This Week in Sports Betting, A-Z
by Nicholas Tolomeo - 12/15/2011
A – Angry. Baltimore Ravens linebacker Terrell Suggs did not approve of the Todd Graham hire at Arizona State. He tweeted that ASU dropped the ball again and said himself and former players, “will never get involved with the program if they never hire a winner! Peroid!” The misspelled word he capped his tweet with, we assume to mean Steroid.
B – Barnaby, Matthew. The legend of Matthew Barnaby continues to grow. He is already a hero among alcoholics and hockey fans alike for getting a DWI after being spotted driving on three tires It turns out the missing fourth tire Barnaby lost was recovered about nine miles away from where his Porsche Cayenne was finally pulled over. Barnaby was arrested and almost instantly fired by ESPN. The now infamous fourth tire from the fourth liner could be headed to the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto, but probably not.
C – Charlie Weis. The former Notre Dame coach isn’t setting the bar too high at his new gig in Kansas. Charlie Weis has promised to stay at Kansas for only five years before retiring and moving south with his wife. That is exactly how long he stayed at Notre Dame before being asked to leave.
D – Divisions. There remain three tight division races in the NFL. Bodog has lines available for the NFC East (Giants -160, Cowboys +150), AFC North (Ravens -225, Steelers +175) and AFC West (Tim Tebow -425, Raiders +350, Chargers +1200).
E – Eagle, Colorado. Bonfire Brewery, based in Eagle, Colorado, is getting ready to unleash a Tim Tebow-inspired beer, Tebrew Sunday Sipper. The beer has yet to hit the market, but buzz is already building around it. No word on if the first three quarters of a bottle of Tebrew will suck and if the last quarter is really good.
F – Fight. The Cincinnati/Xavier basketbrawl featured a nice knockout haymaker from Yancy Gates. But if you want to see a real fight, check out the all out cat brawl that occurred during Monday Night Lingerie Football action between the Philadelphia Passion and Toronto Triumph. The Passion went on to win, 74-0, so you can imagine what the fight was about. If you look closely in the melee you can see a few wardrobe malfunctions and some grab happy referees “breaking up” the fight (and their marriages). At this rate the LFL will eclipse the NFL in popularity in three years. It has already eclipsed the NHL.
G- Gators in Gator. The Florida Gators were 6-6 SU overall this season but a horrific 1-6 SU and 0-7 ATS against bowl teams this season. Unfortunately for Florida, you have to play a bowl team in a bowl game. Florida is somehow a two-point favorite in the Gator Bowl against Ohio State.
H – Heinz Field. The Pitt Panthers and Pittsburgh Steelers share Heinz Field, and that is about it. The mess that is Pitt football is looking for its fourth coach in 12 months. The Steelers have had three coaches in 42 years.
I - Instate bowl game. Bowl participants playing in home states are 30-22-2 ATS over the last four seasons. The teams that applies to this season are Florida International, UL Lafayette, Western Michigan, North Carolina State, California, Baylor, Florida State, Texas A&M, Vanderbilt, UCLA, Houston, Florida and, most importantly, LSU.
J – John Buck. At first glance it looks like Miami Marlins catcher is a hero. Buck pulled two women out of an overturned car this past week. His account of the story is a little odd, though, Buck says when he first saw the car overturned and smoking and a hand emerging out of the window he hesitated. “I looked at my wife and my wife’s like, ‘Go help! Just go!” Not sure why he needed her permission, but if he needs permission to save people’s lives imagine what else he needs permission to do.
K – Kyle Orton. If the Packers do manage to go 19-0, Kyle Orton deserves some credit. He is doing his best to make things easy on Green Bay. In Week 4 as quarterback of the Broncos, Orton was pounded, 49-23, by the Packers. This week he will be quarterbacking the Chiefs, who host Green Bay on Sunday. Orton and the Broncos were getting 12 points in Week 4 and they couldn’t cover, he’ll be getting 13.5 points this time around with the Chiefs.
L – Los Angeles. Chris Paul is finally making his way to Los Angeles. In exchange for Eric Gordon, Chris Kaman, Al-Farouq Aminu and a first-round draft pick, the New Orleans Hornets are sending Paul to the Clippers. For anyone that says this is a bad move for the Clippers, they do not understand odds or ticket sales. Sportsbook instantly moved Clippers championship odds from 50/1 to 15/1 and the team announced that season tickets were sold out for the first time in franchise history.
M – Mississippi State. The Mississippi State cheerleaders decided to make a homemade slip ‘n slide in someone’s backyard. That is not exactly major news, but what is major news is that someone brought a camera. The pictures from the summer eventually surfaced online, and from the looks of things, it is not the cheerleader’s fault the Bulldogs are going to the Music City Bowl this year.
N – Ndamukong Suh. Returning from a two-game suspension for this Turkey Day tirade, Ndamukong Suh is pleading the fifth about the infamous stomp, the suspension and the mysterious car accident he was involved in. Even on his weekly radio interview on 97.1 The Ticket, the Lions’ flagship station, Suh refused to talk about it and even walked out on the interview. A boy-named Suh returns to Detroit (8-5) just in time to face Oakland (7-6) on Sunday. The Raiders are favored by one point.
