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Ex-Dolphin Jason Taylor, Jets agree to 2-year dealFootball Betting Lines04/21/2010 - NEW YORK (AP) -Let this sink in for a moment Jets fans: Jason Taylor is now one of yours. Yep, the same player who has called you ignorant and classless, and said your ``J-E-T-S!'' chant was dumb. The guy who has been the target of your boos for years. Well, it's time to forgive and forget. The former Miami Dolphins linebacker-defensive end agreed to terms with the AFC East-rival Jets on a two-year contract Tuesday, bolstering a defense that ranked No. 1 in the league last year. ``Do I expect them to hate me some? Sure,'' Taylor said. ``We've had a long history of going back and forth. We lost a lot of games to those guys for a few years. That wasn't fun. I was a big boy, and I always came back and added more fuel to it. It's a rivalry. That's the way it's supposed to be.'' The 2006 NFL Defensive Player of the Year visited the Jets two weeks ago but left without a deal, pondering whether to sign with New York or wait to see if Miami would re-sign him after the draft. After vacationing in Costa Rica last weekend, Taylor decided to go with Rex Ryan and the Jets. ``The Jets have given me an opportunity to play,'' said Taylor, the NFL's active sacks leader. ``They want me there. It's pretty flattering and humbling that I'm the free agent they want to go after: a 35-year-old defensive end-linebacker from Miami who has been a pain in their butt.'' Jets nose tackle Kris Jenkins said Taylor will be embraced by the team. ``I think he will be a great addition to the team with his athleticism, experience, and wisdom,'' Jenkins told The Associated Press in an e-mail. ``We have had time to get past the fishy smell of his past, but now he will be enveloped with the fragrant smell of Jet fuel! Go Jets!'' At a 30-minute news conference at his foundation's offices in Weston, Fla., Taylor said he feared the Jets' offer would be the only one he would receive. ``There is no other offer,'' he said. ``It's this or go join the Nationwide Tour with Jerry Rice, and I'm not very good at golf.'' Taylor, who had surgery on his right shoulder in February, has 127 1/2 career sacks in 13 seasons. He provides the Jets with a proven pass rusher who should fit right into Ryan's aggressive 3-4 defensive scheme as a hybrid linebacker-defensive end. Ryan also said Taylor would participate in the team's voluntary workouts. ``Clearly, this is one of the premier players in the game, one of the premier pass rushers in the game,'' Ryan said. ``We expect Jason to play a bunch and be a major contributor to our defense.'' Because of the league's ``Final Eight'' restrictions, the Jets could pay Taylor only $1.75 million in base salary this season - the amount unrestricted free agent kicker Jay Feely signed for with Arizona after leaving New York. The former ``Dancing With the Stars'' contestant - Taylor finished runner-up to Kristi Yamaguchi in 2008 - wanted to stay in Miami. He said the Dolphins offered him an extension last November, then withdrew the proposal before the season ended, made no offer since and gave him no reason for the lack of interest in a new deal. Taylor said he had a meeting scheduled last week with coach Tony Sparano, but the Dolphins canceled it. ``If I was important enough that you wanted me in November, why wouldn't you want me now?'' Taylor said. Long considered an enemy while with the Dolphins as part of one of the NFL's most intense rivalries, Taylor will try to endear himself to the same fans who despised him, the way Brett Favre did in Minnesota or Donovan McNabb hopes to do in Washington. A few early season sacks might do the trick. ``I look at it this way: What was the kind of impact Roger Clemens had?'' Ryan said. ``He was a Red Sox and went over to the Yankees and helped out there. I kind of look at Johnny Damon with the same type of deal. ``So, if Jason could have the same impact on the Jets as those players had on the Yankees and we win a championship, I think we'll all be happy.'' Either way, it's the latest headline-grabbing acquisition by the Jets, who have clear intentions of making a Super Bowl run this season after losing in the AFC championship game to Indianapolis in January. Already loaded with story lines for