MONDAY NIGHT SITE CHANGE DRIVES BOOKIES BATTY. THE JACKATHLETES SPEAK. AND SPEAK. AND SPEAK.

Don’t be too upset if your sports book has some down time. A group of Eastern European hackers have been knocking down web sites and holding some hostage. They’ve successfully extorted tens of thousands of dollars from a number of books. Books pay and then get back up again. The result? A small victory for the Russian mafia and web security consultants worldwide. The books are furiously protecting themselves against further attacks.

Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban and lil’ Danny Snyder of the Washington Redskins seem to involved in an intersport war for the hearts of rotisserie and fantasy league aficionados everywhere. Cuban fired the first shot this week by trading to the Celtics for “Mr. Shot Selection” Antoine Walker but Snyder made a strong comeback by getting former Raiders date rape drug/video maestro and occasional defensive lineman Darrell Russell, who is fresh off of his NFL suspension. Now granted, Russell has never even been productive enough to be overrated, but you’ve got to add bonus points for untapped potential in this instance. Want some more Redskins news? Well tough luck, according to our South Carolina/Mountain Time Zone (don’t ask) inside source Jim Murphy, rumors abound in the Palmetto State that Steve Spurrier was spotted in Clemson during the ‘skins bye week. Now we know Snyder is less than thrilled with Spurrier, and Clemson fans can’t be trusted not to push Tommy West off the bass boat if given the chance, but there can’t actually be anything to that story, can there?

The move of Monday’s Chargers-Dolphins game from San Diego to Tempe due to the wild fires required a quick decision by bookmakers. With a few notable exceptions in Las Vegas, major sports books worldwide called the Dolphins/Chargers game “no action” upon the change of venue and then reopened the game for action. Interesting that the “no action on a change of date” rule is in effect everywhere while “no action on a change of venue” rule was not quite so universal. The books were correct to cancel the bets, however. At most books the line was –3 but at books that profile their customers (we’ll talk about books dealing different numbers soon), squares were laying –3½. If the fires simply caused a one-day delay in the Chargers/Dolphins game but it was still in San Diego, there wouldn’t have been a line change. A Tuesday night delayed game in San Diego still would have been –3 for most folks. But the moment the game went to a neutral site, the line went to –6, as the Chargers lost the home field advantage so important for a Monday night home dog. The integrity of the proposition was clearly more dependent on the site than the date. Of course most of the games scheduled to be played on September 11, 2001 were made up in December (college) and January (NFL). In this case the date was more important, as the quality of the teams (both actual and perceived) changed drastically over that time frame. In any event, we can be fairly certain that sports books worldwide are busily clarifying their rules of play this week.

We make it a point not to spend much time watching pregame shows, and the pain of watching Michael Irvin interview Keyshawn Johnson and Warren Sapp confirms our usual course of action. Sapp hilariously tried to justify his “NFL as slavemaster” comments, hilariously failed, and hilariously had no idea that he had failed. The constancy of Irvin’s nodding and agreeing probably gave him the confidence that he was making valid points of astounding clarity. Sapp’s main point was that the league gets in the way of his gaining exposure. Ironically, the NFL announced last week that Sapp is a personality on their new TV network and following the interview Sapp’s Right Guard commercial ran. On his expanded interview on the Sunday night SportsCenter, Keyshawn opined that he’s a top receiver in the league, when he hasn’t been top 10 for a while and probably isn’t even top 20. He talked at length about how Bill Parcells is a much better coach than Jon Gruden, which is certainly a valid opinion, but not something you say about your own coach.

Sapp and Johnson are prototypes for the jackass athlete or “jackathlete”. They are maniacally self-centered, have an overstated opinion of their own importance both on and off the field, have no problem calling out teammates and coaches, and simply won’t shut up. The typical jackathlete has been coddled his entire life by family, friends, coaches, administrators, agents, and everyone around them. They have never had a parent, coach, or other respected figure step up to say, “if you want people to respect you, you need to give them respect”. We’ll have more on the phenomenon of the jackathlete next week, highlighting who we consider to be the godfather of the modern jackathlete. No, it’s not Reggie Jackson and it isn’t Brian Bosworth (although those are two very good guesses). It’s a guy who hit the scene in between those two who simply has covered it all.

Time for a little betiquette. We get asked a few times a year a variation of this question. “(Name of Sports Book) had New Mexico at –2 when they are really supposed to be –12. I bet $1,000 on it. Should I middle it or keep the ten points of line value”. The answer is that you definitely shouldn’t middle it, because the sports book is going to cancel the play on you and is well within their rights to do so. Most sports books have in their rules words to the effect that bets into games with obvious errors in the line are “no action”. So if you middle the game, you’ll be a dime heavy on a side you probably don’t want anything to do with. So what should you do when you spot a line error? Make a play in your favor at a bet amount in your usual range. If you’re a $100 don’t suddenly make a $1000 bet on an obvious error, bet $100 on it. After making the bet, pick up the phone, call the book, and ask for a manager. If the clerk tries to screen you say, “you have an major error in your lines, and I want to talk to someone about it.” You’ll get through. Tell the manager, “I just bet $100 on New Mexico at –2 but I think it is probably a bad line on your part.” If the guy has even an ounce of class, he’ll spiff you something. He’ll either let the favorable play stand, toss $50 in your account, or something similar. Not only do you do the right thing, but it becomes a win/win situation. You save the book some money, get something out of it, and come across as a great customer, which is something that you can use to your advantage in the future.

