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Brees and Saints QBs can stand tall, sort ofFootball Betting Lines02/05/2010 - MIAMI (AP) -So much for the notion that only tall quarterbacks are tailor-made for the NFL. Drew Brees shot a big hole in that one. The shortest full-time starting quarterback in the NFL, Brees - all 6 feet of him, which even might be a tiny bit generous - will try to lead the New Orleans Saints to a Super Bowl title on Sunday when they face the Indianapolis Colts (and their 6-foot-5 four-time MVP of a quarterback, Peyton Manning). ``Look at guys like Steve Young, Doug Flutie,'' Saints third-string quarterback Chase Daniel said, referring to two other diminutive, by NFL standards, players who weren't exactly the prototype 6-foot-4, 220-pounders that draftniks rave about. ``We're following in their footsteps.'' True, it might be the Saints coming up biggest on Super Bowl Sunday, with what's likely the smallest array of quarterbacks on any NFL roster. Brees: 6-foot. Daniel: 6-foot. Backup Mark Brunell, he's the giant of the bunch, 6-1. ``We've got to be one of the shortest quarterback groups in the NFL,'' Brunell said. ``It just shows that it's not about the height or your 40 (yard-dash) time or your arm strength. There's other things that are important that go into making a pretty good quarterback. ... It's not just about how tall you are. It's about how tall you play.'' --- RUNNING MAN: Much has been made during Super Bowl week about how the Indianapolis Colts have rushed for fewer yards than any other NFL team this season. Colts coach Jim Caldwell is still raving about running back Joseph Addai. Look past the stats - 219 carries, 828 yards, 10 rushing touchdowns - that Addai put up this season, Caldwell said. The way he sees it, those numbers alone don't come close to measuring Addai's worth, since they don't show how he ran routes out of the backfield and pass-protected for quarterback Peyton Manning. ``He's a guy that has to be able to catch and run after the catch, that's extremely important,'' Caldwell said. ``And he's shown the ability to do all those things. He's an extremely valuable guy for us.'' --- CAJUN STYLE: Forget Democrats. Forget Republicans. These days, James Carville is focused on the New Orleans Saints. ``Right now, I'd rather see the Saints win the Super Bowl more than anything,'' Carville said, when asked whether he'd prefer to see a Democrat in the White House or a Super Bowl ring for New Orleans. The Democratic strategist will be at Sunday's Super Bowl, but conceded he would have rather stayed in New Orleans to watch the title game. ``I hated to leave,'' Carville said. Carville and his wife Mary Matalin are co-chairs of the New Orleans host committee for the 2013 Super Bowl, which will be played in the Louisiana Superdome. How will he hold up Sunday? ``I'm not going to be nervous,'' Carville said in his drawl. ``I'm going to have a nervous breakdown. Fall apart.'' --- WELL, SOMEBODY DOES HAVE TO LOSE: Count on the Super Bowl to bring ``110 percent effort'' from players and some annoying cliches from announcers. So pollsters at Marist College in Poughkeepsie, N.Y., asked people planning to watch the game what all-too-familiar phrases they could do without. ``It's too bad somebody has to lose'' was the most dreaded, cited by more than a third of respondents. ``They'll have to treat this like any other game,'' was No. 2 with a fifth of the votes and ``That's a costly turnover,'' was third. Rounding out the list was ``It all depends on where they spot the ball,'' (14 percent) and ``He'd like to have that one back'' (12 percent). Marist surveyed 730 U.S. residents from Monday through Wednesday. The poll has a margin of error of 4 percentage points. --- FORGET THE GAME: In Canada, the Super Bowl will have people parked in front of their televisions. About half, it turns out, will do so for the ads. The Canadian Press Harris-Decima survey indicates 43 percent of people polled tune in for the commercials and couldn't really care about the game between the Indianapolis Colts and New Orleans Saints. Only 33 percent of Canadians polled said they hoped to watch the Super Bowl, roughly the same percentage who said they would watch the Grey Cup game last November - the championship in the Canadian Football League. Among avid Canadian football fans, the Colts are about a 2-to-1 favorite. The telephone poll of just over 1,000 Canadians was conducted between Thursday and Sunday. It is considered accurate within plus or minus 3.1 percentage points. --- Associated Press Writer Sarah Larimer contributed.Copyright © 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. The information contained in the AP News report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press.
