NFL Wildcard Weekend Open Thread

Two great weekends of NFL football back-to-back starting this afternoon. Wildcard weekend followed by division playoff weekend next Saturday and Sunday when unfortunately we will be out of pocket and at sea for trials.


So who do we like? In order of game starts:


Take the Colts at home giving 1-1/2 points against the Kansas City Chiefs. The progression of quarterback Andrew Luck and the Colts team will take its next step this afternoon.


Later this evening, we like the Eagles giving 3 points at home to the visiting Saints. The cold won’t effect “Shady” McCoy from going off against that porous Saints run defense. Don’t like Dome teams in these sort of extreme weather elements.

Tomorrow’s games:


We like the Chargers getting 7 points on the road against Cincy. Look for a steady diet of running backs Ryan Mathews and Danny Woodhead and Philip Rivers’ short passing game to keep the Cincy offense off the field. Ball control won them the most impressive road victory of the NFL season in November against the Broncos and it will prevail again against the Bengals.

Sunday afternoon, take the Niners giving 3 points at Green Bay. Weather folks are calling for blustery conditions with temps that could plunge as low as 25 below. Though a west coast club, Niners are built to handle these conditions. Similar to the San Diego/Cincy game, look for the Niners ground game to chew clock and wear down the Green Bay run defense and for the Niner's defense to be running down hill all game long frustrating Aaron Rodgers and the Packer offense..



Good luck, everybody!

NFL Division Playoff Saturday Open Thread: the if it's good enough for George Washington edition

.


First game: The Saints are just a different team outdoors. Look for the tough-minded Niners not to be rattled in their first playoff appearance in years: Take the Niners getting 3-1/2 at home this afternoon at 1:30 PST.


.





And as for this guy...

... don't know what all the fuss is about.




Folks in these here American parts have been doing it for years with some degree of success.

Having said that, Bronco safety Brian Dawkins is out and no one has been able to stop what has been the most productive tight end season in the history of the NFL in the two-headed beast that is the Pats' Rob Gronkowski and Aaron Hernandez. Still, we like the Broncos getting 13-1/2 points against the Patriots in Foxboro later on this evening.

College football Saturday open thread

The ranked match ups:

#24 Kansas State at #17 Missouri


#12 (and two-loss defending BCS title-holder) Alabama hosts #19 Mississippi State


#23 South Carolina at the Swamp and #22 Florida


Other games of note:

Penn St. at #9 Ohio State


#1 Oregon and QB Darron Thomas (pictured) take their space-aged offense to California and the Berkeley Bears.


The Irish host #14 Utah who is coming off that 47-7 thumping at the hands of TCU last weekend.


And speaking of which, one half of the BCS-busters, #3 TCU, will be hosting 7-2 San Diego State. After TCU beat Utah at Utah by 40, does installing the Aztecs as only 27 point underdogs show a measure of respect for Coach Brady Hoke's program?


The other half of the BCS-busters, #4 Boise St., played last night and walloped Idaho 52-14.


Georgia at #2 Auburn amid allegations that Auburn's star quarterback Cam Newton's father sought a six-figure payout from Miss St. in order for Newton to play there. An ugly situation that is, unfortunately, the dominant headline in the sport currently.


Texas hosts #10 Oklahoma State.


USC goes out to the desert and #18 Arizona.




No gaming advise this weekend but if you are on your way to Vegas and you happen upon this young lady, grab her, you are going to need her. Ask first, of course.





Chris Jones of Esquire magazine breaks this down and explains why it may not really be te miracle it appears to be, here.

H/T: Deadspin

College football Saturday open thread

The merit of leading the nation in total offense through the first two weeks of the season certainly stands on its own, however, having your image captured in a rather iconic pose can only aid your prospects.

Having said that, Michigan QB, Denard Robinson and his Wolverines are currently down to the mighty Minutemen of Massachusetts, 10-7 in the second quarter in Ann Arbor.




And as a public service to our younger followers out there, this why you shouldn't bet on sports. Forget the money...




... it's about the pride. Good on this lad for making good, though, but... damn, that had to hurt.

Random thought for the day

(at this time, hopefully counting our winnings from college football and the Breeder's Cup yesterday and scheming greater things for the NFL today)


A few weeks back we went out to one of the local Indian casinos for no particular reason except to just check it out because we had not been there before and the fact that we do not frequent these casinos and wanted to see if there was anything that we were missing.

Well, what we were missing were the people there. As in, we had never seen these people before in our lives. Of course, they were all complete strangers but so help us, we’d never seen these people. We'd never seen them at work, never had seen them around the ‘hood, never while we were grocery shopping or out and about around town, downtown, southbay, north county…. never and no where. Who are these people?

We are convinced casino-goers have a huge underground community up in the hills east of San Diego to which they retreat every evening after the casinos close and from which they emerge the next morning when the casinos re-open. There’s no other rational explanation.

Anyway, this video clip kind of reminded us of our visit and our theory. It found its way onto Deadspin for no other reason than disgraced former USC basketball coach, Tim Floyd is on hand to break up this little fracas that took place in the food court of the Morongo casino. Tim is the gentleman sporting the natty rugger T dispensing peace and calmer heads.



P.S. We hope we have not offended any regular casino-goers here. Of course you don't live in up in the hills in an underground community. Of course you don't.

As seen at Del Mar last Friday

It would seem the 11 horse did not get the memo...

Programming Alert

Here’s the deal: From here until perhaps next week, posting will be a combination of hastily conceived and ill-executed and/or recycled posts, scheduled posts and outside-help posts.

