This Week in Sports Betting, A-Z
by Nicholas Tolomeo - 12/1/2011
A – Arizona. The Arizona Wildcats hired Rich Rodriguez. The former disgraced Michigan and West Virginia coach was so eager to get off the unemployment line he accepted the job without ever visiting the campus. No word on if Rodriguez knows he is headed to a desert or if he even knows he is coaching the Arizona Wildcats and not the Arizona Cardinals.
B – BCS Bowls. With very little at stake this weekend in terms of BCS Bowls, Covers.com went ahead and predicted the bowl pairings and the potential point spreads for BCS games. Some sportsbooks in Las Vegas are already running LSU –2 vs. Alabama in the National Championship. According to Covers.com, the Rose Bowl looks like Oregon –2 vs. Wisconsin, Fiesta Bowl, Stanford –1 vs. Oklahoma State, Sugar Bowl, Houston –4.5 vs. Michigan and Orange Bowl, Virginia Tech –9 vs. West Virginia.
C – Committed. Diddy's son Justin Combs, who has yet to change his name, has committed to play football at UCLA next year. The timing is curious because UCLA just lost 50-0 to USC on Saturday and announced that coach Rick Neuheisel was fired. So there is no coach currently at UCLA, but at least they have Diddy's freshman son on the roster to help attract a top-notch coach.
D – Dildo. Looks like the VH1 reality show "Baseball Wives" is going to be a roaring success. Already one episode in the staffers are threatening to quit because Anna Benson, wife of former Mets/Pirates pitcher Kris Benson, brandished a dildo and a stun gun at Cheri Knoblauch, wife of former Yankee Chuck Knoblauch. The dildo in question is 12 inches long. It was one of the things Benson decided she was going to need before entering the "Baseball Wives" house with other wives and ex-wives of former and current major leaguers. Show executives are trying to contain Mrs. Benson, but I doubt that since she is likely the gravy train that is going to make this show a hit.
E – Engaged again. Kristen Cavallari and often-injured Chicago Bears' quarterback Jay Cutler are engaged again. The duo was engaged previously this year until Cutler dumped the former reality television star. But this week Cavallari informed the world the couple is engaged again. No word on a date for the next breakup.
F – FOX. FOX affiliate WTVT aired a live penis from the Tampa Bay Buccaneers locker room by accident, we presume. In a post game interview with linemen Donald Penn, a teammate appears in the background butt naked getting changed and his dong was seen for about four seconds on live local television. The teammate has yet to be indentified, and if you see the footage you will see why the unidentified teammate has yet to come forward.
G – Goodwill. Nearly a year since disgraced Pitt football coach Michael Haywood was fired just a few days on the job after domestic abuse allegations, Pitt defensive lineman Chas Alecxih lashed out at his short-tenured coach saying he was a real prick and that in the first meeting he came in with a wrinkled suit that was the worst Alecxih had ever seen. He predicted that Haywood picked it up at Goodwill.
H – Highest Paid. With the news that Urban Meyer landed a $4 million annual contract to coach the Buckeyes, here are the three coaches who will make more than him next season, Bob Stoops, Oklahoma ($4.08 million), Nick Saban, Alabama ($4.69 million) and Mack Brown ($5.19 million).
I – Indianapolis. The week leading up to the inaugural Big Ten Championship Game began with speculation the conference was paying people $75 to help fill what should be a rather empty Lucas Oil Stadium. Someone posted a prank ad on craigslist looking for seat-fillers for a Saturday night in Indianapolis, asking them to wear red or dark green. The prank was obviously geared towards the Wisconsin/Michigan State game, where thousands of seats are available for below $10 on secondary markets. The conference actually had to Tweet the following: "Fans, the Big Ten is NOT paying fans to attend," which will go down as the unintentionally funniest tweet of all time.
