Sports Betting Blog

It seems to me that the professional leagues in the United States just doesn’t seem to go into the preseason without some sort of lockout. Hockey, baseball, football, basketball, the last four 5 years have had some sort of action of this sort. And it’s getting a little old. Particularly now when the NFL has officially reached a 3-month long lockdown with it’s referees. They say it’s all about money, and perhaps the biggest question here is why, with all the money that the NFL has reported in revenue, can’t they come into an agreement with the officiating crews. Now, time is running up and with less than a day before the NFL season kicks off, no talks are scheduled between the league and the locked-out on-field officials.

So we can make it official. It will be up to the replacement officials to kick off the season opener between the Dallas Cowboys and the New York Giants. During three different days last week the NFL and the NFL Referees Association met together to find a deal, but the parties did not reach an agreement to end the three-month-old lockout. Replacement officials who worked the preseason games will officiate the first week of the season. The league and the NFL Referees Association, which covers more than 120 on-field officials, are at odds over salary, retirement benefits and operational issues.

This are some of the key aspects that need to be solved before we can get the regular officials back in the field. The NFL would like to move away from the traditional pension model from the previous agreement, freezing pensions now and eventually terminating them in favor of a defined contribution model ranging between $16,000 to $23,000 per year. Not exactly your dream 401K. Now, when it comes to salary, there is also a big difference. I mean, big for the referees but it seems to me very little for the organizations as a whole. Last week both sides were approximately $16 million apart on a seven-year deal. NFLRA will emphasize, equals a cost of less than $75,000 per year per NFL team.

The NFL also wants to get more officiating crews. Move from the 18 they already have to the proposed 21 officiating crews. The NFL says this is “extras” would come in to secure their bench and get the training needed for the future. The Referees association see this as an attempt to threat to the continued livelihood and security of it’s current members.  The NFL is stating that under the proposed changes, the pay structure includes annual pay increases that could earn an experienced official more than $200,000 annually by 2018. The NFLRA has disputed the value of the proposal, insisting it would ultimately reduce their compensation.

Now as the first game is just a few hours from kicking off, it becomes evident that the referees are now going to rely heavily on the replacement referees to make some bold and evident mistakes in their officiating either on Wednesday or on the bulk of games coming up on Sunday. If that is the case, they will certainly have more leverage for negotiating their return. On the other hand, if the replacements make a good job, they’ll be forced to stick with what the NFL throws at them in the negotiation.

When it comes to negotiating a multi-million dollar contract with a professional athlete, we all know t’s all about the money. And yet sometimes negotiations take on other angles and things get complicated. Yes, in the latest blog entries and articles we’ve been writing about the players transfers and the big moves going on in the NBA and the NFL, but this particular case between Drew Brees and the New Orleans Saints is still one of our recurring topics. Basically because despite their long relationship and the very successful six years these two parts have failed to reach an agreement and the deadline is right there, right around the corner. If these two can reach an agreement before July 16^th, not only would the two be bound to close on a one-year $16.371 million contract, according to the exclusive-rights franchise tender that restricts the free agent from signing with another team, he could miss out some of the first team practices.

Now, according to some sources close to the negotiations, Drew Brees has said that he will not sign the tender nor will he report to the New Orleans Saints training camp when it begins July 24. It seems as if Brees will try to play this one out and get the team to be a bit more flexible and give him the number he’s been asking for his new contract. He is not expected to miss any regular season games but it seems that he may leave the Saints guessing as to whether he will report in time for the team’s opener against the Washington Redskins on Sept. 9. He insists to keep the upper hand on this.

Now, check this part out. Because of the newly signed collective bargaining agreement, Drew Brees would have until the Tuesday after the 10th regular-season game to sign his tender. If he doesn’t comply with this, he would be prohibited from playing the remainder of the season. If Brees misses any games, his 2012 salary would be a prorated amount of the $16.371 million based on the number of games remaining once he signs his tender. Now, you might think that he is been grossly underpaid, but at the end, that doesn’t seem to be the situation. According to the official records, the New Orleans Saints have offered Brees a contract that would average $19.25 million per year. That’s not bad at all. For instance, that would turn out to be slightly more than the $19.2 million the Denver Broncos gave Peyton Manning. Then again, Brees is three years younger than Peyton Manning who has also undergone 5 neck surgeries, so you would guess that his better health might get him a little more money.

Brees is seeking an average of $20.5 million per year. It seems a bit high for the Saints management which is trying to protect the integrity of the salary cap and their roster. And yet this could go wrong: if Brees played for the franchise tender of $16.37 million this year and $23.57 million in 2013. A long-term contract seems as the most reasonable exit for the Saints so, I’m willing to guess that at the 11^th hour before the deadline the two parts are going to reach an agreement.

