No Pizza for You. Congressman Wager Jersey Shame Over Superbowl.

We get it. Phoenix has no food that they're wiling to wager. What about Pizzeria Bianco? Where's the politician who knows his pizza? For shame, Phoenix. For shame. You have, by most accounts, some of the BEST pizza anywhere west of Chicago and no one ante'd up?

Anyway...we'll move on. One wager that fell through the cracks here at Friendly Political Wager headquarters was the small wager between 2 Congressmen over the Super Bowl. Republican Rep. Trent Franks of Arizona placed a wager with Democratic Rep. Mike Doyle of Pennsylvania over the big game. The loser would have to wear the other guy's team jersey when the House returned on its first full day in session on Wednesday. That's tomorrow. We'll keep our eyes open for the pictures, but it sounds like Franks is going to go through with it.

Franks accepted his loss Monday, saying he'd be wearing the Steelers jersey –"It's always important to be magnanimous in victory and humbling in defeat."

The humiliation of having to wear a jersey around the Congress is pretty high. I'm sure the Congressman won't be able to get on the floor with the jersey, but there will certainly be some press opportunities back in his office.

Bottomline: We like that these two gentlemen got involved in the big game. No food (on such a big game) means that this wager falls pretty far down on the Daley scale. Not to mention that there is no specified place/time of the jersey wearing. More than the Catholic School Kids, but not by much. 11 Daleys.

Kids in Jerseys As Pawns: Catholic School Kids Wager on Super Bowl

Kids in school are having a lot of fun these days. From the Doodle 4 Google contest to taking part in friendly political wagers on the Super Bowl. That's right, there's a group of Catholic School kids in Glendale setting up a wager with kids in Pittsburgh.

Students from Catholic schools Our Lady of Perpetual Help in Glendale and John F. Kennedy School in Washington, Pa., near Pittsburgh, have agreed that should their team lose, the students have to wear the winning team's colors for a day.

Stacey McCracken, parent of four students attending the Pennsylvania school, got the idea after the Cardinals won the NFC Championship. She said she thought it would be fun to have an Arizona Scho0l enter a bet. After searching on Google for a matching school, she found Our Lady of Perpetual Help and called to set up the wager.

McCracken said that should the Steelers lose to the Cardinals, her school's faculty will wear red Arizona T-shirts and prepare a Cardinals-themed lunch. She added that there may be other "unfortunate events" if Arizona wins.

Buying an entire school new shirts during these trying economic times? I guess those parents who are sending their kids to catholic schools really do have too much money on their hands.

Bottomline: Using kids as pawns to get some press is kinda lame. The lunch is "interesting", but since this doesn't involve politicans, we tend to rate this wager pretty low. 9 Daleys.

Major Wager Letdown: US Airways Wagers on Games, Runs out of Money Before the Big One

These wagers aren't only for elected officials, you know. Apparently, some airline employees have some time on their hands and have been getting down and dirty with other terminals throughout the NFL Playoffs. The bad new? The budget's spent and they can't play ball over the Super Bowl.

Chuck Kostelic, US Airways’ station director at Pittsburgh International Airport, is still enjoying the fruits — or, in this case, the crab chips — of the Steelers’ win over the Baltimore Ravens in the AFC Championship game.

“I’m eating some right now. They’re good,” Kostelic said Tuesday afternoon.

US Airways’ Baltimore station sent 500 bags of crab chips, a local delicacy, to Pittsburgh after the Steelers knocked the Ravens out of the playoffs on Jan. 18. A week prior, the San Diego station sent boxes of clementines, pistachios and avocados to Pittsburgh after the Steelers gave the Chargers an early playoff exit.

A stationwide bet involving local delicacies is out the window for this week’s game, because US Airways wanted to throw Super Bowl parties for its Pittsburgh and Phoenix stations instead.

They blew the budget on the Championship games?!?! What happened to the fiscal discipline that made this country great. Oh yeah...these are the airlines we're talking about. They're not afraid of a bailout here or there.

Here at Our Civic Pride, we're hoping that a Senator or two will find it in their heart to help the airline out in this time of economic struggles. Maybe slip something into the Stimulus Bill this week?