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FORT LAUNDERDALE, Fla. (AP) -Dwight Freeney headed for the elevator in the team hotel, trailed by a few intrepid members of the media.One focused a camera on his ailing right ankle. Another snapped pictures. Yet another jotted down notes.No sign of
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FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) -The Saints recognize how little chance they'll have to win New Orleans' first NFL title if Peyton Manning is, well, Peyton Manning in the Super Bowl.But it works both ways in this matchup of powerhouse passing games. For
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SPORTS BETTING: NFL Football Sportsbook BettingNFL owners, already life's biggest winners, want to try their luck with the lottery.That was the news out of their meetings last week, where team bosses voted unanimously to allow stamping state and local lottery tickets with franchise logos, if, ahem, any governments wanted to do a deal. A shocker: Within days the Pats announced they'd be sponsoring the Massachusetts state lottery, the Skins said they'd slap their sticker on Virginia scratch-offs and the Ravens admitted they were talking to Maryland lottery bosses. In all likelihood, it won't be long before every team is a presenting sponsor of scratch-offs or just plain old pick fives. "The change in policy was approved 32-0," said NFL spokesman Greg Aiello. "So you can expect to see more deals soon." It's a branding opportunity too big for the owners to ignore, and one a couple of dozen baseball franchises have enjoyed for years. The fact the NFL has been slower to act than those slack-brained Seligites is indicative of its complicated relationship with all forms of gambling. Consider this: Last Thursday, as the Pats and the Redskins finalized their new lottery deals, a lawyer representing the NFL argued before Delaware's Supreme Court that the state's newly signed sports betting law should be repealed. The NFL betting is the face of opposition to sports gambling . And as much as it would like to share that responsibility with other leagues, that's not going to happen as long as more than 40% of all money legally wagered on games is bet on football. That's why the Brewers can do a multi-million dollar deal with a local casino, or the Celtics can make their own pact with the Mass lottery, and the response is, "Sweet, let's play." But when the NFL does it the stakes are higher, and everyone from NPR's Frank Deford to the Associated Press to the guys blogging at Deadspin will line up to play gotcha. So I asked Aiello, who surely knew there'd be piling on, how the league can rail against being bait for sports bettors, then allow its franchises to be just that for lotteries, the most insidious and addictive form of gambling around. He emailed me this response: "We are not moral crusaders. NFL personnel are permitted to engage in legal forms of gambling, except for betting on NFL games. We are making a distinction here between the spread of gambling on the outcome of our games and supporting state lottery scratch-off games, that have nothing to do with the outcome of our games." Here's where I should rip him. But, the thing is, he's right. Not to get Obama on you, but this is a complicated, nuanced issue. As much as lotteries are considered a tax on the poor, the NFL isn't a socially obligated government program -- it's just a business. Scratch-off's help the bottom line, sports betting doesn't. Now, it's okay to call the league hypocritical when it releases injury reports, which players have told me only helps bettors … But when it supports other forms of gaming? Big Deal. Now, it's okay to call the league hypocritical when it releases injury reports, which players have told me only helps bettors. And it's okay to mutter something obscene when the league pretends gambling doesn't help drive TV ratings and fan interest and put money in owners' pockets. But when it supports other forms of gaming? Big Deal. The Bears should put an orange "C" on every deck of cards dealt at Harrah's in Joliet; the Eagles should slap their logo on roulette wheels at the Borgata in Atlantic City; the Dolphins should hold training camp at the El San Juan in Puerto Rico. To visit this online sportsbook got to MySportsbook.com for all your Sportsbook accepts MasterCard needs. |
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