O – One night stands. After one-night stands with lady friends, Derek Jeter sends them packing from his apartment in Trump World Tower in a private car. Awaiting the women in the car is a gift basket containing signed Jeter Memorabilia. Apparently all the ladies love this, but one jilted lover leaked all of this to the New York Post when Jeter mistakenly brought her back to the boom room a second time. The girl was incensed about receiving the same gift twice from Jeter, so she popped off to the Post.
P – Pederson, Steve. Steve Pederson, the former Athletic Director at Nebraska and current AD at Pitt, has completed the trifecta of horrific coaching hires. At Nebraska he hired Bill Callahan, who single handily brought the proud historic Nebraska football program to its knees. At Pitt he hired Mike Haywood, who allegedly fed knuckle sandwiches to his baby’s momma just days after being hired at Pitt. Haywood was fired in less than two weeks. And then there was the hire of Todd Graham, a guy who not only stunk (Pitt went 6-6 in his first season) but also a guy who hated the program. He openly lobbied for the Arizona State job when it became available and he eventually left Pitt for it just weeks shy of his one-year anniversary on the job.
Q – Qdoba. Mexican fast food chain Qdoba launched an ill-advised special at its Pittsburgh locations geared towards Pitt’s supposed new “High Octane Offense” when Todd Graham was hired in January. The Qdoba special claims to be “As Hot as Pitt’s New Offense”. The deal calls for a double chicken queso burrito with habenero salsa, an energy drink (and a roll of toilet paper) for $9.99. If Pitt fans thought Graham’s sudden departure caused them some indigestion, they should try mixing Mexican with a Monster.
R – Rocker, John. Former Atlanta Braves reliever John Rocker, most famous for being a racist and sexist homophobe, admits to taking performance enhancing drugs in 1999. No word on how the juice influenced his infamous rant to Sports Illustrated about immigrants in New York.
S – San Diego State. Collegiate sport conferences are obviously greatly confused with the Big Ten having 12 teams, Big 12 having 10 teams, etc. etc. but how about San Diego State. The Aztecs will play football in the Big East but play all other sports in the Big West.
T – Thanksgiving Night. After the marquee game of Thanksgiving, 49ers at Raves, was missed by thousands of fans who were too tired from eating turkey to find the NFL Network or too cheap to order it, the NFL has reached an agreement to air the third game of its Turkey day tripleheader on NBC next season.
U – Unbreakable records. Pitt football is set to reach an unbreakable sports record on Jan. 7. The Panthers will increase their streak of making trips to the BBVA Compass bowl with an interim coach all the way to two. The chances of that hitting three are next to impossible, unless of course Pitt goes 6-6 again in 2012 and their coach bolts after one-season.
V – Vonn and Tebow. Rumors are swirling around the recently divorced Lindsay Vonn and the not-allowed-to-get-a-divorce Tim Tebow. The duo met at the ESPY’s. Vonn attended the Broncos and Jets game just days after her divorce and tweeted about her love for the Broncos. She became good friends with Tim’s brother Rob Tebow, who she may actually be confusing for Tim. Vonn was even spotted Tebowing after an event in the skiing World Cup where Rob Tebow creepily happened to be in attendance. During Tebow’s stunning comeback against Chicago, Vonn was in the Tebow family box where we assume Rob was also. This story has got some legs and we’re not just talking about Lindsey’s.
W – Winnipeg Jets. They brought hockey back to Winnipeg this season, now Jets fans want them to bring back urinal troughs, a staple of every great sporting venue in North America. Long lines during intermission at the bathrooms have fans wanting to do away with the urinals and bring back the popular troughs. An online petition has started, which reached 390 signatures in a less than 24 hours. Here in the US we don’t have this problem, because nobody really goes to hockey games.
X – XXX. Jerry Sandusky’s trainwreck of a lawyer Joe Amendola had another “minor” slip up during a press conference following a preliminary hearing for his client. Amendola exclaimed outside of the courthouse that if anyone believes Mike McQueary’s story, they should dial “1-800-Reality”. Well, turns out someone did dial that and they were greeted by this message, “Hey guys, welcome to the hottest place for triple-X action. Get ready for bulging, bursting pleasure with horny gay, bi and bi-curious studs. Just 99 cents per minute.” After the latest gaffe I hope Amendola is charging less than 99 cents per minute for his legal expertise.
Y – Yanina Wickmayer. German tennis star Kim Clijsters incited a near riot at a recent doubles match in Belgium when she grabbed the judge’s microphone and offered a free car to the first man to storm the court and kiss her opponent Yanina Wickmayer. A few fans rushed the court and Wickmayer was quickly ambushed. We are unsure if the first guy who got to her ever did get a free car, but did he get tackled by six security guards and hauled away in a rather rude manner.
Z – Zoltan Mesko. The New England Patriots have this Romanian punter named Zoltan Mesko. During a live television interview at a Patriots’ annual Christmas charity event, Mesko blared out to any kid within earshot or watching on TV that Santa Claus is fake. The host quickly yanked the microphone away and warned everyone to cover their ears but it was too late, Zoltan Mesko already ruined Christmas.
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