With no wagers coming up, we're not able to rate the bets, but we're kinda bummed out that we missed covering the previous wagers. We're also surprised that we've only seen a wager from the Mayor's of the two Superbowl towns and not Governors, Senators, etc. We did get a hint of the reason for the delay in this little taunt from the Pittsburgh folks:

No wagers had been set between the Allegheny County and Maricopa County, Ariz., governments as of Tuesday afternoon, said Kevin Evanto, spokesman for Allegheny County Executive Dan Onorato.

“We’re still waiting for our dear friends in Maricopa County to get their acts together. They’ve never had to make a wager like this before because their team has never gone this far, so they’re trying to figure out what to do,” Evanto said in a little pre-Super Bowl trash-talking.

If you see something that we haven't covered, send us a note at OurCivicPride (at) gmail (dot) com and get on it.

Superbowl XLIII or Horticulture Bowl XLIII?

It's Super Bowl week! For us here at Our Civic Pride, this week culminates 4 straight weekends of friendly political wagers from Mayors, Governors, Congressman, and Senators from the playoff cities. It all comes down to this: Pittsburgh vs. Glendale/Phoenix/Arizona. As with every Superbowl, the mayors have ante'd up, but this year there's a twist: the loser has to plant a native plant "outside their stadium".

Glendale Mayor Elain Scruggs has thrown down a wager to Pittsburgh Mayor Luke Ravenstahl.

If the Arizona Cardinals beat the Steelers in Super Bowl XLIII on Feb. 1, a cactus must be planted outside Heinz Field to remind Pittsburgh fans of the desert underdog's victory.

If the Steelers win, Glendale officials agree to plant a tree that is native to Pennsylvania, such as a dogwood, elderberry or red oak.

That may be a safe bet with University of Phoenix Stadium's horticultural history. In the dome's first year, about 120 sycamores couldn't survive the Arizona heat, shriveling on the Great Lawn.

But Glendale officials say they can keep such a tree alive, and gardeners assure them a San Pedro cactus can survive a Pittsburgh winter.

They don't specify if there's any signage required - and we think there should be - as a reminder of the team's loss. We might need to remind everyone that this is the same mayor who changed his name a few weeks back. We think the "plant" wager is unique wager, but clearly the Cardinals are in the drivers seat: a cactus in Pittsburgh is funny, while a tree in Arizona is just sad.

Bottomline: Superbowl means some "hot" action. We haven't heard from the Senators or Governors yet, but we like this wager. We're also secretly hoping that the Cardinals win, so we can see a cactus grow up in Pittsburgh. Imagine a kid growing up and heading to Steeler games is going to ask his dad:

Son: "Daddy...why is there a giant cactus outside the Stadium?"

Dad: "That's our badge of shame, son. We lost to the lowly Arizona/Glendale/Phoenix Cardinals in Superbowl XLIII. Our Mayor had to plant that silly thing back in 2009."

One can wish, eh? In reality, we imagine that if planted, this Super Bowl Cactus would last about 30 seconds before a buch of irate Steeler fans destroyed it. We give this bet 46 Daleys and our fingers are firmly crossed!

All Pennsylvania Superbowl: Who You Gonna Bet?

Friendly political wagers occur between all types of politicians. Governors bet Governors. Senators bet Senators. Mayors bet Mayors. It is all usually pretty straight forward who's going to be involved in one of these wagers. Anne over at the 1490 Newsblog points out that if things go "well", we're going to have an interesting situation in the Superbowl. We might have an "all Pennsylvania" Superbowl. Philadelphia and Pittsburgh are both primed to win their respective Championship Games this weekend.

Normally, the governors of the states represented in the Super Bowl place a friendly wager on the game. But if the Philadelphia Eagles and Pittsburgh Steelers both make it to the big game, who will Governor Ed Rendell make that wager with?

Well, Rendell and Lieutenant Governor Joe Scarnati are from different political parties – and they also have different loyalties when it comes to football.

Scarnati tells WESB and The HERO that, because Rendell is a Philadelphia native, if it's a Steelers-Eagles Super Bowl, there's no doubt in his mind the governor will be rooting for the Eagles.

"I'll be more than glad to take up the banner for the Pittsburgh Steelers," Scarnati says.

"I think we can have some friendly wager," Scarnati says. "I'm not quite sure what that might be yet, but the governor and I will come up with something that I think will be fun for everybody to watch."

Inter-office wager? That's a first for us, but something we'd love to see. I'm hoping that Rendell throws down more cheesesteaks (like Mayor Nutty), while Scarnati has a ton of choices. Klondike bars, Iron City Beer, and Heinz Ketchup!