Lucci's Makes Good On Super Bowl Bet With Pennsylvania Deli

WILMINGTON, MA -- The Patriots lost and neither Tom Brady nor Nick Foles vomited in the final five minutes of Sunday night's Super Bowl. That means John Lucci of Lucci's in Wilmington was in suburban Philadelphia Tuesday to make good on a bet his store placed with Centrella's Italian Market & Deli in Havertown, Penn.

The two family-owned grocery stores placed a bet on the game: if the Eagles had lost, Centrella's would have delivered a six-foot Italian hoagie to Lucci's. As it happened, Lucci's ended up delivering its own six-foot Italian sub to Centrella's. The even-money bet had specific terms laid out in advertisements run by both markets last week. The loser needed to deliver the sub in person within seven days of the Super Bowl, and there were a couple of special clauses added to the wager.

The bet would have been called off if it was determined that all footballs have not been inflated to comply with NFL rules. There was also a "McNabb provision," in which a market automatically lost if its team's quarterback vomited in the last five minutes of the game. The first is an obvious dig at Pats fans and the alleged deflategate incident, while the second refers to a 2005 incident, in which Eagles quarterback Donovan McNabb vomited during the game.

Lucci sent Wilmington Patch an email as he boarded the 8:32 a.m. JetBlue flight to Philadelphia Tuesday morning. Which begged the obvious question: How do you get a six-foot hoagie/sub into the overhead bin or under the seat in front of you?

"We had agreed prior to the game that the winner would provide the...roll," Lucci said.

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Patch file photo.

Dave Copeland can be reached at dave.copeland@patch.com or by calling 617-433-7851. Follow him on Twitter (@CopeWrites) and Facebook (/copewrites).