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04/26/2010 - Nashville, TN (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Tennessee Titans announced Monday they have agreed to terms with 15 undrafted free agents, including running backs LeGarrette Blount and Stafon Johnson.
Blount played in just three games last season for Oregon, as he spent most of the year under suspension for punching a Boise State player shortly after the conclusion of the September 3 contest, the Ducks' season-opener.
Initially suspended for the season, Blount was reinstated in early November and played in Oregon's last two games of the season.
According to The Tennessean, Blount had agreed to terms with San Francisco before talking to Titans head coach Jeff Fisher, then changed his mind.
"Obviously Blount's signing will create some discussion out there," said Fisher in a statement. "Before making this decision, we talked to a number of people, including LeGarrette and others who know him. He was disciplined for his actions and then met all of the landmarks set in front of him to remain with the team and eventually play again. He was a good college football player, who after talking to a number of people, merits a second chance. Certainly LeGarrette should understand consequences at this point and we have explained what our expectations are for him to be successful with this opportunity."
Johnson, meanwhile, missed most of 2009 after a frightening weight room accident on September 28, when a bar reportedly carrying 275 pounds slipped from his hand and crushed his throat.
Johnson underwent extensive emergency surgery and was eventually released from the hospital in mid-October.
In addition to Blount and Johnson, the Titans agreed to terms with centers Kenneth Alfred and Kevin Matthews, running back Dominique Lindsay, tight ends Gerald Harris and Steve Pfahler, tackle Nick Howell, defensive tackle Joe Joseph, linebackers Jacob Lewko and Patrick Trahan, guard John Malecki, wide receivers Mico McSwain and Bobby Sewall, and fullback Willie Rose.
<< Jaguars' draft heavy on the FCS
Philadelphia, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Jacksonville Jaguars play in the
AFC South, but they seem to be stockpiling players like it's the FCS South.
They're getting close to being able to field an FCS all-star team.
Four of the Jaguars' six
<< Angels' Morales picks up AL weekly honor
New York, NY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim first baseman
Kendry Morales has been selected as the American League Player of the Week for
the period ending April 25.
Morales hit a major-league high .542 with three home
<< Bucs release Hovan, five others
Tampa, FL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Tampa Bay Buccaneers released six players on
Monday, chief among them 10-year veteran defensive tackle Chris Hovan.
Hovan finished 2009, his fifth season with the Buccaneers, with 33 tackles and
half a sac
<< TFC's De Rosario claims MLS Player of the Week
New York, NY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Toronto FC midfielder Dwayne De Rosario was
voted Major League Soccer Player of the Week for Week 5 of the 2010 MLS season
as he supplied the game-winning goal and an assist in Toronto's 2-0 victory
over Se
De La Rosa has MRI done on left middle finger >>
DENVER (AP) -Colorado Rockies starter Jorge De La Rosa had an MRI done on his left middle finger Monday, a day after suffering a bone bruise on his pitching hand.Manager Jim Tracy said the team wanted to determine if the injury was more serious than
Berdych, Ljubicic advance; Ferrero exits Rome >>
Rome, Italy (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Tenth-seeded Tomas Berdych and 11th-seeded
Ivan Ljubicic were a pair of first-round winners, while former world No. 1
Juan Carlos Ferrero came up a loser Monday at the $2.97 million Italian
Masters
Oregon makes Creighton's Altman next basketball coach >>
Eugene, OR (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The University of Oregon has made Creighton's
Dana Altman its next head basketball coach.
The 51-year-old Altman has compiled a 327-176 record in 16 seasons for the
Bluejays. They went 18-16 last seas
No one injured in Hawks' bus accident >>
Milwaukee, WI (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Atlanta Hawks' team bus was involved in
an accident Monday, but no one was injured.
According to a story on the team's website, the bus was hit by a white
Cadillac while leaving the Bradley C
Trash talk has a place in every competitive endeavor (except baseball; those stirrup-wearers are too busy chewing on their sunflower seeds and their supplements to worry about what their opponents are doing).
Fantasy sports is no exception. Any intelligent discussion of the subject would probably start with a thesis statement or a definition of terms. Thankfully, this wont be an intelligent discussion.
Let me just say that I am happy to take a place in this space alongside my talented colleagues, even our commissioner. (You should see how she bleats like a demented paper boy about league fees on our fantasy site).
Trash talking, I would argue, is primarily about amusing your friends, their sheeplike demeanors and sloping foreheads notwithstanding. The best place I have found for football trash talking is at www.SportsAlarm.com.
Beyond the entertainment factor, though, I would recognize that the sophomoric ritual has one advantage, when properly applied. It magnifies your fantasy triumphs and mitigates your fantasy failures by transforming the eventual point total into an afterthought. Winning makes it seem like your opponent really is a truss-owning, lapel-pin-wearing nitwit. And in defeat, trash talk can be the air bag to break the fall from your hyperbolic heights. The plug-necked yahoos on your team, you can say, will be sacking groceries by the end of the season.
