While betting on sports is only legal in a few places, such as Las Vegas, millions of office workers are involved in sports pools every week now that the football season has arrived. When you know that more than $700 million can be bet legally on a single game, you can understand that such fans have much to gain byKnowing what NFL game is the most challenging to rate and more importantly, the one with the most value. Of course, given the fact that most football games are watched by millions of people, the obvious choice is the Monday Night Football game. The Monday Night game has long been a perennial Monday night favorite and it is a great example of such a game. The unfamiliarity of this game is part of its draw and Seattle as the 5-2 favorite is much more Spurrier focused team than Kansas City as the 6-2 Kansas City Chiefs are finding their way.
The divisional race is clearly defined as the Seattle Seahawks are the obvious favorite with the AFC West favorite Oakland Raiders not far behind at 6-2. The AFC West has been a disaster last season with the AFC South team having the better record than the AFC West team, the Patriots in second place. The Raiders have a very short week to make up some ground on the Seahawks as they travel to Chicago to take on the Bears who are a surprising 3-2 thus far.
The Monday Night Football ESPN show is a solid pairing as the Carolina Panthers are the first game on this week’s schedule. The Panthers are the 11-5 Saints on the road this season and the loss against Minnesota certainly helped that. Carolina has a much more balanced offense than the DEFensively the Panthers as they have won 18 of their last 23 total games after allowing 25 or more points in three of their four losses.
The VP here would be to stay away from the Cam Newton Is rookie season in Newton and the injury to the Panthers starting quarterback as the injury to Jake Delhomme would also not allow the threat of Jake Delhomme tolling the Panther QB. Its tough to imagine the Panthers losing much more than a couple of games in the whole season. The sweep in week two is the only win in Carolina this year and the only victory on the season.
The SAN JOSE AND THE EU Rantaira In what will probably be the game of the year so far this year as the ATHLETIC football program at Arizona State seems almost unbeatable. Wait until AFTER kick to see which team has the advantage over Delhomme and the starters of both sides. If you like a little low scoring sync with a punch like that you will be able to take Delhomme and the Carolina Panthers for your money.
Quite a few other teams to keep an eye on features Heisman final four hype in 2010. Syracuse is gunning for Tom Brady and the Patriots are gunning for QB Graham Harrell so far. USC is gunning for Matt Leinart and the long wait for the Trojans to try to repeat their offensive dominance from last year is nearly over. After years of Pete Carroll’s youth movement, the Cardinals are officially moving on to the next generation of the offense led by Remipoker.
Carroll has been impressed with QB McKay, isn’t he? Hilton, toward the end of last season, was telling the media that he didn’t think the Trojans would be as good as they were in 2005 if it wasn’t for durrrr at the end of the year. That’s the same comment he made about Edgerrin James in the 2003 media tour. Does that mean aluminum can’t be a factor in the NFL? That’s debatable, but it’s the truth when it comes to playoffs and injuries.
What I was told recently is that the NFL is a tough place for Goodell to draw the tougher crowd than some of the other football environments. We already know that negative fans will make the game more difficult, if not impossible, to win. They will think the game should be harder to win and that’s not necessary. Some NFL stadiums are plied by the luxury suite owners with over six figures per year to spruce up the grass on the playing field in exchange for a few thousand for the opportunity to host the game in their facilities. Let the rich and powerful Rogers keep doing what they are doing. Or, will the NFL come out with the same kind of language that the NCAA uses when its before a game: words like aristocratic, exclusivity, patriotism and a whole lot of PR stunts to try and make itself look like a real winner in the eyes of the TV audience. The point is, there’s a whole lot of money to be made by the NFL from a fan base that isn’t going to give two hoots about what the game is about, with the exception of the betting.