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Brees brings home MVP to the Big EasyFootball Betting Lines02/08/2010 - Miami, FL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - In a city that has struggled in both the world of sports and in day-to-day life, Drew Brees has brought a smile to the faces of the New Orleans residents. The party will be rocking for the next few days in the Big Easy and Brees will be the guest of honor as his performance in Super Bowl XLIV garnered him the Most Valuable Player award. With Mardi Gras less than 10 days away, New Orleans doesn't need any excuse for a good time, but Sunday's 31-17 win over Indianapolis and Brees' MVP award gives the city even more of an excuse and helps to further erase the memories of the 2005 Hurricane Katrina disaster that destroyed much of the city and even damaged the Superdome where the Saints play. Moreover, it gives a franchise that was once known as the 'Aints and whose fans wore brown paper bags over their heads a chance to lift those heads high. "We played for so much more than just ourselves," Brees said. "We played for our city, we played for the entire Gulf Coast region. We played for all the entire Who Dat? nation who was behind us every step of the way. We've been blessed with so much and just to have this opportunity is unbelievable." On the game-winning drive, Brees went 7-for-7 for 44 yards with a two-yard strike to Jeremy Shockey followed by a two-point conversion toss to Lance Moore giving the team a 24-17 lead with 5:42 to play. Tracy Porter's 74-yard interception return for a touchdown on the Colts' ensuing touch sealed the win. For the game, Brees went 32-for-39 with 288 yards and two touchdowns with a 114.5 quarterback rating. His 32 completions tied a Super Bowl record. On his other touchdown pass, it was a 16-yard short screen pass to Pierre Thomas that gave the Saints a 13-10 lead early in the third quarter after the team opted for an onsides kick, which they recovered, to start the second half. The game featured two of the best quarterbacks in the NFL in Brees and Peyton Manning, who is a four-time league MVP and won the MVP in a Super Bowl XLI victory over Chicago. However, it was Brees who was flawless in this game as he never turned over the ball and Manning's late interception doomed any chances of the Colts winning the Super Bowl for the second time in the past four years. Originally a second-round pick of San Diego in the 2001 draft, Brees spent his first five seasons with the Chargers and had productive years, but after the 2005 season he refused a contract offer by the Chargers and opted to sign with New Orleans. "I felt like coming to New Orleans was a calling and that God puts you in positions for a reason," Brees said. "At the time you may ask yourself, 'I'm not sure, but I trust you.' I know that me coming to New Orleans and having an opportunity there was definitely a calling and it was an opportunity not many people get in their entire life to be able to come to a city like that that had just been devastated by a natural disaster." Since then he has exploded in the bayou as he has thrown for over 4,300 yards and 26 touchdowns in each of his four seasons with New Orleans. In 2008, he had a 5,069-yard performance with 34 touchdowns, garnering the Offensive Player of the Year award. "Four years ago, who ever thought this would be happening," Brees said. "When 85 percent of the city was under water, all of its residents evacuated to places all over the country, most people not knowing New Orleans would ever come back or if the organization as a team would ever come back." This past season he guided the team to wins in the first 13 games and the Saints finished with a 13-3 record as he threw for 4,388 yards and 34 touchdowns. He then went on to lead the Saints to a 45-14 pasting of Arizona in the divisional round of the NFC playoffs and a 31-28 overtime win over the Brett Favre-led Minnesota Vikings in the NFC Championship game.
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Miami Gardens, FL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Raise your umbrella and your Hurricane glass to the New Orleans Saints, who are Super Bowl XLIV champions because they were flat-out better than the Colts in an incredible, exhilarating upset victory that ca
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SPORTS BETTING - Tennis is an underrated and under-utilized bettors' sport.Ten years ago, at just about this time, I called Alan Boston in Vegas and left him a voicemail that went something like this (abridged version): "Hey Alan, Chad Millman from ESPN The Magazine calling. I want to do a book about wise guys, you in?" A couple weeks later I got a message back (abridged version): "I don't know, maybe," Boston said. "Call me and we'll talk about it. But not later today. I got $1,000 on Andre Agassi to win the French Open at 40-1, and he's in the finals."
Here's what happened next (abridged version): Agassi won his tourney. Boston won his $40,000. I wrote sportsbook. In the ten years since, how much has been wagered on the big-time tennis events? Put it this way: The Nevada Gaming Commission doesn't even track the number year by year because it's so small. "Tennis makes up about one-tenth of one percent of our take," says Lucky's bookmaking boss Jimmy Vaccaro. "The last big golf major we probably had $100,000 worth of bets. In tennis, we might have written two big tickets." But Wimbledon? Doesn't exactly reel in the whales. "Seriously, it's the nuts as an event," says Boston. "But who even knows when it's on?" Here's another reason that helps explain why golf gets traction, something I call "The Bubbe Theory." My Bubbe is pushing 95 and has cataracts so bad that, to her, even the most crystalline Chicago day is mostly cloudy. But she still listens to the Cubs games, and she still calls me in a fit if she disagrees with something Rick Telander writes in the Chicago Sun Times. She's a sports fan. If she doesn't know you, you're just filling a niche. And niche players, even historically good ones like Roger and Raf, don't drive betting volume. Only the highest profile names attract square money, which inflates wagering totals like a shot of saline to the lips. Bubbe, and the public, loved Agassi, tennis' last cross-the-rubicon, mainstream draw. She also has a crush on Tiger. She's given me standing orders to put a sawbuck on the big cat whenever I walk through a sports book (or mistakenly tap into one via my Internet machine.) That explains why the Masters is getting $100K in action at some books while the four tennis majors might not get that combined this year. This isn't a case of tennis being a difficult sport to bet. In fact, in Europe, it's probably the second most popular sport for gambling after soccer. Granted, as the WSJ football betting last week and The Mag's Shaun Assael examined in even greater depth last year, that might be because gamblers across the pond see it as an easy game to fix. But it could also be because, over there it holds the kind of sway the big two do over here. Street corners in Spain are peppered with public courts and kids doing their best Raffy impressions. In some war torn parts of Eastern Europe poverty-stricken kids view tennis as an escape route, like football or basketball here. A couple years ago The Mag's Lindsay Berra wrote a great piece about Belgrade's Jelena Jankovic, Ana Ivanovic and Novak Djokovic. They learned the game as kids while bombs were raining down on their homeland. They practiced in drained swimming pools. Not exactly Nick Bolletierri conditions. In the United States, casual fans think tennis is played four times a year. But on the tightly packed European continent, national interest in homegrown talent runs deep every weekend. Of the ATP's current top 20 players, only two, tennis betting and James Blake, are American. Fourteen are from Europe, representing six different countries. No wonder fans from Lisbon to Bhudapest get jacked up for the net game, whether it's Wimbledon or a low-level tourney like the Estoril Open in Portugal (congrats to Spain's Albert Montanes for winning that one, btw). Chances are good that someone representing their flag will not only be playing, but have a shot at winning. And that's all any bettor can ask for. To visit this sports book go to MySportsbook.com for all your football betting needs. |
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