NFL 2014 season thread: The good, the bad, & the ugly.

From Friday:

From today:
Denver Broncos to hire Gary Kubiak as new head coach - ESPN

 

Wasn't much to watch. I'm sure the Hawks are buckled down to watch film ASAP, but I think they can take a night off.

 

I came here to post that same story.

Will be interesting to see what happens from it. I don't even know, but do different balls get used for each team? And if not, wouldn't the Colts get the same advantage? Or maybe they are suggesting it was only done for certain plays?

It'll at least give all the Belichick, Brady, and Pats haters another arrow in the their quiver.

 

I expected the Pats to be favored by a few points.

Early books are actually pretty split. It started out with most books favoring the Seahawks by about 2.5, now it is anywhere from the Hawks by 1.5 to the Pats by 1.5. I can't remember the last game I've seen huge casinos actually on opposite sides of the action (albeit by only 2-3 points).

 

I don't gamble with real money. I'd probably end up being one of those idiots who chased his losses. But as I've mentioned before, another message board I'm on has fake cash that you can use to gamble (with realistic Vegas odds) on sporting events. On a game like this I'll often bet the spread on one side and the money line on the other. You do risk a 1-pt or 2-pt game going the wrong way, but that is pretty rare in football. Then I'm left either walking away even, or taking the money line win, which is usually 10-20% of what I bet.

Of course, it hurts a lot less when you lose fake money.

 

The board I'm on gave everyone $500 to start with. If you ever get down to zero you are kicked $25 automatically so you aren't out forever. There are also 4-5 contests per year, like our Pick Em contest, where you can win from $500-2500 for coming in first or second. I've won 2-3 of the contests, which inflated my bankroll by a couple grand. Right now I am at a bit over $32k, which is good for 4th overall on the site out of several hundred people who actively bet. One thing that has helped me is betting very heavy on some almost "sure thing" bets that I had to be patient on because the payoff was weeks/months in the future. There was a baseball HoF bet on who the inductees would be this last year. The odds weren't great for guys like Randy Johnson (1/4), Pedro Martinez (1/3), or John Smoltz (1/2) but I was confident they were guaranteed to be in, so I bet almost my whole roll on it even though I had to have that money tied up for almost a month before the results were released.

It's stupid because it is for nothing but bragging rights, but it's fun because even when you lose you don't really lose anything.

 

I'm guessing our resident Seattle fans have heard this story already:

Seahawks fan rejects $20K, will give famed football back to Kearse | Local & Regional | Seattle News, Weather, Sports, Breaking News | KOMO News


Cliffnotes - fan catches the ball Kearse threw into the stands after the game winning TD Sunday.

Memorabilia dealer offers him $20k for the ball.

Kearse personally calls him and offers his game helmet, signed by Kearse. Also offers the game jersey, signed by the team. Fan counters with helmet + jersey + Super Bowl tickets.

Wrinkle to story? The day after the Super Bowl the fan, an unemployed father of two kids, has to report to jail for two months.

I may have found the story behind his jail time, but can't confirm it is him...

MONROE MAN ARRESTED ON MULTIPLE FIREARMS CHARGES | MONROE | Sky Valley Chronicle Washington State News

 

Stay classy, Monroe. Its claim to fame? The state pen.

 

This whole "DeflateGate" thing is mildly interesting.


It sounds to me, from what insiders are saying in various articles, like it is quite possible that most teams prep their balls the way they like them. The refs checking them before the game is pretty much a "going through the motions" type thing, and if they aren't WAY out of bounds, they let almost anything fly.

Now someone complains and it is going to become a big deal.

My guess is that at least a decent portion of the blame is going to fall on the refs or the checking procedure. The Pats may get a slap on the wrist. And in reality, it is something that a good portion of teams could've/would've gotten busted for if anyone was previously paying attention.

Quite notably, Brad Johnson, who won the Super Bowl with the Bucs, flat out admitted he paid someone $7500 to scuff up and prep the Super Bowl balls to his liking before the game. I bet that went over well in the NFL offices.