Report: Jets sign Tomlinson to two-year deal
Football Betting Lines
03/14/2010 - New York, NY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The New York Jets have reportedly inked running back LaDainian Tomlinson to a two-year deal.
Financial terms were not available, according to the New York Daily News.
The likely Hall of Fame back spent his entire nine-year career with San Diego before being released upon the opening of free agency. The Jets, meanwhile, seem to have found a replacement for Thomas Jones, who also was released for salary cap purposes.
Tomlinson will now team up in the same backfield with Shonn Greene and possibly Leon Washington, who is a restricted free agent after missing most of last season with a leg injury.
The Chargers made the former TCU star the fifth overall pick of the 2001 NFL Draft, and he has not disappointed, recording 12,490 rushing yards, 3,955 receiving yards and 153 touchdowns. He currently ranks eighth on the NFL's all-time rushing list and third all-time in touchdowns.
Despite the gaudy numbers, Tomlinson has slowed in the last two seasons. He's recorded career-lows in rushing yards for two consecutive years and ran for only 730 yards and 12 scores through 14 games in 2009. It was the first season in which Tomlinson did not crack the 1,100-yard barrier.
Tomlinson's best season landed him MVP hardware in 2006, when he ran for a career-high 1,815 rushing yards and scored 31 total touchdowns to set a league record.
He was part of a draft-day deal in 2001 with the Falcons that netted Michael Vick for Atlanta and Tomlinson and reigning Super Bowl MVP Drew Brees for the Chargers.
Englewood, CO (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Quarterback Brady Quinn is set for a new beginning that had been rumored as the former first-round pick was dealt from Cleveland to the Denver Broncos on Sunday. The move came a day after the Browns re
<< Lille climbs to fourth in Ligue 1
Lille, France (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Lille used an own goal from Bostjan Cesar to
follow up its Europa League win over Liverpool with a 1-0 win over Grenoble on
Sunday in Ligue 1 and climbed to fourth in the standings.
Bordeaux, Montpellier, Au
<< Els fends off Schwartzel for second WGC crown
Miami, FL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Ernie Els fired a bogey-free, six-under 66 Sunday
to beat Charl Schwartzel and win the WGC - CA Championship.
Els, who earned his second WGC title, completed the event at 18-under-par 270.
He missed Phil Mickelso
<< James, Cavaliers handle Celtics
Cleveland, OH (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - LeBron James ended with 30 points, eight
rebounds and seven assists to lead Cleveland to a convincing 104-93 victory
over Boston at Quicken Loans Arena.
Antawn Jamison returned from a one-game absence
<< Kansas, Duke, Kentucky, Syracuse gain top seeds
Indianapolis, IN (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Kansas, Duke, Kentucky and Syracuse were
given top seeds for the 2010 NCAA Tournament.
Kansas (32-2), which was anointed the top overall seed for the tournament,
will be in the Midwest Region. The
Rio Grande, Puerto Rico (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Kevin Streelman and Chad Collins were atop the leaderboard Sunday at 12-under par when the third-round of the rain-delayed Puerto Rico Open was suspended for the day due to darkness. Rain delay
Seedorf's late goal leads AC Milan over Chievo >>
Milan, Italy (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Substitute Clarence Seedorf scored in injury
time and AC Milan edged Chievo 1-0 on Sunday at the San Siro to close within
one point of Inter Milan for first place in Italy's Serie A.
Seedorf entered the ma
Gonchar caps Penguins rally over Lightning >>
Tampa, FL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Sergei Gonchar notched the game-winning score
early in the third period, as Pittsburgh clipped Tampa Bay, 2-1, at St. Pete
Times Forum.
Pascal Dupuis also tallied for the Penguins, who snapped a two-game s
Isles finally win back-to-back games, top Leafs >>
Uniondale, NY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Richard Park posted a goal and an assist,
while Blake Comeau added three helpers, and the Islanders recorded back-to-
back wins for the first time in nearly two months with a 4-1 win over Toronto.
Matt
Messi's hat trick leads Barca over Valencia >>
Barcelona, Spain (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Lionel Messi had second-half hat trick and
Barcelona beat Valencia 3-0 on Sunday in a clash of top-three clubs in Spain's
La Liga at the Camp Nou.
Messi scored in the 56th, 81st and 83rd minutes to incre
FOOTBALL BETTING : Crabtree's base deal: six years, $32 million
In the wake of the news that the 49ers have signed receiver Michael Crabtree after an extended holdout, there has been not a hint of the dollars to be paid to Crabtree.
And since this means that his agent hasn't leaked the numbers, it means that his agent feels no specific motivation to do so.
Possibly because his agent isn't all that thrilled to have his name on the deal.
So the numbers will come from sources other than Crabtree's agent. And we've gotten our mitts into them.
Per a league source, Crabtree has signed a six-year, $32 million contract. (The total includes guaranteed money, base salaries, and the one-time incentive based on achieving minimum playing time.)
The deal also includes $17 million in guaranteed money.
As reported elsewhere, the deal can void to five years based on performance triggers, wiping out a final year base salary of $4 million. But they won't be easily reached.
The source tells us that, in his first four seasons (including 2009), Crabtree must either qualify for two Pro Bowls, or he must qualify for one Pro Bowl in one year and he must participate in 80 percent of the offensive snaps in a separate year in which the team makes the playoffs.
