$636 Million Mega Millions Pot Split On Tuesday Night: What The Winning Numbers Meant For The NFL This Past Weekend
ByThere will be no billion-dollar Christmas this year (if the holiday didn't include taxes, of course). Two individuals matched the correct numbers on last night's Mega Millions drawing. They'll split the $636 million pot, CNN reported.
No names were released (have you seen the movie "Lottery Ticket?"), but the winners purchased their tickets in Atlanta and San Jose (CA), according to CNN. Store owners who sold the ticket will make around a million dollars, according to the Washington Post, as will a group of individuals who matched the five numbers preceding the mega millions number.
The winning numbers climbed numerically (until the last one), and, in honor of the NFL season, we'll associate each one with something pro football related:
8: Number of points the Washington Redskins last second drive would have been worth (as well as one victory) if they completed the two point conversion. Still, they avoided overtime. Clearly, head coach Mike Shanahan will not be coaching any more 'Skins football than he has to this year.
14: Number of first quarter points the Rams scored against the Saints' zero. New Orleans won the rest of the game 16-13, but it wasn't enough. After the game, they cut their kicker of the last five years, Garret Hartley. (Kicking sub 80 percent isn't going to cut it in the NFL anymore).
17: Uniform number of Phillip Rivers (in 2013 he was named the best player wearing jersey number 17 in the NFL by The Bleacher Report, which must mean he's legit again), who continued his flawless play in the Chargers' (7-7) upset of Denver. Rivers had been the Romo of the west the last few years, both in the odd, yet pleasing way he delivered the ball and his propensity for unexplainable gaffs. Either he finally has the offensive weapons to re-establish himself among the elite or he's doing it on his own. Based on Keenan Allen's record-breaking long jump for the game's first score (if you consider height, length, the weight of football equipment, and any hesitation at the chance of getting creamed upon landing -- which he inexplicably didn't), it's probably based on a combination of the two.
20: Number of points totaled by Denver on Sunday, their lowest of the season, to a previously suspect San Diego defense.
39: No, Peyton isn't 39 yet, but the Cowboys would have had 39 points if Romo could have engineered one of those game winning drives (ending in a field goal) to which his defenders stake his name. Instead, they were left with 36 and the crushing loss after leading by 23 points in the first half.
Mega Millions: 7: I'll take the layup on this one. Seven points equals one touchdown and an extra point. Sunday's offensive fest, highlighted by the Chief and Raiders of all teams, produced the most points ever during a single week of NFL games. Tuesday night's drawing nearly produced the largest Mega Millions purse in history, falling $20 million short (or the annual salalry of Joe Flacco).