Belichick has come a long way
Football Betting Lines
01/30/2012 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Smug, introverted, standoffish.
Those are a few choice words that come to mind when describing New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick. There are plenty of other adjectives used to characterize one of the most successful head coaches in the NFL, however, such as knowledgeable, strategic, supportive and meticulous.
And add appreciative and thankful to the list in painting a picture of the man who has made cut-off hoodies a fashion trend in the NFL. Fortunately, Belichick's attire is no match for the product he puts on the football field, though he admitted that "not for a second" could he ever imagined leading a team to its fifth Super Bowl in 11 years.
"I really just try to live in the moment, whatever that is," Belichick said on reminiscing on past accomplishments upon the Patriots' arrival in Indianapolis for Super Bowl XLVI. "Right now, it's here, and I'm happy to be here, believe me. There's no place I'd rather be.
Other points in time, I was dealing with other challenges, other teams and other situations. I tried to do the best I could in those situations with whatever responsibilities I had. I never really thought too much about where it was going to go."
Belichick reflected on his time with the Baltimore Colts, Detroit Lions, Denver Broncos and New York Giants during his press conference from the team hotel in Indianapolis on Sunday. He mentioned how time consuming it was in dealing with head coaches and players as an assistant, and noted he never took the time to focus on where it would eventually take him.
He also expressed how vital it was to do your job and take care of business before expecting good things to come out of it. If one fails to do those things, Belichick remarked that "you are not really fulfilling your responsibilities to the team and the organization that is counting on you."
Those traits were fostered in Belichick's early years from his father, Steve, who passed away in 2005 after playing both college football and briefly in the NFL. From the time Bill was only four years old, Steve, who was an assistant coach at Vanderbilt University, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the United States Naval Academy, played a major impact on his son's life and his love for football.
The elder Belichick also shared a Gatorade shower with his son, courtesy of linebacker Tedy Bruschi, following a Super Bowl XXXIX win over the Philadelphia Eagles -- the last of three Patriots' championships within a four-year span from 2001-04.
"He had a huge impact on my childhood, my love for the game and my involvement in the game as a coach, even though I played poorly," Bill Belichick said. "It was still a good experience to play, but coaching, really, has always been the love. I think a lot of little things he did [were] in terms of work ethic and teamwork. Being around the Naval Academy, of course, that is a very unique atmosphere, particularly as it relates to football, but the teamwork that comes with that and the commitment that those players and teams have, I saw at a young age."
It's no surprise that Belichick has cradled that teamwork aspect and instilled it within every organization he has been a part of. He was Bill Parcells' defensive coordinator during the New York Giants' first two Super Bowl runs, and many believe that Parcells wouldn't have garnered so much success in the Big Apple had it not been for Belichick's strategies. Belichick's defensive game plan in New York's 20-19 victory over Buffalo in Super Bowl XXV can be found in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
Enter the new millennium, and Belichick's Patriots have been a model of consistency and an organization that other coaches and players are trying to emulate. Expert drafts and key additions through free agency have both played their part in advancing New England to where it is today.
Not known to tip his hand or give opposing teams any kind of leverage for an upcoming matchup, Belichick is already toeing the road to the Hall of Fame by amassing a sizzling 17-6 record in his postseason career. He is tied with Joe Gibbs for the third-most playoff wins in NFL history, trailing only Tom Landry (20) and Don Shula (19). By the way, Gibbs, Landry and Shula all have their busts on display in Canton.
Belichick is also one Super Bowl win away from tying Pittsburgh Hall of Famer Chuck Noll with four as a coach. He was asked on Sunday how accomplishing that feat would make him feel.
"It would make me feel pretty good, he said. "It's a great honor to be mentioned in the same conversation with Chuck. Chuck was the coach of the Steelers the first year I was coach of the Browns. I got to know him my first few years in the league. I coached with several coaches who coached under him at Pittsburgh. I have a tremendous amount of respect for Chuck and the job he did with his team and the organization. So, it is very flattering to be mentioned in the same sentence with Chuck Noll."
Much like Noll had with quarterback Terry Bradshaw, Belichick has had Tom Brady at his side throughout all of his success in New England. That may not have happened if it wasn't for former New York Jets linebacker Mo Lewis, who leveled then-New England starting quarterback Drew Bledsoe in Week 2 of the 2001 season, the year the Pats captured their first of back-to-back Super Bowl titles.
