There aren’t enough superlatives in the English language to describe the magnitude of “Americanness” that comes with Super Bowl Sunday.

This is commercialism’s number one day, best embodied not just by Larry Tate, office linebacker, but also by the biggest gambling day of the year, where an estimated $400 million will be gambled on Sunday.
About $700 of that will belong to Joe Amblergay, an Ithaca senior who wishes his identity be protected for some combination of graduate school recommendations and embarrassment should the Giants pull an upset.

“It’s all on the Pats,” said the precocious business student who may as well be majoring in point spreads with a concentration on parlays.

Some people wait for the Big Game to bet big cash, but not Amblergay. Since early this September he’s been all over his online gambling site, stalking money lines like a cheetah on a gazelle.

It all started for Amblergay his senior year in high school when he casually threw down some money on Ohio State against Miami in that year’s college football National Championship game. He won $75 that night.  

“It was the greatest night of my life,” said Amblergay, who to this day remains eternally grateful to Craig Krenzel, both as a die-hard Buckeyes fan and because he was the quarterback who set in motion a rather lucrative hobby.

This year, Amblergay says he won around six grand on the college football season, about $500 on baseball and is up again on college basketball.

He bets like the Patriots score — as in a lot. He’s always got a few long term bets on the back burner, like the Detroit Lions winning more than six games this year (they did).

But it’s the excitement of the daily grind that gets his blood boiling like a cocker spaniel in heat.

Whether it’s Toledo and Central Michigan playing football on a Thursday night in November or the Super Bowl, Amblergay doesn’t discriminate. No bet is out of bounds.His biggest splurge of all time was an Orioles-Rangers baseball game where he dropped $900 on the under. Three hours later he was $900 richer.

“Sometimes you gotta give the game a little extra excitement,” he said with the kind of smile that only $900 can put on your face.

Super Bowl Sunday was made for gambling, a national holiday of betting and a veritable Christmas morning for the likes of Charles Barkley, Jon Daly and Amblergay.

Come Sunday, Amblergay hopes Tom Brady looks good in a big red coat and a white beard.