The best trash talk, in my view, is layered and nuanced. And it doesnt focus only on your opponents team. It picks apart your opponent. The idea is to create a shock-and-awe-scale blizzard of nonsense, and the goal is to make your opponent drop his hands from his keyboard in exasperation.
What team does your opponent root for? Accuse a Giants fan of having a Joe Namath pillowcase. Wheres your opponent from? Give a look of concern no matter his reply, then say, I'll try to type slower for you next time. Is your opponent into politics? Label everyone a tax-and-spend corporate shill.
Cap all that with a liberal application of irrelevance. For instance, dont just conclude by saying your opponent is a twerp who drafts like my grandmother. Say that your opponent is a sweater-wearing, eyebrow-plucking twerp who drafts his team about as well as Zsa Zsa Gabor gave acceptance speeches at the Oscars. By the time your foe makes sense of that, his starting running back will have had puppies.
But what about you? Hmm? Recall a memorable slam? Have a tried-and-true technique? Know someone who seems impervious to insult? Take a moment and tells us about it. Put together some (fit-for-publication) thoughts. You wont be too busy returning phone messages from your friends, Im sure, to reply.
In addition to the trash talking, the Sports Alarm has a huge gallery of high resolution pictures of beautiful women and models in bikinis. The most popular models are: Lindsay Lohan, Carrie Underwood, Alessandra Ambrosio, and Paris Hilton.
Is there such a thing as a trap game in the NFL?
I once asked that question to Pete Korner, who at the time was office manager and a senior linesmaker for Las Vegas Sports Consultants.
Korner almost ripped my head off. There is no such thing as a trap game, he loudly berated me. It’s a myth. The numbers are made using power ratings, he said.
There are trap games, though. They just might not be what you think. The perception is of a good team, say Philadelphia, laying a small number against New Orleans.
Using the highly-respected power ranking from The Gold Sheet, you’d find the Eagles with a power rating of 4 and the Saints at 8. When you factor the game being played in New Orleans, you could see why the line opened so short at less than a field goal.
For some, this makes it enticing to take the Eagles. That’s not a real trap game, though.
A real trap game, says professional gambler Dave Malinsky, is thinking you’re getting value betting a bad team, which brings us to the Oakland Raiders-Denver Broncos matchup.
The Raiders are +15 in this long-standing division rivalry. Denver is on a short week having dispatched Baltimore Monday. However, the Raiders haven’t covered the spread their last 10 games.
Many bettors don’t trust the Raiders to give a full effort. Few think much of Art Shell and his Oakland’s coaching staff.
So oddsmakers have to do something to make Oakland attractive if they hope to get equal action.
Now Malinsky is a value shopper. But he won’t touch the Raiders even getting more than two touchdowns.
“I try to eliminate the undisciplined, unfocused teams because they’re the ones most likely to suffer the bad beats,” he said.
Near the top of Malinsky’s list of stay-away teams is the Miami Dolphins, who have yet to cover a spread this season.
“Whatever you think of Nick Saban, you have to look at the penalties and turnovers,” Malinsky said.
It’s easy to point out the Dolphins failed to get the money this past week against New England because Olindo Mare missed a field goal and had another field goal blocked. But even though the Dolphins outgained the Patriots, 283-213, they committed eight penalties.
Bad teams not only cost themselves victories, but pointspread covers as well. The Arizona Cardinals and Green Bay Packers are two more examples.
The Cardinals couldn’t have been in a better position this past Sunday, up 14-0 at home against a mediocre Kansas City Chiefs squad. But they couldn’t hold it. The Packers got a push against St. Louis, but also could have won losing by three when Brett Favre fumbled at the St. Louis 11-yard line with 44 seconds left.
“The Packers were in a position to beat Philadelphia, too,” Malinsky said. “But they couldn’t even cover double digits.
“These teams just make mistakes and it costs you … they always will look good from a value standpoint. They really will. But that’s the trap.”
Houston and Tennessee rank among the six-worst teams. Malinsky wouldn’t be afraid to take either of these teams, however, if the price were high enough.
The Texans are bad, Malinsky said, but they have some discipline. The Titans showed they could not only come up with an outstanding game plan, but execute it as well, losing by one to the Colts on the road as an 18 ?-point underdog this past Sunday.
“Jeff Fisher is a worker,” Malinsky said of the Titans coach. “I’m not sure how hard Art Shell wants to work when he gets out of bed.”
Fisher, though, could be out as Tennessee coach after this season. Is he still worth backing in the right spot, with the right price, as a lame duck coach?
“It’s in his nature to keep working hard and not worry about any possible lame duck status,” Malinsky said. “He’s coaching for his resume.”
Note: Monday night game will be picked Monday. Lines used are from football betting lines.
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