Wednesday, September 19th, 2007 by Matt Felser
Always Trust Peyton Manning
In a very interesting cross-promotion, Deal or No Deal had a football themed episode that featured several current hall of famers (Eric Dickerson and Marcus Allen), a few future members (Terrell Davis, Jerry Rice, and Marshall Faulk), and a few has beens (Wayne Chrebet and a very emotional Kordell Stewart) holding the cases. For those of you who are not familiar with the game show, I’ll direct you to Wikipedia because its a little too complex to explain in this space.
The show got out to a great start after the contestant, George Barnes, was given the jersey of his favorite player, Peyton Manning. The attractive models who normally hold the money cases were replaced by some cheerleaders and the ex-players. After the pregame festivities, the game went downhill quickly for Mr. Barnes.
Naturally, he picked to keep case 18, Manning’s number. I’m not going to run through a case-by-case recap, but he quickly eliminated some of the top numbers, while leaving the very highest number, $1,000,000, still on the board. After a few more cases, Mr. Barnes luck began to improve and he was offered an NFL dream package. The deal began with 2008 NFL logo-branded GMC truck, but was sweetened with four season tickets for the Colts, on-field seats for a game, a pregame meet and greet, and two autographed footballs. When he hesitated, host Howie Mandel added a Super Bowl package to the fold, with four nights in a fancy hotel, two tickets to the big game, and passes to just about every exclusive Super Bowl party. As if that wasn’t enough, Mr. Barnes was also offered $50,000 in cash to go along with the prize package. Although this was an offer almost any football fan would die for, he turned down the incredible package. Kordell was seen screaming off to the side of the stage.
The producers apparently did not like Mr. Barnes choice, as they proceeded to give away the car to a member of the audience. At this point, everyone in the building knew that Mr. Barnes had something more valuable in his case than the football package. That is, everyone except for the contestant himself. In a move that made most people cringe, he eventually took $189,000 for his case. Then, Mandel revealed what everyone had already deduced. Mr. Barnes turned down not only a priceless, once-in-a-lifetime football prize pack, he had unknowingly rejected the $1,000,000 grand prize.
As a minor consolation prize, Mr. Barnes had his money delivered in the form of a Gatorade shower from Terrell Davis and Eric Dickerson. However, this could not possibly make up for his earlier mistakes. I’m 99% sure that the heads at NBC did everything they could to give away one million to this guy. They made his favorite player’s number the winning case, and they gave him the jersey to rub it in his face. He was given the opportunity to win two excellent prizes, but he threw it all away.
For shame, George Barnes, for shame.
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