Football, like the other great American creation — Las Vegas — is synonymous with money.

A football player's goal is to reach "pay dirt."

Accurate passes are "on the money."

A quarterback "spreads the wealth" to his receivers.

While sports betting has been around since David vs. Goliath, the point spread was invented in the 1920s to bring financial interest to football. Sportswriter Charles Rosen is credited with declaring the point spread as "the greatest discovery since the Zipper."

In college football, money is more powerful than the NCAA, whose efforts to create a Division I-A playoff system are trumped by the lucrative Bowl Championship Series.

Football, its coaches like to say, is the financial engine that drives college athletic departments.

It is why Oklahoma coach Bob Stoops' annual salary is eight times greater than President Bush's.

Money is the root of the National Football League, as well. Forbes estimated the average value of an NFL franchise at $898 million.

A rookie benchwarmer earns $285,000 annually.

CBS charged advertisers up to $2.6 million per 30-second commercial during Super Bowl XLI.

The NFL prospered when it implemented the salary cap, now the success model for all professional sports leagues.

Even fantasy football has a very real financial impact. A Chicago-based employment research firm estimated U.S. companies could lose as much as $435 million a week during the coming NFL season because of lost productivity from employees playing fantasy football at work.

In Hawai'i, football has a wide economic effect, from the cost of Pop Warner uniforms to how not staging a 13th University of Hawai'i football game affects groups trying to raise funds for a choir trip.

In this tabloid, we will show the price of football, and why gains and losses are not just statistical categories.

Reach Stephen Tsai at stsai@honoluluadvertiser.com.