its appearance on HBO's ``Hard Knocks'' during training camp this summer, New York has also signed running back LaDainian Tomlinson and safety Brodney Pool, and traded for wide receiver Santonio Holmes and cornerback Antonio Cromartie. ``Rex is the master at putting together different personalities,'' quarterback Mark Sanchez said at a predraft event in Manhattan. While his best days are clearly behind him, the Jets believe Taylor still has plenty left - at least for a season. He had seven sacks, an interception, three forced fumbles and a fumble return for a touchdown - against the Jets - last season. ``I think I have a lot to offer, but I think there's only two of us that think that: me and Rex,'' Taylor said. ``But, we'll see. There are no guarantees in this game.'' --- AP Sports Writers Rick Freeman in New York and Steven Wine in Miami contributed to this report.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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FOOTBALL BETTING LINESNFL Football Sports BettingTwo playoff teams from 2007 take center stage on the NFL Network Sunday night in a Week 2 NFL betting match-up when the (0-1) New England Patriots betting head south to Florida for a contest with the (1-0) Tampa Bay Buccaneers. New England HC Bill Belichick couldn’t care less about the way his team plays in the preseason. With a chance to tie last week’s game with the Baltimore Ravens betting, He elected to go for the two-point conversion and outright victory. The conversion failed, and the Pats ended up falling to the Ravens by a 16-15 final count. New England rolled off twelve unanswered points to give it a chance at securing the victory, but it never threatened to cover the 3.5-point spread. NFL bettors saw this one coming, as they bet the Ravens down from +6 to +3.5 as the week progressed. QB Tom Brady didn’t take part in the Patriots first preseason clash, but could see action this weekend. His three replacements all put up embarrassing numbers. They went a combined 17 for 33, and threw three interceptions and no touchdowns. The New England defense was encouraging, as they held the Ravens to 2/12 third down conversions and surrendered just ten first downs. That ‘D’ should be bolstered with the addition of former Bucs and Denver Broncos betting safety John Lynch, who could make his Patriots debut on Sunday against his former mates. HC Jon Gruden had to be impressed with the way his Bucs played on both sides of the ball in their dominating 17-6 victory over the Miami Dolphins in Week 1’s NFL pre-season betting action. Bucs bettors were quite happy with the effort, as they made a mockery of the fact that they were underdogs in the game. The logjam at the quarterback position didn’t get any easier to separate for Gruden, as all four of his QBs had positive experiences in the first exhibition of 2008. The four combined to complete 28 of their 40 passes for 204 yards and a touchdown, and that was without starting QB Jeff Garcia in the lineup. RB Michael Bennett had 19 carries and four receptions, totaling 90 yards and a touchdown. Expect to see more of Bennett, Kenneth Darby, and Earnest Graham, as they all compete for playing time with Warrick Dunn in the backfield this season. Defensively, the Bucs recorded four sacks and held the Fins offense in check all day. First round draft pick Aqib Talib was impressive in the secondary, recording a tackle and two pass defenses in his debut. Don’t be surprised to see Talib in the starting lineup opposite Ronde Barber for the Bucs in ’08. The betting trends suggest that NFL bettors should be backing the Bucs in this intra-conference exhibition. These two teams hooked up last year in Tampa Bay, with the Bucs winning that game 13-10. The Buccaneers have only lost one preseason game at home dating back to the beginning of the ’05 preseason. The Patriots have had a mixed bag of results in their recent exhibitions. They have gone 2-2 ATS and SU each of the last three years. New England currently sits as modest 1-point favorites in this preseason showdown with the ‘total’ now sitting at 34.5. You can find these lines and all of the NFL betting lines , so be sure to login and get your wagers down before kickoff! Note: Monday night game will be picked Monday. Lines used are from football betting lines .
