Bet the Super Bowl Online

NFL, which is also known as the National Football League can be considered as the richest sports league in the modern world. It has come a tremendous journey over the past few decades, overcoming basketball, baseball and all the other sports business industries in America. From the statistical information, it can clearly be seen that NFL has generated more than 6 billion dollars of profit throughout 2013.

According to an article published by the Forbes Magazine in 2007, it has been identified that the value of 32 NFL teams is around $957 million each. In addition, they have estimated the cost of five franchises to one billion dollars each. Even the newest franchise of NFL is worth of $782 million, which is much higher than the value of all the basketball, hockey and baseball teams that you can find across United States.  In the year 2008, Wayne Huizenga, who is the owner of Miami Dolphins agreed to sell half of his team for $500 million. It clearly shows the demand that NFL teams have in the present world. However, this research was conducted seven years back and experts predict that it will be much higher in the present world.

How do they get all this money? Well, a majority of their revenues come through television broadcasts. The National Football League receives more than 2 billion dollars through its television broadcast. In addition, they receive over one billion dollars by selling tickets, merchandise and through advertising. Since they get a good profit, all the NFL players have got the opportunity to experience amazing salaries. According to the player contracts, the players are entitled to receive more than 59.5 percent of the gross revenues. A single player can therefore receive around $1.4 million a year as the salary.

A large percentage of the NFL revenues have to be spent on stadiums. Unlike other sports, NFL is played in palatial stadiums, which are associated with a wide variety of expenses. They also have to spend a lot of money as taxpayers. However, NFL can be summarized as a veritable cash machine that Americans have got. The incredible popularity and wealth of NFL has even motivated them to think of expansions. Even though it holds the number one position in the sports industry for profits, the entire league is humble in the extreme. That can be considered as the main reason behind their increasing popularity throughout the past 7 decades.

Saturday night’s game was played in the same Qualcomm Stadium where the Packers lost Super Bowl XXXIII to Denver.

General Manager Ted Thompson was the Packers’ director of player personnel that season and said he remembered few details from the game.

“You remember the locker room after the game, even the weird party,” Thompson said. “You always have a party after the Super Bowl, and when you win like we did at New Orleans (the previous year) it’s really a good party. Wwhen you lose, it’s sort of a surreal. I love San Diego but that’s not necessarily a good memory.

“I remember almost every play of the game at New Orleans, but I don’t remember much from that game. As I recall both offenses were pretty productive and both teams were going down the field.”

He had not come right out and said it, in part because, until Monday’s news conference, no one specifically had asked the question. But here’s what Donovan McNabb expects for the Eagles this season: “We are a Super Bowl team.”McNabb said it, and he meant it. Just like Tiki Barber meant it when he recently declared the Giants a championship-caliber team. Just like Mark Brunell meant it when, two weeks ago, he said anything short of a title for the Redskins would be a failure.

Players, particularly accomplished veterans, are supposed to be brimming with confidence in August. It is the month of optimism, when players state goals and send notice out to the league that yes, their team is loaded, their team is tough, their team is going to be difficult to beat.

Who is to argue when the real games haven’t even begun?

Still, McNabb’s pronouncement was striking, given the Eagles’ bust of a 2005 season. In a wide-ranging 30-minute interview after his news conference, McNabb made another prediction.

“I think (if) we get back to the form we were at, we can change 6-10 to possibly 13-3, or 14-2, possibly,” McNabb said. “I would love to say 16-0, but we can get back to that winning season. I think it is possible. I don’t think it’s out of reach.”
Fourteen wins and just two losses? Since the NFL went to a 16-game schedule in 1978, the Eagles never have won 14 games in a season. Their 13-3 record of 2004 is the benchmark.

Only five teams this decade have won 14 or more games in a season: St. Louis in 2001, New England in 2003, New England and Pittsburgh (15) in 2004, and Indianapolis last year.

It is a lofty goal, to say the least.

McNabb isn’t a blustery, in-your-face, talk-a-bunch-of-trash kind of player. He is a thoughtful guy, not necessarily cautious but not wildly flamboyant with his words either. He qualified his comments by insisting he wasn’t “saying it overconfidently or with my chest out. It’s just kind of that push we have in that locker room.”

Despite the Eagles’ lack of a big-time wide receiver and Brian Westbrook’s ongoing injury issues, McNabb really likes this team. He mentioned the depth and talent on defense – particularly along the line and in the secondary – and said he expects the defense to be ranked in the top five in the NFL. He named a variety of options on offense, including almost all of his receivers, tight ends L.J. Smith and Matt Schobel, and Westbrook.