J – Jersey. It took Deron Williams only 15 games to go down as the greatest player in Besiktas (the professional team he was playing for in Turkey while awaiting the NBA lockout to conclude) history. The team announced that it was retiring Williams' No. 8 jersey after averaging 21.8 points and 6.5 assists per games over five long weeks of basketball. Williams is now returning to the NBA where prerequisites are a little stingier to get your jersey retired.
K – Kicker peeing. The NFL, which has a policy on everything from the length of your socks to the colors and brands of your gloves and shoes, apparently has no policy on whipping your junk out on the sideline of the game and taking a leak. NFL spokesperson Greg Aiello confirmed that there is no such policy on players urinating on the sidelines. The issue was brought to the attention of the world after San Diego Chargers kicker Nick Novak was spotted by CBS cameras, kneeling down and peeing while a trainer held a towel in front of him. No idea why the cameras decided to focus on this. While Tim Tebow was "Tebowing" up and down the field leading Denver to an overtime win, Novak was "Peebowing" on the sideline. The strategy failed as Novak missed a potential game-winning field goal, pissing off all the San Diego fans.
L – Lindsey Vonn. Olympic skier and Sports Illustrated cover girl (the one bending over in her skies in spandex a few months ago), Lindsey Vonn has started divorce proceedings with her husband of four years. So Vonn is back on the market and the polarizing debate can begin once again, is Vonn hot or just hot for a skier?
M – Mike Francesa. The New York area sports talk radio host was talking about the Tennessee Titans shot in the AFC wild card hunt, but instead he called it the “wild hard cunt” on live radio, which is funny on so many levels.
N – Ndamukong Suh. Detroit Lions unapologetic troublemaker, Ndamukong Suh (often pronounced Dominic or Donkey Kong by sports commentators) has been suspended two games by the NFL for mistaking Ford Field for WWE Hell in a Cell. Suh now has to go before an appeals officer, and this is the best part of the story. The appeals officer is Art Shell, who apparently still has a job in football. Shell is the former two-time coach of the Oakland Raiders. Shell is most famous for being the only person to get fired from the same job twice.
O – ‘Over/Under’. For anyone that says defense wins championships, I offer you this, Boston College was 1-10-1 'UNDER' this season and finished 4-8 overall. For anyone that says offense sells tickets, I offer you this. Arizona State went 10-2 'OVER' this season and went 6-6 and fired their coach mostly because of a lack of fan support.
P – Panettiere, Hayden. Hayden Panettiere, the 22-year-old 5-foot-1 bombshell, is doing her best Kim Kardashian impersonation. After dating heavyweight boxing ogre Wladimir Klitschko for a year, Panettiere has now been linked to two New York Jets. In the summer she was linked to quarterback Mark Sanchez, although she denied it. On Sunday in a 28-24 Jets win over the Bills, Panettiere was spotted in the front row chugging beers with New York Jets wide receiver Scotty McKnight, who was placed on the injured reserve. So Panettiere downgraded from the starting quarterback to a practice squad wide receiver who is out for the year and watching the games in the stands.
Q – Questionable votes. ESPN college football "expert" Craig James has Boise State ranked No. 24 in his AP ballot and Arkansas ranked No. 3. Boise State is 10-1 with the 51st-ranked schedule. It beat Georgia by 14 points on the road. James has two-loss Georgia ranked 11th. The Broncos played a tougher schedule than Virginia Tech (who James ranked fourth), Houston (who James ranked fifth), Michigan State (who James ranked 12th) and Wisconsin (who James ranked 13th). No word on what sport James thought he was voting for.
R – Rick's Cabaret. Former NBA midget Spud Webb is still in basketball, sort of. The 5-foot-7 Webb has been named the coach of Rick's Cabaret/New York City, a basketball team full of strippers. Webb's team will "compete" against the likes of Minneapolis Downtown Cabaret and Tootsie's Cabaret in Miami. I'm surprised Webb didn’t take his talents to South Beach to coach Tootsies. Webb somehow kept a straight face when he said of his team, "These ladies are fabulous and have obvious talents and skills."