Sportsbook Betting LinesWho Makes the Sportsbook Betting Lines?Las Vegas Sports Consultants (LVSC) is the world’s premier oddsmaking company and the most respected authority on making the lines. Mike Seba is a Senior Oddsmaker at LVSC and has been making lines for the last six years. In our extended interview, Seba explained that there are 4-5 oddsmakers assigned to make lines for each of the major sports (pro & college football and basketball; MLB, NHL, boxing, golf). Each of these oddsmakers bring unique opinions, strengths and weaknesses to the process. Oddsmakers at LVSC are professional sports junkies who love what they do and would probably do it for nothing if you asked them, but they do get paid for it. By necessity their approach is very research-oriented and concise, since with millions of dollars at risk there is little margin for error. “You either have a passion for it or you don’t,” Seba said. “The #1 thing for us is to make a line for each game that creates good two-way action. We do this by drawing from past experiences and applying them to current situations. People think it’s much more complicated, but it’s not. “What are the Football Betting Lines Trying to Accomplish?There is a common misconception that point spreads represent the oddsmakers’ prediction of how many points the favorite will win by. That is not the case at all – their intent is NOT to evenly split the ATS result between the teams; rather, their goal is to attract equal betting action on both sides. Stated another way, they want to create a line that half the people find appealing to bet one way while the other half find it appealing to bet the other way (known as ‘dividing the action’).Divided action means the sportsbook is guaranteed a profit on the game because of the fee charged to the bettor (called juice or vig – typically $11 bet to win $10). How the Opening Line Is MadeThe opening line is the first line created by the oddsmakers, which is then sent out to sportsbooks. Of course there is an entire method to the madness on how the opening line is created. Seba explained that it all starts with each oddsmaker creating a line on each game based upon their own personal approach. This usually includes having up-to-date power ratings on each team.Power ratings are the oddsmaker’s value of each team and are used as a guide to calculate a "preliminary" pointspread on an upcoming game. The power ratings are adjusted after each game a team plays. Examples of non-game factors that would require an adjustment to a team's power rating are key player injuries and player trades. Once a game’s power rating based pointspread is determined, the oddsmaker will make adjustments to that line after considering each team's most recent games played and previous games played against that opponent. Also, adjustments are made after reading each team’s local newspapers to get a sense of what the coaches & players are thinking going into the game.Since the oddsmaker’s ultimate goal is equally dividing the sports betting action, public perception and sportsbook betting patterns must be taken into account. For example, the public might have heavy betting interest week after week on a popular college football betting team such as USC. If an oddsmaker comes up with a preliminary line of USC -7, then an adjustment up to -7.5 or -8 would be made in response to the public’s expected USC bias. The last step in the line-making process for each oddsmaker is taking one final look to determine whether or not the line "feels right." This is where common sense and past experience with how games are bet enters into the picture.A round-table discussion among the 4-5 oddsmakers involved in making the line for each sport is then conducted and a consensus line is decided upon by the Odds Director before it is released to the sportsbooks. Of the 4-5 oddsmakers, generally the 2 most respected opinions are weighed more heavily by the Odds Director before he decides on the final line. Why Sports Betting Lines ChangeOnce the opening line is released by LVSC, the individual sportsbooks decide if they want to make any adjustments before offering it to the public. Reasons for such adjustments include:Experts working for the individual books having a strong opinion on the game Individual books having players who consistently bet with certain tendencies (such as an extreme bias toward favorites or toward a certain popular team like USC)The purpose of these adjustments, like all line adjustments, is to more equally divide the betting action. Once betting begins, sportsbooks can adjust the line at any time. In doing so they attempt to make more attractive the team that is getting less action. By moving the line, sportsbooks can influence how the public bets on a particular game.For example, if the pointspread on a game is 7 and most of the money is coming in on the underdog (taking the +7), sportsbooks will then move the number down to 6 ½ to try and attract money on the favorite. Moving the line is the oddsmaker's effort to balance betting action, and often times such moves can have a major impact on a bettor’s decision. Oddsmakers can also change the line depending on various event-related factors such as player injuries or weather. Obviously, if the line comes out a week ahead of the event (which is the case in football), there is much that could happen during the week leading up to the event that could affect the line. Oddsmakers have to determine if any changes are necessary and send out an "adjusted line."“The main objective is that our clients get equal action on both sides,” Seba said. “We’re not trying to pick the team that covers the spread, we’re trying to make it a coin flip, a tough decision (for the bettor). If we’ve done that, we’ve done our job.” To visit this internet sportsbook got to MySportsbook.com for all your sports betting needs and World Series odds. |
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