Sure, McNabb is concerned about Westbrook’s sprained left foot, and even more concerned about Todd Pinkston’s healing Achilles tendons. He cautioned everyone not to set unrealistic expectations for young receiver Hank Baskett. And he acknowledged that Jabar Gaffney is still trying to learn the offense, and Darnerien McCants is still trying to master it.

But this team, McNabb said, reminds him of the 2004 team that went to the Super Bowl, with one notable exception.

“We don’t have the big-name receiver that everybody can talk about, but just the team as a whole,” McNabb said. “We have some great talent on defense that’s going to be really exciting, where I think our defense can get back to top five in the league. Offensively, people still talk about our run game and we don’t have that No. 1 receiver, but offensively I think we can get back to kind of that top-five, top-10 offense where we’re doing a lot of different things to create mismatches. …

“I think it’s important that we get back to our offense, to running our offense. Add some wrinkles in there to create a lot of mismatches and holes in the defenses we play, but I still feel the talent is there.”

The `04 Eagles held opponents to 16.3 points per game and scored 24.1 points per game. They had the league’s 10th-best defense and ranked second in sacks, while the offense was eighth in scoring and ninth in total yards.

Terrell Owens was an integral part of the offense, and his importance cannot be overstated. He infused the team with confidence and drew double teams that freed other receivers to make plays. Westbrook had 73 receptions, just four fewer than Owens, and rushed for more than 800 yards. Pinkston pulled down 36 catches, and Smith grabbed 34.

It’s way too early to say the `06 Eagles will have that kind of balance on offense, but from what he’s seen over the last several weeks, McNabb thinks they can. It is not unrealistic, McNabb said, for Reggie Brown to have 70 catches this season, Baskett to have 50, and Gaffney, McCants, Schobel and Smith to have 30 apiece.

Of course, as the Redskins learned Sunday night, expectations can change in an instant. Four minutes into Washington’s preseason game against Cincinnati, Clinton Portis dislocated his left shoulder tackling a Bengals cornerback after Brunell threw an interception. Backup running back Kerry Carter later suffered torn ligaments in his knee, effectively ending his season before it began.

Portis likely will be back once the regular season starts, but even he acknowledged that the injury could dog him all season. He is a focal point of the Redskins’ offense. Without him healthy, they struggle.
That’s the thing about Super Bowl aspirations. Almost anybody can have them in August.

Even though NFL got the opportunity to become a major professional sport during 1950s, they were not able to reap its maximum benefits for few years. It all happened during 1960s where the league created an ideal platform for economic dominance. In the year 1959, Bert Bell, who was the long time NFL commissioner diet because of a sudden heart attack and Pete Rozelle came into play after that. He was there in the position for about 30 years, which delivered promising results to the American sports business.

Rozelle did many things in order to enhance the popularity of NFL and generate more revenues. The partnerships he established with television networks hold a prominent place out of them. In the present world, most of NFL’s revenues come from television broadcasts. During Rozelle’s time, people were in need of sports broadcasts. Baseball was dominating the channels at that time, but its popularity gradually reduced with the introduction of NFL. As a result of the NFL popularity, popular announcers came into commentary and NFL players got the opportunity to make money through commercials. All these plans were in the mind of Rozelle and he was able to execute them in a convenient manner.

In the meantime, NFL owners were able to increase their revenues through selling tickets. Even though some owners were afraid that increased television broadcast can reduce gate revenues, it didn’t happen like that. Instead, the gate revenues increased dramatically because of the popularity. This motivated Rozelle to move the league’s office to Rockefeller Center in the New York City. This opened opportunities for a wide range of revenue sharing plans that were targeting small market teams such as Green Bay packers. This gave the chance for such teams to obtain a competitive balance in the industry and ensure a competitive industry.

Over the past few years, the popularity of NFL increased gradually and its television contracts brought in a lot of revenue. In the present world, they have established partnerships with major television networks such as ESPN, Fox, CBS and NBC. These six year deals have the potential to bring in over 12 billion dollars for the 32 teams.

The Chicago Bears evacuated training camp Wednesday in a caravan of luxury SUVs northbound on Interstate 57, thereby rendering RD’s pub a celebrity-free zone for another year. From now on, what happens in practice stays in practice, and the players are spared the daily gauntlet of adoring children and autograph hounds. Plus, they can, more or less successfully, avoid reporters between game days.Now, it’s time to get to work installing wild and crazy stuff that will set the NFL ablaze

Right.

Three weeks and three days before the season-opener at Green Bay, there is little concern about the Bears’ defense.
Teams win Super Bowls with defenses like this one.

But not with offenses like the Bears fielded last season.

