August 24, 2006.

Vicksburg is home to four casinos and lottery tickets can be bought across the river in Louisiana, so people here are not foreign to the world of gambling.

But even hardened risk-takers may balk at a promotion involving a big-screen TV, the loveable New Orleans Saints and a spin on a roulette wheel.

Cowboy Maloney’s pitch: Buy a big-screen plasma television and if the Saints win the Super Bowl, the price of the TV will be refunded.

Imagine sitting down in front of a movie screen in your living room for free. All the Saints have to do is… win the… Super Bowl?.

Why not take two paychecks, stand on the roadbed of the Interstate 20 bridge over the Mighty Mississippi and wait for a barge to pass underneath. If both paychecks land on the barge, you win an all-expenses paid cruise to Davenport, Iowa?.

How about betting that a Toyota Prius would fare better than an 18-wheeler in a head-on collision contest?.

As far-fetched as the idea of giving away a TV, the commercial advertising such came during a 30-7 drubbing of the Saints at the hands of the Dallas Cowboys in a preseason game in Shreveport.

Had Cowboy Maloney advertised before Dallas took the field, he may have had some takers. The Saints have the explosive Reggie Bush, the bruising Deuce McAllister and the surgically repaired Drew Brees.

But they also have a pass defense with more holes than Augusta National.

Fred Messina, our longtime outdoors columnist, asked Tuesday morning if I thought The Cowboy was in any danger of losing money.

&#8220Richard Nixon will walk into this office, sit down at your desk and hand you a photo of a mess of bream he caught in Eagle Lake before anyone gets a free television courtesy of the Saints,” I told him.

It’s the safest bet since picking Mississippi State to beat Maine in football.

Some people who don’t work for newspapers or the school system may be able to take such a gamble. Usually the ones who have a big-screen plasma TV can afford to pay for it; a refund would be gravy.

I want to take it a step further. How about if the Saints play the Jets in the Super Bowl, Cowboy Maloney just deeds his store over to me?.

I will then take the deed to one of our local casinos, slap that thing on 5 red on the roulette wheel and hope for the best.

Until then, the only plasma TVs newspapermen will be watching will be those on the walls of Cowboy Maloney’s.

We’ll hear the sales pitch, the offer and the part about the Saints.

&#8220Excuse me,” we’ll say.

Then we’ll hear it again.

Then The Cowboy will hear laughter.

Lots and lots of it.