BTW - no one has talked about the ref lately in the NFL.
We all know that 300 million dollars changed hands with the Packer loss. But the oddity is that in the last 6 minutes of the game massive amounts of money were being put on Seattle.
The replacement refs have not been vetted!! Who is to say that they are not skewing the games on purpose!! just sayin.
What worry's me is that my Bridgejumper system picks alot of away dogs!! Well 43% are away teams (winning at 63%). and the other 57% are home teams (winning at 64%).
Sadly I was so right about the Eagles - sorry man. If it;'s any consolation Bridgejumper leans towards the Eagles this week.
ANYWAY -
"B" game Away Dog Tennessee +12.5 over Houston That's all - the least amount of games since 2009. Week one games are 32-17 for 65%.
On a side note I have money Cleveland +12 vs. Baltimore and $$ on Nebraska -12.5.
BTW - remember I put $$ on Atlanta at 16/1 to win the SB. It's now at 6/1. The Packers went from 6/1 to 8/1 after the last game . I also have a BUNCH of . . peanuts on Obama winning from 2009.
There is a good article in the Kansas City Star and I'll copy a little here - good read
This NFL referee lockout has raced past annoyance, blown past scandal, and has now become the cardinal sin that sports leagues previously reached only by cancelling the World Series or entire seasons:
They’re making fans feel stupid for being fans.
And that’s unforgiveable. We don’t ask much as sports fans, and good thing, because in most ways the game is rigged against us. The most passionate of us care more than we should and probably more than is financially responsible. But we do it because it feels good, because that’s what our fathers did, and that’s what our friends do and at some point it becomes more than just liking a team or sport and more about liking this part of our life we can’t imagine giving up.
And then a league that already prints money fights over the equivalent of chewing gum money and reminds us how silly we all are for caring this much about what is transparently a cold-hearted business.
Fans give so much to their sports. Time. Energy. Money. In return we ask to not be taken advantage of, not be embarrassed, not made to feel silly for the investment.
This past week of NFL games will be remembered as the tipping point, when replacement officials went from missing basic calls to flubbing outcomes of games. There is no indication that it will speed up a resolution of the referee work stoppage, but public opinion has clearly shifted that the games are now diminished.
This being 2012, it has created a sort of counter-culture of reaction to all the hand-wringing and anger, and some people are deciding instead to enjoy and laugh at the absurdity of it all.
That’s probably the most sane way to deal with it. Instead of feeling our blood boil at the soiling of something we put so much into, maybe we’d all be better off appreciating the perverse entertainment of something so enormous in our country being so openly crushed by public opinion.
Laughter is our best way to cope, after all.
It’s just that here, it feels like the joke is on us. Shame on the NFL for letting it go this far.
They’re making fans feel stupid for being fans.
And that’s unforgiveable. We don’t ask much as sports fans, and good thing, because in most ways the game is rigged against us. The most passionate of us care more than we should and probably more than is financially responsible. But we do it because it feels good, because that’s what our fathers did, and that’s what our friends do and at some point it becomes more than just liking a team or sport and more about liking this part of our life we can’t imagine giving up.
And then a league that already prints money fights over the equivalent of chewing gum money and reminds us how silly we all are for caring this much about what is transparently a cold-hearted business.
Fans give so much to their sports. Time. Energy. Money. In return we ask to not be taken advantage of, not be embarrassed, not made to feel silly for the investment.
Major League Baseball violated that trust by cancelling the 1994 World Series. The NBA violated it by employing a referee involved in a point scandal. The NHL violated it by cancelling the entire 2004-05 season and is in danger of doing it again with its current lockout.
And now the NFL is violating it by trading a sliver of negotiating leverage for a product that fans can trust and feel good about investing themselves in.
The NFL is our nation’s most powerful and invincible entertainment giant, strong enough to thrive through the Great Recession and continue to grow even while evidence stacks that the sport is literally killing people.
Football is bulletproof, in other words, and dang it if the suits in charge aren’t hell-bent on proving it.
You know things are bad when the commissioner of the Lingerie Football League announces it fired referees who are now replacement NFL officials. Or when the artist formerly known as Snoop Dogg (I can’t bring myself to call him Snoop Lion) talks about how you wouldn’t pay money to see replacement rappers.
Or when an online sportsbook releases a statement chastising the league, and another one refunds lost bets on a bogus outcome. Or when Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers, one of the league’s most marketable and well-known players, puts the NFL on blast, articulating and acknowledging fan frustration in a way that commissioner Roger Goodell — to whom it should matter more than anyone — never will.
This is about more than just the Monday night embarrassment, too. The 49ers used two challenges they didn’t have. In two other games, referees walked off too many yards for penalties. Darius Heyward-Bey left a game on a stretcher from a helmet-to-helmet hit that wasn’t flagged. Dolphins tight end Anthony Fasano was given a catch near the goal line that held up after review, even though the ball hit the ground.
The Chiefs’ win over the Saints had five plays overturned by replay.
The Ravens won a prime-time game when the game-winning field goal try soared over the goal posts, close enough that it appeared it would’ve hit the upright. The referees ruled the kick good, and they may very well be right, but the point is that nobody can fully trust this bunch with such a critical (and non-reviewable) play.
Regular refs miss calls too, of course, and they should share the blame in a negotiation that by all accounts is going nowhere. But the ultimate responsibility to “protect the shield” is with the NFL itself, and this isn’t about perfection with officials as much as it’s about competence.
Players openly talk about bending the rules with the substitute teachers in charge, games are approaching four hours with all the replays, and now guys normally terrified of Goodell’s judge-jury-and-appellate-court control of league justice openly mock and criticize their boss.
We care more than we should about these outcomes, of course, but usually the reminders about perspective and it’s-only-a-game come in the wake of real human tragedy.
Usually, the reminders don’t come from a $9 billion industry holding out for the equivalent of a handful of Personal Seating Licenses.
This past week of NFL games will be remembered as the tipping point, when replacement officials went from missing basic calls to flubbing outcomes of games. There is no indication that it will speed up a resolution of the referee work stoppage, but public opinion has clearly shifted that the games are now diminished.
This being 2012, it has created a sort of counter-culture of reaction to all the hand-wringing and anger, and some people are deciding instead to enjoy and laugh at the absurdity of it all.
That’s probably the most sane way to deal with it. Instead of feeling our blood boil at the soiling of something we put so much into, maybe we’d all be better off appreciating the perverse entertainment of something so enormous in our country being so openly crushed by public opinion.
Laughter is our best way to cope, after all.
It’s just that here, it feels like the joke is on us. Shame on the NFL for letting it go this far.
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I'm waiting in line for the new iPhone 10
And way to go Samsung Galaxy phone. Their commercial is outstanding.
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