The thing is, the Bears offense doesn’t have to be a lot better to take the next postseason step (win a game) or two (reach the Super Bowl) or even three (throw a championship parade down Michigan Avenue). Just enough better to score one more field goal per game. Or two, to be safe.

“I’m not going to get caught up in stats,” offensive coordinator Ron Turner says. “If I worried about where our offense ranked statistically, we’d have done different things to get our ranking higher. We wouldn’t have won 10 games, but we’d have been ranked higher.

“Last year, we did what we had to to do win games.”

Effectively, that meant teaching rookie quarterback Kyle Orton how not to lose games: Take care of the ball, and when the defense gift-wraps possession deep in enemy territory, score.

But to be a real Super Bowl contender – as opposed to hallucinating, as the Bears did in 2005 – a team’s offense must be able to win games on occasion. The time will come when a quarterback must drive the field and get a touchdown in 90 seconds. Orton is not yet that quarterback, and that’s why his rookie accomplishments earned him a demotion to third string on the depth chart.

Rex Grossman might be that quarterback. Mostly due to injuries, he has played fewer games in his three NFL seasons than Orton did last year. But Grossman has the ability to make big plays, and so he tops the Bears’ depth chart. Unfortunately, sometimes those big plays are mistakes that benefit the opposing team.

That’s why the Bears signed veteran starter Brian Griese, who has proven himself quite capable of moving the ball downfield with a minimum of mistakes. On the other hand, Griese’s only playoff experience in eight seasons came his rookie year in Denver, where he watched from the bench as John Elway won the Broncos a Super Bowl.

Suddenly, though, the Bears might have the deepest QB corps in pro football. Not the best corps, mind you, but that’s OK. They don’t have to be great. They simply have to be good enough to win when the defense yields, say, 18-20 points.

“We’ve got to be more productive this year,” Turner agrees. “I know that to go farther, we need to take care of the football like we did last year, and we need to run the football like we did, but we also need to be more productive passing. That doesn’t mean throw it more. That means throw it better and more efficiently, and make plays when they’re there.”

Whether the Bears quarterbacks – one or all of them – can do that remains to be seen. If they can, though, a Super Bowl could be more than a dream.

Normally, you don’t want to find yourself in agreement with Jeremy Shockey. The New York Giants’ tight end, while a valuable player, also is something of a caveman. But on the subject of preseason football, Shockey’s recent comment that two-a-day practices and four preseason games are a “debacle” and “dangerous” is the only logical position to take.

Of course, the NFL isn’t listening, not when the telecast of a preseason game can attract 7 million viewers, which is what happened a week ago. There’s far too much money to be made, so the games will continue. And they also will continue to be unnecessarily dangerous, as we saw Sunday night in the game between the Bengals and Redskins.

Only four minutes in, Clinton Portis suffered a partial dislocation of his left shoulder. The starters weren’t scheduled to play more than 15 plays, and they didn’t; the starting offensive unit took 13, to be exact. But that was long enough for Portis to get hurt. He got crunched while making a tackle after a Mark Brunell pass was intercepted. So Portis got hurt making an earnest effort on a worthless play he shouldn’t even have been involved in during a meaningless game. One would think Portis will be ready to start the season, but we’re talking about an injured shoulder on a running back.

It’s not news that football players get hurt. And none of the injuries the Redskins suffered was as gruesome or significant as, say, the blast to the knee of Bengals quarterback Carson Palmer in that playoff game against the Steelers in January.
But it’s worth getting hurt in the playoffs because it’s the playoffs. It is unspeakably unnecessary to get hurt in the preseason because it’s nothing.

The Pittsburgh Steelers have heard all the explanations why they won the Super Bowl.They got hot at the right time. They got the breaks, especially with the officiating and injuries to opposing stars such as Carson Palmer. They didn’t have to play the Patriots, the team that had beaten them twice in four years for the AFC championship.

How about this explanation, one that several Steelers suggested: Maybe they were the best team in the NFL when they won the Super Bowl. And how about this prediction, one they willingly offered: Maybe they will be even better this season.

“I feel like we definitely were the best football team,” linebacker Joey Porter said.

To Porter, the Steelers’ only true loss last season was to Indianapolis in the regular season, a defeat they made up for by beating the Colts in the AFC playoffs. Two overtime losses, to Jacksonville and Baltimore, came with Tommy Maddox at quarterback – and he was No. 3 on their depth chart when the season ended. They also lost close games at home to the Patriots and Bengals, but they won twice in Cincinnati.