In other words, if in 2010 he qualifies for the Pro Bowl and the team makes the playoffs and he participates in 80 percent of the snaps, he'll still need to make it to the Pro Bowl or achieve the 80-percent/playoffs in another season.
Since the chances of Crabtree making the Pro Bowl or participating in 80 percent of the offensive snaps this year is roughly zero percent, he'll have three years to get it done.
And it won't be easy. Frankly, he'll be hard pressed to make it to one Pro Bowl in three years with the likes of Larry Fitzgerald, Calvin Johnson, Anquan Boldin, Steve Smith, the other Steve Smith, Hakeem Nicks, DeSean Jackson, Johnny Knox, Percy Harvin, Greg Jennings, Roddy White, T.J. Houshmandzadeh in the same conference for sportsbook betting.
So, by all appearances, it's a six-year deal. And at $17 million in guaranteed money, the per-year guarantee is a tepid $2.83 million per year.
There's another problem with the deal -- it has no mid-tier incentive package. Instead, the additional $8 million that Crabtree can earn (pushing the max value to six years, $40 million) requires the kind of unrealistic, mega-star performances that no rookie is likely to ever achieve.
So while the contract paid to Packers defensive tackle B.J. Raji covers five years and pays $22.5 million, he has the ability (if he's a solid player) to make up the difference between his base deal and Crabtree's five-year, $28 million haul via the mid-tier incentive package in Raji's deal.
And unless Crabtree meets the performance thresholds necessary to void the sixth year, he'll be stuck under contract for another year at a base salary of only $4 million.
There's one other area of concern with the deal. Crabtree, per the source, received no option bonus. Instead, he has significant money tied to a fairly new device known as a "discretionary salary advance," which unlike an opition bonus is subject to forfeiture if Crabtree decides in a year or two that he wants to hold out for a better deal. (We're also told that the 49ers have included language that would make certain escalators subject to forfeiture, too.)
Meanwhile, the deal falls well short of the mark for which Crabtree and agent Eugene Parker were aiming -- the five-year, $38.25 million contract paid by the Raiders to receiver Darrius Heyward-Bey, the seventh overall pick in the draft.
Even if Crabtree successfully voids the final year, he'll make more than $2 million per year less on average than Heyward-Bey.
Thus, as we explained earlier in the day, this is a deal that Crabtree could have done in July, which would have given him a much better chance of making a contribution to the 49ers during his rookie year.
So while the final outcome can be described as win-win, the broader view suggests that it's really a lose-lose situation.
To visit this sportsbook go to MySportsbook.com for all your college football betting needs.
Football Betting Sportsbook Accepts Credit Cards
Michael Vick is back, Brett Favre isn't and the NFC East remains the best division in the NFC, maybe in all of football.
As players start to gather for the start of another season, some things change and some stay the same in the world of the NFL.
The NFC East has been the dominant division in the National Conference for a while, despite limited playoff success, save for the New York Giants surprise Super Bowl win two seasons ago.
Hell, there's a generation of kids in Texas who have never seen the Cowboys win a playoff game (last win was in 1996).
But collectively, the Giants, Eagles, Cowboys and Redskins (well, maybe not so much the Redskins) are as good as a division gets in an NFC conference that has struggled to stay competitive with the AFC side.
Sports bettors have both acknowledged the NFC East's dominance, as one glance at the NFL future odds menu will show.
Looking over the NFL betting odds at online sports book MySportsbook.com we see the top three teams listed to win the NFC Championship are all from the NFC East:
Dallas Cowboys - 7 - 1
Philadelphia Eagles - 13 - 2
New York Giants - 9 - 2
Slotting in behind these three are two teams from the NFC North: the Minnesota Vikings (15-2) and the Chicago Bears (10-1).
Again, despite the lack of recent playoff success, the Dallas Cowboys are popular with the sports betting community, as they hold 14% of all the money wagered on who will win the NFC Championship.
So far, the New York Giants are the bettors' favorite to represent their conference in the Super Bowl, as they have 24% of the overall NFC Championship betting volume.
And what about the Philadelphia Eagles? For the most part, the Eagles had a very productive offseason, the kind that could bring them back to the top.
They had a good draft adding the likes of WR Jeremy Maclin and RB LeSean McCoy.
Unfortunately, the team received a blow when long-time defensive coordinator Jim Johnson passed away on Tuesday.
But this team will make a real run at the division title this year. Going into the regular season, Philly is listed at +240 to win the division.
Last season the Eagles were 9-6-1 SU and 10-6 ATS.
Teams from the NFC East will play teams from the AFC West in the regular season and the Eagles haven't really been a good bet in the last 20 games against the likes of San Diego, Oakland, K.C. and Denver, only going 8-12 ATS.
Two seasons removed from that Super Bowl title, the New York Giants see themselves listed as the odds-on favorite in NFC East championship futures at +162.
Plaxico Burress is gone and with him all the bad publicity surrounding the gun in the sweatpants incident, but can they replace him in the offense?
Last season the Giants were a very reliable bet going 12-4 ATS.
In the Giants' last 20 games against fellow teams from the NFC East; they are 13-7 ATS.
Dallas is listed at +240 to win the division.
Dallas went 9-7 SU and 7-9 ATS last season and with the amount of talent the Cowboys have, a similar performance won't do.
The Cowboys have been atrocious against divisional rivals, going 6-14 ATS in their last 20.
The Washington Redskins are longshots to win the division at +550.
Visit MySportsbook.com for free sportsbook odds RSS feeds go to MySportsbook.com for all your betting football needs.