Line of Scrimmage: Are Rams' Days In St. Louis Numbered?
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06/01/2009 - Philadelphia, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The checkered history of NFL football in St. Louis, Missouri, actually dates all the way back to 1923.
It was in that season that the league's first team to represent the Gateway City - the St. Louis All-Stars - went 1-4-2 under head coach/owner Ollie Kraehe before collapsing after one year due to financial difficulties.
Eleven years later, the city was back on the NFL map, albeit briefly, when the formerly-independent St. Louis Gunners replaced the defunct Cincinnati Reds for the final three games of the league schedule before fading back into obscurity.
The St. Louis Cardinals lasted a bit longer than that, 28 years to be exact, following their move from Chicago (instigated via some colluding between then- commissioner Bert Bell and Bears owner George Halas) in 1960.
But when team owner Bill Bidwill asked St. Louis' civic leaders for a new football-only facility, the city balked, and Bidwill was well on his way to holding dual pariah status in both St. Louis and Arizona.
As usually happens in these cases, the city eventually built that new stadium anyway, luring the Los Angeles Rams to town in 1995 with what is now called the Edward Jones Dome.
The Rams are about to celebrate their 15th season in St. Louis, and during that time have won a Super Bowl, appeared in another, and produced NFL stars like Kurt Warner, Torry Holt, and Marshall Faulk.
The franchise and city have been a credit to the league - the club's 5-27 record of the past two years not withstanding - but don't bet your stimulus check that the Rams will be around to celebrate a 20th year in the shadow of the Arch.
The team's majority owners, Chip Rosenbloom and his sister Lucia Rodriguez, are about to put the Rams up for sale, according to a report in Sunday's St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Rosenbloom and Rodriguez inherited a 60 percent share of the team when their mother, Georgia Frontiere, passed away last year.
And though the duo would reportedly like to keep the team in St. Louis to shield themselves from a P.R. hit, if there are no local takers for a franchise recently valued at $929 million by Forbes Magazine, Rosenbloom and Rodriguez aren't going to let anyone's sentimentality get in the way of that payday.
All of which leads to one place, easily described by two capital letters: L.A.
The league has been wringing its hands for years over the lack of a franchise in the country's second-largest market, even though a) no viable potential ownership group has stepped forward, b) no viable stadium plan has been presented and c) the citizens of Los Angeles and its surrounding area have long proven themselves to be fairly ambivalent toward NFL football.
There is indeed some irony in the fact that the Rams are on a collision course with the prospect of moving back to a region that they left back in 1994 because nobody there cared too much about them.
But the league and its owners will slip on their collective beer goggles and allow Los Angeles' historical NFL unattractiveness to go unconsidered because of the major financial incentives of moving a team from the nation's 21st- largest television market to its second-largest.
The league's corporate backers, and especially the TV network-types who only experience St. Louis when they fly over it at 30,000 feet, are salivating over the renewed possibility of NFL football in L.A.
Meanwhile, for the legion of Rams fans who are hopeful that the franchise will stay put, the white knight in this situation might just be minority owner Stan Kroenke.
Kroenke, who has owned a 40 percent share of the team since it relocated to St. Louis, is a native of Columbia, Missouri who might not take the Rams' potential move lying down.
By NFL rule, Kroenke can't buy the Rams outright unless he sells off his majority share of the NBA Denver Nuggets and NHL Colorado Avalanche, but it seems logical that if there is a chance to facilitate a sale to local ownership, Kroenke would have a good chance of greasing those wheels.
That said, any new owner is going to have an immediate battle to fight on the stadium front, as the Edward Jones Dome is already viewed as being a bottom- tier NFL facility. Without substantial upgrades to the stadium, the Rams can opt out of their lease in 2014, and in case you hadn't noticed, citizens and government leaders aren't currently enamored of the prospect of ponying up public dollars to subsidize improvements to the weekend homes of billionaires.
Frontiere's children haven't said much of anything on the topic of a potential sale, though Rosenbloom's most recent words should tell you all you need to know.
"The most important thing for me right now is putting a winning team on the field," Rosenbloom told the Post-Dispatch. "And we don't want that goal to be disrupted in any way."
Of course you don't, Chip. Any more losing might cut into your eventual, and inevitable, windfall.
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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.
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New York, NY – October 3, 2007 – The dress rehearsal is over! The NHL preseason has ended and now that fans have had a glimpse of what is to come it is time to hit the book! Stanley Cup odds are live at MySportsbook.com, the world’s largest online sportsbook and casino.
The Ottawa Senators and Detroit Red Wings remain on top of the odds charts after an impressive start in the preseason. Betting lines opened for both teams at 6-1 in June. Since then the Sens have fallen to 7-1 and the Red Wings are now caught in a pack including the defending champion Carolina Hurricanes, the San Jose Sharks and the Anaheim Ducks, all at 10-1.
MySportsbook.com has also posted props on each team’s point total for the regular season. The Senators lead the charge at 108.5 followed by the Ducks at 106.5. Detroit will attempt a repeat for the prize as the Red Wings are deadlocked with the Predators at 104.5 a piece. The temporary loss of highly touted rookie Evgeni Malkin puts a lot of pressure on the stick of assistant captain Sidney Crosby - his lowly Pittsburgh Penguins are listed at 71.5.
Even if bettors are not brave enough to put their money on the underdog, an early bet on the favorites at sportsbook.com tends to produce bigger payouts than a mid-season wager. Placing a $1,000 bet last summer on the Detroit Red Wings or Ottawa Senators would have paid out to $8,000 and $10,000 respectively, opposed to a $2,500 or $3,000 payout at the beginning of the playoffs.
Stanley Cup Odds
| Ottawa Senators Detroit Red Wings Carolina Hurricanes San Jose Sharks Anaheim Ducks Philadelphia Flyers Calgary Flames New Jersey Devils Buffalo Sabres Dallas Stars New York Rangers Nashville Predators Vancouver Canucks Colorado Avalanche Minnesota Wild Tampa Bay Lightning Boston Bruins Florida Panthers Montreal Canadiens Atlanta Thrashers Toronto Maple Leafs Edmonton Oilers Phoenix Coyotes Los Angeles Kings New York Islanders Columbus Blue Jackets St. Louis Blues Pittsburgh Penguins Washington Capitals Chicago Blackhawks |
7-1 10-1 10-1 10-1 10-1 12-1 12-1 12-1 12-1 15-1 15-1 15-1 20-1 20-1 25-1 25-1 30-1 30-1 30-1 30-1 30-1 30-1 40-1 40-1 50-1 50-1 80-1 80-1 100-1 100-1 |
NHL Regular Season Points - Team Must Play 82 Games
| Team Ottawa Senators Anaheim Ducks Detroit Red Wings Nashville Predators San Jose Sharks Calgary Flames Philadelphia Flyers New Jersey Devils Buffalo Sabres Carolina Hurricanes Dallas Stars New York Rangers Minnesota Wild Atlanta Thrashers Montreal Canadiens Team Los Angeles Kings Tampa Bay Lightening Vancouver Canucks Boston Bruins Colorado Avalanche Edmonton Oilers Phoenix Coyotes Toronto Maple Leafs Florida Panthers Columbus Blue Jackets New York Islanders Chicago Blackhawks St. Louis Blues Washington Capitals Pittsburgh Penguins |
Over/Under 108.5 106.5 104.5 104.5 103.5 101.5 100.5 99.5 97.5 97.5 97.5 95.5 94.5 93.5 92.5 Over/Under 91.5 91.5 91.5 89.5 89.5 88.5 88.5 86.5 84.5 82.5 80.5 72.5 72.5 72.5 71.5 |
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