Proving that even when management is promoted out of the way, it can still wreak havoc with your professional life, so we will definitely be out of pocket for at least 2-3 days this week.

This is followed-up immediately by a potential trip to Vegas where the room rates, even for a long holiday weekend are too low to not be taken advantage.

Yes, one cannot afford not to go, given the circumstances.

Besides, the first full weekend of college football has traditionally been our best, wagering-wise, as the lines that are set do not have much upon which to gage the performances of teams and thusly are quite often out-of-whack.

P.S. As we will be out, any comments may be unresponded to.

Slipping into Irrelevancy

One of our Vegas research items we didn’t get to reporting-out on was whether or not the Sports Books offered betting lines on WNBA games. Can’t speak for other books but at least the South Point did not. And with the way things are going, no one may be offering lines for NBA games either next year.

On Wednesday, Tim Donaghy, the former NBA ref who has been accused of betting on NBA games admitted his guilt in a New York courtroom. In addition to betting on games, he advised professional gamblers on which teams to pick and provided information regarding referee game assignments, ref/player relationships and players’ health.

And just when things couldn’t get any worse, there was a report on 1050 ESPN Radio in New York on Thursday that Donaghy was about to give up to prosecutors the names of 20 colleagues that may have violated league rules. It was not disclosed what the nature of these violations were but the mind reels at the possibilities.

Now David Stern, the NBA commissioner, has been swearing up and down ever since this story broke that Donaghy is the only one, a rogue ref if you will and that the system the NBA has in place to police such illegal activity is in fine working order. This, of course, begs the question that if the system is operating as it should, why didn’t they pick up on what Donaghy was doing?

The NBA’s gambling scandal makes the NFL’s Mick Vick situation look like child’s play. The NFL and the Atlanta Falcons have essentially washed their hands of Vick and what he has been accused of doing, though reprehensible, does not strike at the very credibility and viability of professional football.

The Association and David Stern have a lot to answer for. For years, players, coaches and fans have grumbled, hinted and intimated towards the fact that certain refs had it in for certain players and/or coaches. Fans, in particular, have been openly suspicious that the league had a vested interest to make sure that certain teams advanced in the playoffs.

This was never more apparent than a few years back as the regular season was winding down, Commissioner Stern was asked in an interview what, from the league’s standpoint, would be the ideal Finals match-up. Without missing a beat and without a hint of irony, Stern responded with a big smile, “The Lakers vs. the Lakers.”

Of course, Stern and the league office would turn right around and dismiss charges of preferential treatment as essentially the rantings of conspiracy theorists.

Can it get worse? We shall see but no doubt these are dark, bleak and despondent times for a league struggling to maintain relevancy as the NFL (along with its complementary sidekick, college football) stands poised to swallow whole the entire American sports scene.

Professional Sports and the Myth of Vegas

A couple weeks back Jim Rome had Michael Franceze on his radio show to talk about the NBA/Tim Donaghy betting scandal. Franceze, a frequent guest on Rome's show, is a reformed gambler and a former mob associate who has done time in Federal prison. I was only able to listen to the first two segments of Rome's interview but I had a couple of issues with some of the things Franceze was saying.

Franceze started in by talking about Vegas being a bad idea as a potential home for a pro sports franchise because of the easy access to gambling and a criminal element being there. With all due respect to Franceze who has probably seen more than I ever would in a 100 life-times: what a crock. Vegas, New York, Chicago, Atlanta.... it doesn't matter... whereever there are pro athletes with money, bad people peddling bad ideas will be there. Trouble will always follow young men with lots of money and it doesn't matter where. Oh yeah - they all gamble. NBAers especially. Flush with cash and days-off between games with nothing better to do, they become absolute degenerates. Thousands of dollars on H-O-R-S-E games before practice, running poker games, that game where you toss pennies against the wall.... anything to kill time and create the high that gambling and winning at gambling accomplishes. The NBA is rife with a culture of gambling as it is and it has nothing to do with Vegas.

Like its going to be any worse in Vegas? I'll make the argument that the situation actually will improve for a team home-based in Vegas. How many people that live and work in Vegas actually go near the Strip? Not many. Why? Because they are.... living and... working... in Vegas. Vegas isn't any different than any other place on the planet when it comes to the daily grind of working, raising a family and trying to keep your head above water. For teams and the players who would hypothetically be home-based in Vegas, the city would not be the destination where you go nuts for a few days... it would be home. Home to your family, home to your friends and home to your community. The allure and excitement would be dulled somewhat because you are making a home there and not treating it as a wild vacation destination.

Lastly, ballers would be watched like hawks in the casinos and strip clubs in Vegas. Vegas has a vested interest that everything is on the up-and-up and that there are no shenanigans. You think Baller 'X' is going to be able to go to a strip club and have some mob lackey approach him about fixing a game and this not be out on the "street" of the gambling establishment the next morning? If I'm baller "X", Vegas is the absolute LAST place I want to talk to anyone about gambling or fixing games in my own sport. Since Vegas is the gambling capitol of the world, they are best qualified to monitor and police the activity that is there very livliehood.

One more "lastly"... he talked about legalizing gambling and it being a bad idea. I agree but for different reasons. Like drugs, the only reason I don't want to see gambling legalized is that with legalization will come regulation and with that taxation. Gambling will become yet another revenue stream for the Monster (see: the Lottery) that will not coincidentally be regressive in nature, taking advantage of the very people that can ill afford it. The very people, culture and bureaucracy that will soon be providing your health care are the same practicing a soft-genocide of sorts in adminstering the gambling opiate to our country's lower economic classes.