress.
nytimes.com
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Katie Finnerty already had spent her $600 tax rebate by the time the government deposited it in her bank account earlier this week.
But the compliance specialist with M&T Bank didn’t splurge. Instead, she and her twin sister, Molly, invested their windfalls in hardwood flooring for their Getzville condominiums.
“We’re in the process of doing home improvements,“ said the 34-year-old Finnerty. “Because of the $1,200, we did more. We upgraded.”
Economists predict many consumers will take such frugal paths as $110 billion in federal economic stimulus rebates start landing in bank accounts of 130 million low-to middle-income people.
The rebates amount to $600 for individuals, $1,200 for couples and another $300 for each child under 17. They are going out to singles with adjusted gross incomes of less than $75,000 and couples who filed joint returns with adjusted gross incomes of less than $150,000.
You can calculate what you will receive using this Economic Stimulus Rebate Calculator.
Whether the influx of cash will pump up the economy is debatable. But the infusion is particularly important for the Buffalo region’s long-troubled economy, local economists say.
Of the 8.3 million New Yorkers receiving the rebates, an estimated 498,000 live in the Buffalo Niagara region, where up to 70 percent of the households qualify.
“It’s much more likely to have an impact on the Buffalo economy than in Manhattan,” said Lewis Mandell, professor of finance and managerial economics at the University at Buffalo’s School of Management. “Most of the Buffalo area is going to end up getting something.”
Retailers here, as elsewhere, are banking on it.
• Rosa’s Home Stores, for instance, will roll out a special “Economic Stimulus Sale” Sunday, hoping to draw consumers in with double-digit discounts on appliances, mattresses and furniture.
“We know what people are going through,” said Dean Rallo, the local chain’s president. “We’re stretching the dollar as far as possible for them.”
buffalonews.com
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