If you’re sick of 3½-hour football and baseball games, have we got the sport for you. The Canadiens/Flyers game Monday night took less than two hours, 1:52 to be exact. Another good thing about hockey is that jackathletes are rare. There is no Steinbrenner, no Theismann, no Shaq, and no Kobe. Speaking of Kobe, after long and arduous negotiations, I have retained Jim Gray to be my friend. If I ever become famous and get in trouble I can be assured of having at least one rip-roaring supporter.

Having never been at an actual horse race before (he visits a off track simulcast facility monthly) that guy in the Dakotas who had the only winning ticket in the Breeders’ Cup on Saturday appears to be legit, despite the paucity of combinations he had covered on his $8 ticket ($8!). He had a paper ticket out of a machine printed out an hours before the first race of the sequence, it wasn’t through an electronic account, and racing officials were monitoring the pick six every step of the way for potential fraud. Just as telling, he has never set foot on the Drexel University campus. Just a guy who is at least a little sharp and a lot lucky. Good for him. And good for Andrew Beyer. Reading the Washington Post writer and speed figure guru convinced the big winner to include longshot winner Cajun Beat on his tickets.

If you had a winning ticket in the Breeders’ Cup Turf and you bet it offshore make sure that you make sure you were properly credited with your winnings. The race was a dead heat and some very widely used horse racing software cannot properly account for exactas in race that finishes up as a dead heat. Both the 3-9 and 9-3 exactas were winners and we didn’t get credit for either one. Of course, a phone call fixed things quickly. Customer service tends to be pretty good in such a competitive environment and problems are usually solved pretty rapidly. For a series of articles on offshore wagering check out www.consumerbet.com.

When a major conference team loses it’s first game to knock them from the undefeated ranks, they still have a chance to play for a BCS bowl and even remain in the national championship hunt despite their one loss. Despite those carrots, teams that win their first six or more game are a lousy proposition after losing their first game. If you’re Northern Illinois this week that secondary motivation doesn’t exist. Their slim BCS dreams were dashed in their loss to an outstanding Bowling Green club on Saturday. Now the Huskies have to lay more than two TD’s into a Ball State team that is better than most realize. Ball State whipped up on a solid Toledo outfit by a 38-14 count last Saturday and they won’t be intimidated by NIU. Northern’s Michael “the Burner” Turner led running game averages a surprisingly paltry 3.1 yards per rushing attempt. Take the generous points with a Ball State club that is not overmatched.

Dan Pastorini is the recipient of a fawning profile on NFL.com in a “where are they now” segment. See it at http://www.nfl.com/news/story/6736336. The article mentions his TV work in Houston, his job at a photo imaging company, and his drag racing interests. Strangely, nothing is said about his association with “Jeff Allen Sports”. Jeff D’Ambrosia (who went by “Jeff Allen”) plead guilty to mail fraud in a case in which he admitted paying Pastorini “thirty to forty thousand dollars a year” for about a decade to use his name and picture and pretend that Pastorini was making football selections based on “inside information from the locker room”. Seems that there would have been some fertile ground for questioning ole’ Dan about his business life. On a somewhat related note, if you’re not too concerned about problematic business ethics you can get financial advice from a Viking great at www.tarkentonfinancial.com.

On our Sports & Gaming telephone hotline (no charge for the call) we are going to give you one of our actual late telephone selections for free this coming Saturday morning. It won’t be overtly stated on the call that it is one of our phone plays, but it will be one of our top plays of the weekend. We’ll be up no later than 8AM Eastern Time with this game and you can call the hotline at 1-770-618-8700 (a local Atlanta number). Incidentally, this number broadcasts information every game day. Be sure to give 1-770-618-8700 a call any time you’re looking for info on Thursday, Saturday, Sunday, and Mondays, as well as days in between where they really shouldn’t have football but ESPN2 needed some programming.

The Jaguars head to Baltimore this week in a battle of rookie quarterbacks. Both Kyle Boller and Byron Leftwich are promising specimens, but neither is ready for prime time. This is not a knock on either one of them, as few rookies are ready for such duty. This is a letdown situation for the Ravens, and therefore seems to be a good spot for Jacksonville off of their usual home loss to the Titans. But the Ravens defense continues to resemble the 2000 version. The Ravens D allows only 3.6 yards per rush (6th in the NFL) and only 5.6 yards per pass attempt (7th in the NFL). The Jags average only 95 yards rushing on 3.8 yards per carry, so they’ll do little on the ground. Someday Leftwich will likely be good enough to carry an offense without a running game, but not yet. The Ravens average rushing yardage advantage is 180 to 96. Look for the ferocious defense and pounding running game to propel the Ravens to an impressive win on their strong home field.

Thanks for taking the time to read us. Good luck and be careful.

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Kevin O’Neill is the director of content for www.consumerbet.com. His 24-hour free telephone selection hotline can be accessed by calling 1-770-618-8700.

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