In writing last week about the geographical connection with last season’s World Series and this year’s Super Bowl – Boston Red Sox versus Los Angeles Dodgers, New England Patriots versus Los Angeles Rams – I omitted my connection to the Super Bowl. My connection was twofold – Jim Kensil and Don Weiss.

After Commissioner Pete Rozelle, Kensil and Weiss were the most critical elements in the creation and success of the Super Bowl. Actually, if Rozelle were alive, he might say Kensil and Weiss were more integral to the creation and success of the National Football League’s championship event than he was. They played a major role in my career as well.

Kensil and Weiss were sportswriters for the Associated Press in New York in the early 1960s when I began working for the A.P. in Pittsburgh. When an important game or sports event took place in Pittsburgh, one or two New York sportswriters would be the primary reporters and would be joined by someone from the A.P.’s seven-man Pittsburgh bureau.

It was in that context that I met Kensil and Weiss. I covered the NCAA convention with Kensil in 1961 and the United States Open golf tournament with Weiss in 1962. It was routine for the New York guys to tell the A.P. sports editor, Ted Smits, what they thought of the locals. Both Kensil and Weiss submitted good reports on my work, and the reports were instrumental in my subsequent transfer to the New York sports department.

Rozelle, in turn, hired Kensil and Weiss for important front-office positions in the N.F.L. Rozelle named Kensil public relations director, then used him in a variety of executive positions. Weiss also held multiple posts, most importantly as director of game-day operations for the Super Bowl, even after he retired.

In the interest of complete accuracy, one other New York A.P. staffer was very instrumental in my transfer. Without Jim Hackleman, I might have reached New York but not in December 1963. On the day sports editor Smits was making his selection for the reporter who would be moved to New York, the veteran Hackleman was alerted to impending developments.

When he saw Smits head for the office door, he knew Smits was headed upstairs to tell General Manager Wes Gallagher whom he wanted. Intercepting Smits before he could exit the department, Hackleman asked him whom he had decided on. “Kelso Sturgeon,” Smits said. “No,” Hackleman countered. “Murray Chass.”

Sturgeon was a horse racing writer in Louisville. I had written a lot of baseball in Pittsburgh. Hackleman evidently felt the department had a greater need for a baseball writer than a horse racing writer.

Although I was thrilled to get the promotion, I felt sort of bad for Sturgeon, who had lost out on a promotion. I didn’t know what had become of him until I belatedly decided last Saturday night to try to find out.

I was unable to reach him via e-mail, but I saw enough on-line to learn that he had become a handicapper and apparently a good one, and was offering his services to handicapper wannabes.

“I was for several years one of the panelists on Pro Line, a nationally televised (USA) weekly show on football handicapping,” Sturgeon writes on his web site. “My book, THE COMPLETE GUIDE TO SPORTS BETTING, published by Harper & Row, was the first book on this subject ever produced by a major publisher and became the foundation book for the business.

“As you can see, almost everything I have done in my life has been connected to the sports betting industry. My success is no accident. I can help you achieve success in your own handicapping as well. Whatever your sport of choice, whatever your wagering level, I have a plan that will fit your betting needs. I invite you to look around the website and see what I can offer you.”

Sturgeon’s reemergence, in this space at least, comes at a propitious time, coinciding with the Super Bowl and the millions that are bet on it legally and illegally and the explosion of legal betting on sports throughout the country. It’s happening whether you like it or not.

Each week, it seems, more state legislatures are introducing and debating sports betting bills.

Most states, however, are missing out on this year’s Super Bowl gambling revenue because they haven’t adopted betting bills.

According to the Nevada State Gaming Control Board, a record $158.6 million was wagered on last year’s game, an increase of $20.1 million over the previous record amount bet on last year’s game. The amount bet legally is a mere pittance of what is estimated to be wagered illegally. The American Gaming Association estimated that $6 billion was bet legally and illegally a year ago. The organization also estimates that 22.7 million Americans will bet on the game this year.

Baseball apparently doesn’t attract this number of bettors. Nor evidently does it induce the amount wagered on N.F.L. games.

A search of many Google pages failed to find one article dealing with the amount of money bet on last year’s World Series.

I have long said that the combination of betting plus television is what fuels the N.F.L.’s popularity. Without those factors, I believe the N.F.L. would be a minor league sport. Its games, whether played on Sunday afternoon or night, Monday night or Thursday night, are televised nationally and are the only games in town.

Place a bet on a game, wherever you live, then sit back and watch how your bet is making out.

And for the Super Bowl the bookies do even more to entice bettors.

For example, BetOnline offers these opportunities for placing bets, among many other zanier bets:

What will be higher:

• Tom Brady’s passing yardage in the Super Bowl or the amount in millions of Bryce Harper’s next contract?

What will be higher:

• Jared Goff’s passing yardage or the amount in millions of Manny Machado’s next contract?

What will be higher:

• Points scored by the Patriots or runs scored by the Red Sox in the 2018 World Series (28)?