“I do hear stuff, and it’s like a smack in the face,” linebacker Larry Foote said Tuesday. “We were just playing the best ball at the right time. I mean, isn’t that the goal of every team, to be playing the best ball at the end of the season? So it doesn’t make sense to me when I hear analysts say, `Oh, they just got hot at the right time.’ ”

The Steelers made an unprecedented run as the No. 6-seeded team in the AFC, winning three road games in as many weeks before beating Seattle 21-10 in the Super Bowl. Because they were judged to be a one-season anomaly rather than the real deal – despite their 25-6 record over the last two seasons – they don’t always hear their name mentioned among the primary contenders this season.

“(The Patriots’) Tom Brady is out there, (the Colts’) Peyton Manning is out there, and they would be logical picks – and they can keep on doing that,” Foote said. “But we’re going to be ready when we step on that field, against anybody.”

The Steelers had most of their primary players signed to multiyear contracts, so they did not have to tear themselves apart to stay under the salary cap – as many Super Bowl winners have had to do. They lost one starter on offense (WR Antwaan Randle El) and two on defense (DE Kimo von Oelhoffen and S Chris Hope), plus longtime star Jerome Bettis, whose loss may be the greatest of all because of his leadership.

Still, with so many players entering what should be the peak years of their careers, the Steelers think they could easily be better than they were last season. They are relatively young, too, with only two starters on offense older than 29: Ward (30) and center Jeff Hartings (33).

The oldest starter on what was the NFL’s No. 4 defense last season is linebacker James Farrior, who is 31. Cornerback Deshea Townsend and Aaron Smith are 30.

“I mean, we definitely are a lot more confident on defense, but we got to put the work in,” Foote said. “We’ve got the talent, we’ve got the players who can get it done, so this is all about upstairs. Did we get smarter this year? Can we eliminate our mistakes and just come out flying?”

The biggest change on defense finds former Redskins safety Ryan Clark replacing Hope at free safety. All-Pro strong safety Troy Polamalu is worried about Hope’s departure, wondering if it is possible to develop the same instinctive relationship with another safety that he had with Hope. Hope signed with the Tennessee Titans as a free agent.

Polamalu often lines up at different positions on nearly every play, to change the angles the Steelers’ pass rush takes at quarterbacks and to keep opposing offenses guessing what pressure they will bring. To have this kind of flexibility, Polamalu needs the other safety to react to what he is doing, often with no warning.

From what Foote sees, that hasn’t been a problem so far in training camp.

“Yeah, that’s going OK,” Foote said. “Troy’s got to be a little more vocal – I think Chris Hope was a lot more vocal. But the safeties we have are vocal – Ryan Clark, Tyrone (Carter), Mike Logan – so Troy will be able to do his thing.”

The biggest story in baseball this year is what? The Detroit Tigers? Welcome to the NFL, where there is a Detroit Tigers-caliber turnaround every season. Except, of course, in Detroit.

“People always ask me to critique this team, tell me what your record is going to be, are you going to make the playoffs?” said Ted Thompson, Packers general manager. “Who really knows what’s going to happen? I think it has a chance to be a pretty darn good team, but we’ll see.”

You laugh. You say, “Weren’t the Packers 4-12 last season?” Yes, they were. And no, I don’t think they’ll win or participate in Super Bowl XL.

But check out this conversation in 1999: Beat writer for expansion Cleveland Browns to colleague in St. Louis: “Hey, I’ll see you this fall when the Browns are in town.”

Colleague in St. Louis: “Yeah, at least the Browns will have one win this year. The Rams are terrible!” The Rams were 4-12 the year before. In 1999, they were 13-3 and won Super Bowl XXXIV.

“It is kind of funny how quickly things change,” Bears coach Lovie Smith said. “A year ago, nobody picked the Bears to win the NFC North. Except us, of course. We knew we could do it, even after we started 1-3. But until you do it, who is going to believe you?” The Bears were 5-11 in 2004. Last year, they were 11-5. Now, they’re so well-respected, the Vikings and Lions are copying their defensive scheme, the Tampa-2 – minus Brian Urlacher, of course.

In 2000, the Patriots were 5-11 and Bill Belichick was still a failure as a head coach. A year later, he trips over a bench-warmer named Tom Brady, wins the first of three Super Bowls in four years and punches his ticket to the Pro Football Hall of Fame the moment he retires.

So why can’t the Packers shock the league like that this year? The defense, which was respectable last season, will have as many as five upgraded starters, including veteran cornerback Charles Woodson and fifth overall draft pick A.J. Hawk at linebacker.