Brady has been the man ever since, and both he and Belichick earned their fifth Super Bowl appearance together -- the most ever by a head coach-quarterback duo -- following New England's 23-20 triumph over Baltimore in the 2011 AFC Championship. Noll and Bradshaw went to four.
Once again, the Patriots will have the Giants standing in their way for NFL supremacy when the two teams meet in Super Bowl XLVI at Lucas Oil Stadium. The Giants, of course, wiped out New England's perfect season back in 2007 with an upset win in Super Bowl XLII, and possess a stout defense that could shake up the Pats' plans for redemption.
Belichick reiterated on several occasions that all of the meetings between the storied franchises in the past carry no weight. He also mentioned how it's all about the current rosters, and that there's not too many coaches and players still around on either side from the previous Super Bowl meeting.
"We are where we are now, and we're different than where we were earlier in the season," said Belichick in referencing New York's 24-20 win over the Patriots back in November. "The Giants are where they are now, and I think they're different than where they were at different points of the season. To take it back years and years before that, I don't think it has too much bearing on anything. The team that wins Sunday will be the team that performs the best. That's what we are trying to strive our preparations for, is maximizing our performance on Sunday night."
As usual, Belichick will put all he has into Sunday's rematch with New York, which is nothing new for a man on the verge of fastening his legacy as a coaching mastermind. It's a foundation of success that was laid when Belichick first learned about the game, and decades later the young boy who sought out advice and knowledge from his father has been passing on that treasure chest of information to his own players and coaches.
With a win on Sunday, perhaps Belichick will finally be able to reflect on where all those years of learning and teaching has taken him.
New York, NY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Miami Heat forward LeBron James and Oklahoma City Thunder guard Russell Westbrook were named the Eastern and Western Conference Players of the Week, respectively, for games played January 23 thro
<< Monmouth to host five in 2012 season
West Long Branch, NJ (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Monmouth University's 2012 football
schedule includes a full slate of Northeast Conference games and a match-up
against a future rival.
Five of the Hawks' 11 games will be at home, including against Rh
<< Nice takes Grandin on loan
Nice, France (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Blackpool midfielder Elliot Grandin has
completed a loan move to Nice in his native France.
The 24-year-old asked to return to his homeland earlier this month because of
a family issue, which Blackpool
<< Coutinho headed to Espanyol on loan
Barcelona, Spain (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Inter Milan midfielder Philippe Coutinho
will spend the rest of the season in Spain on loan at Espanyol.
The Brazil international will join the club on a five-month loan deal with
Espanyol sitting in
<< WPS suspends 2012 season
San Francisco, CA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Women's Professional Soccer announced on
Monday that the league will suspend the 2012 season as a result of its ongoing
dispute with a former owner.
The WPS Board of Governors voted on Monday to suspen
New Rochelle, NY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Iona College has signed men's basketball coach Tim Cluess to a multi-year contract extension. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed, but it is effective as of January 1 of this year and run
ODU standout Cameron added to all-star game >>
Little Rock, AR (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Old Dominion defensive tackle Ronnie
Cameron has been added to the Players All-Star Classic on Saturday.
Cameron was the CAA's defensive player of the year and a first-team selection
on The Sportsbook Betting Lines/F
Bengals WR Simpson pleads not guilty to drug charge >>
Covington, KY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Cincinnati Bengals wide receiver Jerome
Simpson pled not guilty Monday in a Kentucky court to a felony drug charge
stemming from an arrest in September.
Simpson was indicted January 19 on one co
Stampeders re-sign LB Calixte >>
Calgary, AB (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Calgary Stampeders re-signed their
longest-serving player, nine-year non-import veteran linebacker Marc Calixte,
on Monday.
Per club policy, terms of the agreement were not released,
"I'm prou
Pat Burrell retiring after 12 seasons >>
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Pat Burrell is retiring after a 12-year major league
career, according to multiple reports.
Burrell spent the majority of his career with the Philadelphia Phillies, who
selected him with the No. 1 overall pick
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."
Tennis' lack of popularity amongst the American bettoratti is no surprise, really. For starters, the biggest sports betting holidays -- the Super Bowl, the NCAA tourney -- are must see TV. People, at least the degenerates I know, plan vacations around watching those events in Vegas sports books.
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.
COLLEGE FOOTBALL BETTING
NCAA Football Betting : USC's reward: Top spot in Top 25NEW YORK (AP) -By staying away from the cupcakes, Southern California earned itself a slim new ranking.
No. 1 always seems to fit USC.
Southern California jumped two spots to No. 1 in The Associated Press Top 25 on Tuesday, rewarded by voters for opening the season with a dominant performance on the road against a BCS conference opponent.