S – Sideline spat. Eagles’ assistant coaches Marty Mornhinweg and Jim Washburn got into a heated verbal exchange on the sideline during the Eagles game against New England on Sunday. The two had to be separated. The weird thing is this happened when the Eagles were up 10-0. I don’t want to know what happened between the two after the Eagles ended up losing 38-20.
T – Tony Sparano. Entering the season Miami Dolphins coach Tony Sparano was the odds-on favorite to be the first coach fired at –200. But even after an 0-7 start Miami stuck with the beleaguered coach at the outrage of people who wagered on him. This week the Jaguars dropped the ax on Jack Del Rio, who was +800 to be the first NFL coach fired this season. That is a backdoor cover if I've ever seen one.
U – UNLV fans. North Carolina coach Roy Williams was as mad at his team as he was at some UNC fans. After his top-ranked Tar Heels were stunned against UNLV as nine-point favorites, Williams lashed out at the UNC fans, who sold their tickets directly behind the UNC bench, to Runnin’ Rebel fans. "I don’t care who it is, I'll tell the sucker face-to-face," Williams lashed out. "If you sell your tickets that you get from the Ram's Club to somebody else…then I've got no use for you."
V – Valentine. Bobby Valentine is the next manager of the Boston Red Sox. He is also allegedly the inventor of the wrap sandwich. Valentine opened up Bobby Valentine's Sports Gallery Café in 1980 in Stamford, Connecticut. According to the skipper, he had to improvise one day when a toaster was broken, so he rolled all the sandwich ingredients into a tortilla. The rest is history, although it is unlikely anyone actually believes Bobby. This is kind of like the time when Al Gore said he invented the Internet, except wraps taste better.
W – Wayne's daughter. The best thing to ever hit Twitter, half-naked pitchers of Wayne Gretzky’s daughter Paulina Gretzky, was nearly gone forever. The Twitter account of Paulina, aka the other Great One, disappeared shortly after her final Tweet, "Having a nice sit down dinner with my dad about social media..haha." The busty Paulina would routinely post pictures of herself partying and in various degrees of clothing. Many thought those pictures were a thing of the past unless you saved them to your hard drive each time she would post one, not that anyone would do such a thing…. But on Wednesday night all of mankind rejoiced when Pauline reactivated her account and tweeted, "Hi everyone I'm back! But shhh don't tell my dad.” Poor Wayne, lucky us.
X – XXX. A month after the Jerry Sandusky scandal broke, Penn State has finally decided to get ahead of the curve. The University is buying up as many .xxx domain names it can associated with the University. Starting Dec. 6, .xxx domain names will be available to accommodate the growing world of porn. Penn State went ahead and purchased, PennState.xxx, PSU.xxx, NittanyLions.xxx, and ThePennsylvaniaStateUniversity.xxx. Each name cost the university $200 and the price includes other trademarked names like nittanylions.xxx or JoePaternosbasement.xxx, etc.
Y – Youngest. The Pakistani guy who bought the Jacksonville Jaguars, Shahid Khan, is 61 years old. That got us thinking, how old are other owners in the NFL. Khan is over twice as old as the youngest NFL owner, 30-year old Jed York, owner of the San Francisco 49ers. And York is less than a third of the age of the oldest owner in the NFL, Ralph Wilson, the 93-year old owner of the Buffalo Bills who may have been born around the same time as Bills coach Chan Gailey.
Z – Zero chances. Those are basically the odds of the Colts winning this week in New England with Dan "I safetied myself by accident" Orlovsky at quarterback. The 21.5-point underdog Colts actually have 14/1 odds to win the game, which is just ludicrous if you think about. According to Todd Fuhrman of Caesar's, it would be even worse if the Colts visited Lambeau field where they would be getting 24 points!
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