Friday?s six-pack
From ESPN.com, six notable wagers in sports books (LV or NJ) on teams to win the Super Bowl:
? $12,000 on Falcons 22-1. Net win: $264K
? $10,000 on Raiders 20-1. Net win: $200K
? $5,000 on Lions 40-1. Net win: $200K
? $4,000 on Titans 50-1. Net win: $200K
? $1,000 on Jets 100-1. Net win: $100K
? $1,000 on Browns 100-1. Net win: $100K
Quote of the Day
?Burt Reynolds was one of the kindest and most generous people I have ever worked with. He took me under his wing when I was first starting out as an actor and offered friendship, advice and guidance. I?ll never forget how much that meant to me.?
Paul Wesley
Friday?s quiz
In the football scenes in The Longest Yard, what number did Burt Reynolds? character Paul Crewe wear?
Thursday?s quiz
Martin Sheen played President Bartlet in the old TV show, The West Wing.
Wednesday?s quiz
Doug Flutie and Herschel Walker played for the New Jersey Generals in the old USFL.
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Friday?s List of 13: Random stuff with weekend almost here
13) Pat O?Hara is the Tennessee Titans? QB coach; maybe you?ve never heard of him, but chances are, you?ve seen him in the movies or watched him play ball on TV. More likely the movies.
O?Hara?s resume:
1987-90? Played (backup) QB at USC; he was Todd Marinovich?s backup
1991? Backup QB for the Buccaneers
1992? Played for Ohio Glory in the WLAF
1992? Backup QB for the Chargers.
1995-2000? QB for Orlando Predators in the Arena League
2001-02? QB for Toronto Phantoms in the Arena League
2003-06? QB for Tampa Bay Storm in the Arena League.
Since his playing days ended (he was on three Arena Bowl champs), O?Hara has been head coach of four different Arena League teams, and for the last three years, was an assistant coach with the Houston Texans. Now he is with the Titans.
Despite all that, here?s where you?re most likely to have seen Pat O?Hara; he has appeared in five movies; he was Tyler Cherubini in Any Given Sunday, the backup QB who got hurt, which put third-stringer Willie Beamon (Jamie Foxx) into the game.
O?Hara has also been the football consultant on 13 different Hollywood movies, including The Waterboy, Invincible and the remake of The Longest Yard. Interesting career.
12) Monday night in Los Angeles, Mets? 3B Todd Frazier dove into the stands to try and make a catch? when he produced a baseball to the umpire, the batter was called out, but in the video, you can see a woman pointing to something on the ground.
Turns out she was pointing to the ball that Frazier didn?t catch; the ball Frazier shows the ump was a rubber baseball that was in a bag that Frazier landed on when he dove into the stands.
Weird thing about this is that is was the Mets? TV crew that uncovered this mistake. Makes the umpires look bad. You wonder if a rule change will result from this, as far as umpires being more aggressive in making sure the player actually caught the ball.
11) Fantasy baseball is usually fun; except when your team gets eliminated from the playoffs, which mine did 10 days ago, mostly because Jose Abreu needed emergency abdominal surgery, and played in only one game that week. Not good.
Turns out the surgery was for ?testicular torsion? which involves twisting of the spermatic cord, which has the effect of reducing blood flow to the affected testicle. Ouch.
From Abreu: ?It was one of my testicles turned sideways and was strangled. The doctor had to perform emergency surgery to save it. I never thought about it, but it was serious. The doctors they did a very good job and everything is good. They saved the testicle. I?m really glad and thankful like I said before for all the people who helped me and who were there for me. I feel very grateful right now.?
Thankfully he is OK, but why doesn?t stuff like this happen in the offseason?
10) Houston Texans have a different starting QB for the 6th year in a row- DeShaun Watson. The previous five?
Tom Savage, Brock Osweiler, Brian Hoyer, Ryan Fitzpatrick and Matt Schaub.
9) In the last 50 years, there has been only one QB taken in the first round of the NFL Draft who never started a game for the team that drafted him.
Rich Campbell went to college at Cal, wound up lasting four years in the NFL, all with Green Bay (1981-84)? he appeared in seven games, completed 31-68 passes for 3 TD?s, 9 INT?s.
8) Former NFL QB Jay Cutler is a bit player on the reality show Very Cavallari that is on the E! Channel and stars his wife Kristin, a fashion designer who has been on other reality shows and has had small roles in movies.
Cutler has a dry sense of humor; you can see why CBS was going to hire him to analyze NFL games LY before he made a comeback (for $10M) with the Dolphins last year.
7) ESPN?s field mikes are cranked up so loud for Sunday Night Baseball; every time a guy hits a medium fly ball it sounds like a clap of thunder that could wipe out a small city.
6) Baseball oddity; Tuesday night, Marlins walked Phillies? SS Mike Kingery intentionally his first time up, to get to the pitcher. Next time thru the lineup, they walked Cesar Hernandez on purpose, to get to Kingery. I?m betting that doesn?t happen very often.
5) From ESPN.com:
Over last 15 regular seasons, NFL favorites are 1,859-1,860-11 against the spread
During that time, over is 1,890-1,886-64.
Thursday NFL games; since 2003, favorites are 97-66-5 vs spread.
Looking at odds to win the Super Bowl, defending champ Eagles have the 10th-lowest odds. Not a lot of respect there.
4) RIP Burt Reynolds, 82, one of the biggest TV/movie stars of the 70?s/80?s. My favorite movie of his is the original The Longest Yard.
Back in the day, Reynolds was a running back at Florida State when the QB was Lee Corso; what a combo those two must have been. Bet they had a ton of fun.
RIP, sir.
3) Geno Crandall, a two-time all-Big Sky Conference guard at North Dakota, announced that he would be graduating over the summer, transferring to Gonzaga for his final year of eligibility.
One small problem; Crandall hasn?t graduated from North Dakota yet. To be a graduate transfer, you actually have to graduate.
If it takes him an extra semester to graduate from North Dakota, he could still bolt after the first semester and play for the Zags in the second semester. Crandall scored 28 points in a game for North Dakota AGAINST Gonzaga last season- he scored 16.6 ppg LY.
2) If you don?t think the NFL is still the king of American sports, consider this; in the heat of the baseball pennant race, with Falcons-Eagles the NFL opener Thursday, only four major league games were scheduled. Four out of a possible 15.
1) 2018 major league payrolls:
? Boston $233,752,429
? LA Dodgers $187,318,213
? Bronx $166,111,632
? Oakland $65,985,833
Go figure.