Georgia and Ohio State, the preseason Nos. 1 and 2, respectively, started their seasons with glorified scrimmages at home against FCS (formerly I-AA) teams. USC, however, traveled across country to face Virginia and could not have been more impressive in a 52-7 victory.
Georgia fell to No. 2 and Ohio State to No 3.
"We realize that rankings so early in a season are certainly fluid. But rankings do help establish a pecking order for things later in the season," USC coach Pete Carroll said in a statement. "As for moving into the No. 1 spot, it's nice to know that people think highly of our team."
Since reaching No. 1 on Dec. 7, 2003, the final-regular season AP poll of that season, USC has been No. 1 in 39 polls, by far the most of any team during that time.
"Some have said the voters are taking our schedule into consideration," Carroll said. "Our philosophy has always been to schedule outstanding opponents. We need to play challenging games like we just did, traveling across the country to open the season at Virginia. Games like that bring out our best and make us stronger as a team."
The latest voting was close. USC received 21 first-place votes and 1,539 points from the 65-member media panel. Georgia had 20 first-place votes and 1,506 points. Ohio State got 15 first-place votes and 1,497 points.
"I'd say we've evolved as pollsters," said Stewart Mandel of SI.com, who moved USC up to No. 1. "In the past, voters just kind of automatically moved teams up and kept teams where they were if they won."
Georgia beat Georgia Southern 45-21 on Saturday and Ohio State opened with a 43-0 win over Youngstown State.
"There's a bit of a growing backlash for the amount of teams that open with I-AA cupcakes," said Mandel, whose book "Bowls, Polls and Tattered Souls" chronicles college football's controversies. "To see a team [USC] go on the road and play a New Year's Day bowl team from last season, and not only play them but destroy them, how could you not reward that team?"
USC also jumped past Georgia to No. 1 in the USA Today coaches' poll, which has the same top five as the AP poll.
"It's definitely a privilege to be No. 1. But it's not heartbreaking to me if we drop," Georgia offensive lineman Josh Davis said. "It doesn't matter right now what we're ranked. What matters is our next game and right now, that's Central Michigan. The only time the polls matter is in December. That's when the polls matter."
While the Bulldogs opened easy, their schedule ultimately should be as difficult as any team's. Georgia's big nonconference test is at No. 15 Arizona State on Sept. 20. The Bulldogs also face six Southeastern Conference rivals that've been ranked in the first two polls.
As for Ohio State, the Buckeyes play at USC on Sept. 13 before getting into the Big Ten schedule.
But of the teams in this week's top 10, USC and Texas are the only ones that don't play an FCS opponent, and the Trojans are the only team that doesn't play a team from a non-BCS conference.
Get the latest 2009 BCS Championship odds at MySportsbook.com.
The last team to drop from No. 1 after a victory was USC last season. LSU jumped from No. 2 to No. 1 when it beat Tulane 34-9, the same week the Trojans edged Washington 27-24 on the road.
The last preseason No. 1 team to lose the top spot after winning its opening game was Florida in 2001. The Gators beat Marshall 49-14, but preseason No. 2 Miami opened with a 33-7 victory over Penn State and the Hurricanes jumped to No. 1 with Florida slipping to second.
The next four teams in the new Top 25 stayed the same: No. 4 Oklahoma (two first-place votes), No. 5 Florida (five first-place votes), No. 6 Missouri (one first-place vote), No. 7 LSU (one first-place vote) and No. 8 West Virginia.
No. 9 Auburn and No. 10 Texas each moved up a spot, taking advantage of Clemson's big drop. Clemson, ninth in the preseason, fell out after losing 34-10 to Alabama on Saturday.
Also falling out after losses were Virginia Tech, Pittsburgh and Tennessee.
Moving into the rankings were No. 21 Fresno State, No. 22 Utah, No. 23 UCLA and No. 24 South Carolina.
Alabama moved up 11 spots after its big victory over Clemson.
The second 10 started with No. 11 Wisconsin, followed by Texas Tech, Alabama and Kansas. BYU and Arizona State were tied for 15th. Rivals BYU and Utah are both ranked for the first time since 1996.
South Florida was No. 17, ahead of Oregon, Penn State and Wake Forest at No. 20.
The final five were all the teams to move into the ranking, except for Illinois, which dropped four spots and tied South Carolina for No. 24.
Get free Sports Betting lines RSS feeds from top rated online sportsbook MySportsbook.com