After not taking a snap in'09, Dallas' Kitna fresh
Football Betting Lines
08/26/2010 -
OXNARD, Calif. (AP) - Jon Kitna has looked pretty good this preseason, especially for a quarterback pushing 37.
Then again, he's well rested.
Tony Romo took every snap for the Dallas Cowboys last season, the only NFL quarterback to do so. That made Kitna the only second-stringer stuck on the sideline every week.
But Kitna didn't just watch and wait. He put his down time to good use.
Having absorbed 129 sacks the previous three seasons with Detroit, he spent the fall getting over lingering bumps and bruises. He became more familiar with the playbook and with his new teammates. He also encouraged Romo to keep going out, even for the routine handoffs at the end of blowouts.
``It's one of those things that when you get done with your playing career, you can look back and say, 'That was pretty special,''' Kitna said. ``Being able to take every snap, that's pretty rare. ... I was happy he got to do it.''
Kitna knows the thrill because he's among the handful of players to pull it off in recent years.
``Twice,'' he said, smiling.
Kitna and Romo are among nine players who went through a season taking every snap among quarterbacks - thus, discounting wildcat plays and other gimmicks - since 2006, according to research by STATS LLC. Their data by snaps dates to 2006.
Using attempts as the standard, STATS found 36 instances since 1990 where a single quarterback threw every pass. That includes Kitna in 2003 with Cincinnati and '06 with Detroit, and Romo last season.
Kitna's inactivity made him a bit of an unknown for the Cowboys this season. It was especially worrisome for team owner Jerry Jones because he remembers how the offense dropped off during the three games in 2008 when aging backup Brad Johnson replaced an injured Romo.
The Cowboys went 1-2, with one of the losses to a St. Louis team that lost its remaining 10 games. Dallas ended up one win shy of making the playoffs.
So after seeing Kitna against San Diego last weekend - 9 of 15 for 84 yards and a tying touchdown in the fourth quarter, with no sacks or turnovers - Jones declared, ``I'm going to sleep better about quarterback tonight than I've slept this year.''
``I thought Kitna did an outstanding job,'' Jones said. ``He scrambled out, had some pressure on him, and threw the ball out of bounds - that's what you want to see. You can't get that in practice with that kind of pressure. You want to make sure when you're 37, you've got your legs and he's got his legs.''
Kitna, who turns 37 next month, understands the owner being curious about whether age has caught up to him.
``Anybody who is over 35, you don't know - at any position,'' Kitna said. ``But I've been around some guys who've done it a long time. Warren Moon, he taught me how to take care of your body during the week so you can be ready to play on Sunday.''
Kitna came to training camp feeling fresh, not stale. Rather than having lost a step, his reaction time actually is faster because of his time with the team.
``It's the terminology,'' he said. ``We have plays that are called one thing here that meant something totally different others places I had been. So I had to reprogram my mind. When you're doing that, you get up to the line of scrimmage and you're not quite sure. If you're thinking about the play, then you're not going through the mental process of what you have to do once the play starts. Now, that's over for me. I can immediately draw the picture in my mind when the play is called and just play the game.''
That is, if you get in the game.
Kitna's last regular-season snap was Oct. 5, 2008. He missed the final 12 games of that season with a back injury.
The flip side is that the lack of wear and tear could extend his career. He's under contract through next season.
Longevity is a source of pride for Kitna, as well it should be. He's a former Central Washington star who wasn't drafted, was invited to only one NFL training camp, spent a year on Seattle's practice squad, a season in the World League and was the NFL's Comeback Player of the Year in 2003.
``I came into this league hoping to get one year,'' he said. ``My wife and I, we'd been married two years and we wanted to get out of debt. ... Going into year 15, I never would've dreamt that. So I don't even think much about how long I'm going to play. I just think that when the time is done, God will close the door.''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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Sportsbooks to bet on football
Recently I had an email debate with an angry reader who said I did not understand "the science of oddsmaking", as he called it.
He said I was wrong for suggesting oddsmakers care about who wins or loses games.
"Oddsmakers only care about splitting the betting public 50/50 on both sides of the line and keeping the commission (a.k.a. juice)," he wrote.
He might have been right about not understanding "the science of oddsmaking". After all, I'm not an oddsmaker. That said, I stick to my assertion that oddsmakers (a.k.a. sportbooks) often do care about who wins games.
Granted, as a general rule, sportsbooks try to balance their action so that they're not exposed to big losses. However, there are times when this is difficult to pull off, regardless of how much a line has moved. There are also times when that general rule is ignored and a book pursues risk.
Generally speaking, it's safe to say the books in Vegas are risk-adverse. Unlike in the past when the wise guys ruled the town, Vegas is now corporate and the goal of most casinos is to make as much money as possible with as little risk as possible.