It might be a little to soon to really tell if there’s truly something behind this new rumor, but it seems that the bad news keep on building up against the New Orleans Saints. This has been a troubled offseason for the Saints, probably it’s roughest ever. And we are talking about a team in a city that in 2005 was devastated by Hurricane Katrina. When the Saints General Manager Mick Loomis and the head coach Sean Peyton and starting quarterback Drew Brees were able to guide this team into winning a Super Bowl a couple of season ago, the squad reached it’s highest point.

But the bounty scandal took it’s first blow against the team and now, a second rumor hit’s the aura of a team that is certainly looking a little less virtuous and angelic. According to the news cable that was released earlier today, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Eastern District of Louisiana was anonymously told Friday that the New Orleans Saints general manager Mickey Loomis had an electronic device in his Superdome suite that allowed him to monitor the visiting coaching staffs for nearly three NFL seasons. Evidently the system had been secretly re-wired to his private suite in the stadium.

Sure enough, ever since then, they have been a dominant squad in their league and just last season they broke some mayor offensive NFL records, but they just couldn’t make it to the Super Bowl. Then again, the NFL eventually found the organization guilty of establishing and continuing (despite a first warning call from the league) to support a hurt-for-pay bounty program.

From there on it was up to the NFL commissioner, Roger Goodell to make an example of the Saints and gave them the most sever punishment ever recorded. New Orleans’ head coach Sean Payton was suspended without pay for the entire next season and indefinitely banned the team’s former defensive coordinator, Gregg Williams, from coaching in the league. Goodell also banned Saints general manager Mickey Loomis for the first eight regular-season games next season. And just to finish them off, the NFL fined the Saints $500,000 and took away their second-round draft picks for the next two years. So yes, so far, this has been one heck of a preseason for New Orleans.

The big issue here is that the Saints, or at least Loomis, as it seems that the accusations are placed upon him, could not only be facing and investigation by the NFL, but he could easily be accused of a federal crime, for inflicting with the regulations set upon the federal Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA) of 1986 which explicitly prohibits any person from intercepting communications from another person using an electronic or mechanical device. According to the rumors, Loomis was able to listen to the opposite team’s conversations from 2003 all the way up to 2005, the season when the Saints had go let go of the Superdome as it first worked as a shelter and then had to undergo many repairs after the hurricane damaged the structure. It is still uncertain if an investigation is going to be opened by either the federal, state, or local government. As far as we know it’s uncertain whether the NFL is going to make theirown investigation. One thing is for sure, the rumor is out there and spreading fast.

Alex Smith was playing his first postseason game against Drew Brees and the New Orleans Saints, a team that had just finished one of the most proficient regular seasons ever breaking records for most yardage in a single season, and having Drew Brees brake Dan Marino’s 27-year-old record for most passing yards in a season. Truth be said, there were very high expectations for the Saints. They had a brilliant team that relied heavily on the most efficient offense we had seen in over a decade, but the San Francisco 49ers proved once again that perseverance is everything and managed to close a thrilling 32-36 last minute game with a win.

It was an epic battle. For a moment there, it seemed as if the Saints were going to be able to pull of a comeback when Drew Brees completed a 66-yard touchdown pass to Jimmy Graham with only 1:37 left on the game. It looked as if the Saints were going to get it together and recover from a 17-point deficit to keep on their winning run. That was until Alex Smith simply put an end to it all when, with only 9-seconds left of on the game, he connected a 14-yard touchdown pass to Vernon Davis to leave the Saints stunned in the field.

At the end, the Saints have no one but themselves to blame for missing out on the Conference Finals. The Saints gave up five turnovers and the San Francisco 49ers just didn’t let that one slide. They practically capitalized on the Saints every mistake, and at the end, Jim Harbaugh’s squad proved that even in the modern, wide-open NFL, a team with a solid game plan and a bullet proof defense can overpower one of the league’s most fluid offenses.

The 49ers won their first playoffs match in 9 years, and now will have to face the New York Giants, who are coming off an impressive win over the most-favorite Aaron Rodgers and the Green Bay Packers. It might be still a bit early to take a wild guess on how this game is going to evolve, but it seems that with Eli Manning and the Giants getting a powerful boost to the squad stamina, they are going to be a really though team to beat.

According to Stats LLC, Smith made the San Francisco 49ers the first team in NFL history to score two lead-changing touchdowns in the final 3 minutes to win a playoff game. For all we care, he was really the secret ingredient to make this one of the most thrilling and intense games we’ve witnessed in the last few years.

The Saints were coming into San Francisco with the motivation that an almost perfect season had given them. They were confident about their offense, and their star quarterback performance, but at the end, Brees just couldn’t deliver. The Saints starting quarterback had managed to link consecutive 600-yard games, but on Saturday’s afternoon he only completed 40 of 63 passes for 462 yards and four touchdowns and was sacked three times. And that’s when it all went down.