Thus, Vegas sportsbooks try everything in their power to balance the action. They're satisfied simply collecting the juice. But these profits are small, especially compared to the take from other casino games, namely slot machines.
Because the profits at Vegas sportsbooks are so small, you could argue that many casinos operate sportsbooks simply as a novelty to keep the tourists happy.
With a growing aversion to risk, it should come as no surprise that Vegas bookmakers have been panicking this NFL season.
Despite huge pointspreads, a disproportionate percentage of bettors are still laying their money on favorites like the Eagles, Colts, Pats and Vikings rather than the dogs (a common trend for the largely recreational bettors that visit Vegas).
And much to the dismay of the books, those favorites are finding ways to cover the thick chalk. In fact, prior to Week 7, the four teams listed above are a combined 16-2-2 (88 percent) against the spread. (The tables turned dramatically in Week 7, but more on that later.)
The result has been an early-season beating for the books, and a bonanza for bettors.
While Vegas increasingly hates risk, it's no longer a major player in the sports betting world. Most of the betting action now takes place offshore where sportsbooks are not as obsessed about balance. In fact, some books encourage exposure to risk because the rewards can be so much bigger.
Consider MySportsbook.com. On its website, the book has odds pages which actually display the amount of action it's getting on games. In other words, you can see how much action the book is taking on both sides of a pointspread, moneyline or over/under.
One look at these numbers and it's obvious MySportsbook.com does not balance every game. In fact, far from it.
Take last weekend's matchup between St. Louis and Miami. By game time on Sunday, 83 percent of the betting action at MySportsbook.com was on the Rams; only 17 percent was on Miami.
What's interesting is that MySportsbook.com opened the pointspread with Miami at +6 1/2. By game time, the spread had lowered to +5.
That goes contrary to the balancing theory. If MySportsbook.com had wanted to balance the action, it would have given Miami more points; instead, it took away 1 1/2. World Series odds are now up as well.
MySportsbook.com exposed itself to even more to risk, and rolled the dice on the underdog Dolphins. Why? I contacted a representative with the book to find out. His answer was simple.
"The line moved early based on 'smart money' from sharp players," said Jeff Gilroy, a spokesperson for the book. "We also knew from early in the week that we would need Miami, therefore (we dropped) the spread to encourage Rams money.
"At the end of the day, we liked the home team."
So the conclusion is this: MySportsbook.com respected the sharp action, and gambled that the sharp bettors had a better take on the game than the recreational bettors, who were hammering the visiting Rams.
In the end, the gamble paid off. Miami, desperate for a win in front of its home fans, pounded the overrated Rams, who are terrible on the road and even worse on grass. Final score: 31-14 Fish.
MySportsbook.com was also heavily exposed on numerous favorites in Week 7, including Philadelphia, Seattle and Denver. All three failed to cover.
The fact that sportsbooks are exposed to risk on certain games is really nothing new. The fact, that Sportsbook.com is willing to show the public where it's exposed is intriguing.
Armed with this type of information, bettors can make more educated wagers. They can get an idea where the sharp money is going and conversely where the public money is headed.
MySportsbook.com is opening up its cashbox, letting bettors look inside and challenging them to take their best shot at grabbing the cash.
To visit this online football betting got to MySportsbook.com for all your football betting odds needs. Mysportsbook.com online sportsbook accepts Visa and Mastercard credit cards.
It's less than a month until the NHL hockey betting season opens at MySportsbook.com and preparations are underway for another battle in the race to hoist Lord Stanley's mug in 2007.
As cup crazy fans prepare to place their bets, one online sportsbook ,MySportsbook.com, is offering hockey betting lines on the 2007/2007 Stanley Cup , who will bring it home this upcoming season.
Despite a poor showing in last season's playoffs and the loss of Steve Yzerman to retirement, the Detroit Red Wings are early favourites at this online sportsbook with wagering odds of 6-1. The Wings will look to offensive powerhouse Pavel Datsyuk and newly appointed captain Nicklas Lidstrom to lead one of the league's most prominent franchises.
Always a threat are the Ottawa Senators, with newly acquired goaltender Martin Gerber from the Stanley Cup champion ,Carolina Hurricanes. The Sens are second best in the rankings at a 7-1 bet, and odds makers at this sportsbook are optimistic that the Ottawa squad will fare better than last season's Eastern Conference semi-final upset to the Buffalo Sabres.
Also worth noting are the defending Stanley Cup champs Carolina Hurricanes, a 10-1 bet to repeat. Behind the Canes are the New Jersey Devils, Calgary Flames, Buffalo Sabres, Philadelphia Flyers, and Anaheim Mighty Ducks all sit at 12-1. In the basement are the Washington Capitals, Chicago Blackhawks, and St. Louis Blues who all have 100-1 odds to win.
To visit this online sportsbook got to MySportsbook.com for all your hockey betting needs.