Offensively, if running back Ahman Green stays heathy and Brett Favre, the most experienced passer in league history, throws the ball to the right team, and…

“I say very little controversial things in the press,” Thompson said with a laugh. “So I’m not going to add anything to somebody’s bulletin board. I think every team in the division is improved. And because they were the runaway champions last season, and because they have such a dominant defense, I think you have to favor Chicago in our division. At least initially.”

The Packers have 53 first- or second-year players out of 89 currently taking part in training camp. Who’s to say they won’t be good players? Rookie receiver Greg Jennings, a second-round head-turner from Western Michigan, would be pushing for the No. 1 job if he were in Mankato.

“I feel like he’s kind of a natural at what he does,” Favre said. “Sometimes, guys in their first or second year, they show up and make plays and you go, `Whoa, that’s why we drafted them.’ We have guys who can do that. But it remains to be seen what can happen.”

He’s right. Preseason predictions are a joke.

As the Pittsburgh Steelers’ all-time leading receiver, and fresh off a Super Bowl MVP performance, Hines Ward could probably ease into his ninth NFL training camp. But then he wouldn’t be Hines Ward.”I asked him the other day why he takes so many plays,” said newcomer Ryan Clark. “I mean, he’s already a superstar receiver. But he said he still has to work, still has to make the team every year. When you see a guy like that, a veteran leader, a Super Bowl MVP, there’s no reason why a free agent or a young guy can’t work hard every day.”

Ward reported to camp at 205 pounds, which he says is the lightest of his career. He stays after practice every day to catch passes from a machine – sometimes using just one hand to perfect his technique. He stays longer still to work out with rookie receiver Santonio Holmes.

Ward, a four-time Pro Bowler, just turned 30. Wouldn’t simply maintaining his level of play at that age be enough work?“Technically, yeah,” Ward laughed. “But for me, that’s who I am. I’m very competitive.

“I’m not content with winning a Super Bowl and Super Bowl MVP. I think there’s a lot of room in my game I can always improve on and I won’t be satisfied. I want to hit that 10,000-yard mark for my career; I want to be mentioned right there along with Stallworth and Swann; and of course I want to go out and win another Super Bowl.”

Ward caught everything Ben Roethlisberger threw Wednesday night, the quarterback’s best practice yet. But if Roethlisberger is back, so is Ward.

After averaging 95 catches for 1,124 yards each of the previous four seasons, Ward caught 69 passes for 975 yards last season. He did have 11 touchdown passes, just one off his career high, and moved into first place on the Steelers’ all-time receptions list.

“Even though I didn’t have great stats, I had a better year last year than I did the year I caught 112 balls,” Ward said. “What I had to do without a guy like Plaxico Burress on the other side, and to still put up double-digit touchdowns and up my yards per catch, I did the little things, converted third downs and made big plays when I had to. So for me, that counts way more than stats.”

10. Jacksonville Jaguars (33/1 to win the Super Bowl) This team gets better and more experienced at key positions every season. They have explosive talent, and tend to give the Colts all they can handle in the regular season. Expect good things from the Jags in 06. And they can play in the preseason as well, with a very solid second string.

9. Pittsburgh Steelers (12/1 to win the Super Bowl) Before Steelers fans send us hate mail let’s explain why they check in at number 9 in our betting Power Rankings. They’re going to be heavily favored in the lines as the champions, which means they may struggle to cover ATS even though they win the games. Teams always seem to play their best against the defending champs, and this season will be no exception. We honestly don’t think they’ll repeat as Super Bowl champs, and there could be a lot of value in betting against them in early regular season games.

8. New England Patriots (7/1 to win the Super Bowl) The Patriots are still a formidable team, and they have a pleasant schedule thanks to their anemic division (excluding the Dolphins, see below). This is a team that will not offer a lot of betting value, however, because casual gamblers love to take the Pats regardless of the spread. Don’t fall for that trap, and tread carefully with this team, even if they do seem a lock for the playoffs.

7. New York Giants (25/1 to win the Super Bowl) We expect great things from this team, and particularly from Manning. But they play in a tough division and we would be surprised to see any NFC East team emerge with a record better than 11-5. That being said, the Giants are the team to beat in this division, and are legitimate contenders for the NFC Championship this season.

6. Carolina Panthers (12/1 to win the Super Bowl) This is a team that has improved in the offseason adding another weapon in Keyshawn, albeit an incredibly annoying one. Still, they have to compete in a very tough division and that alone prevents us from ranking them any higher. A lot of experts think they can make it back to the Super Bowl. We see them falling short, but still putting up good regular season ATS results.

5. Indianapolis Colts (6/1 to win the Super Bowl) Edgerrin who? The Colts will still win big in the regular season thanks to very talented running backs who look even better when the entire defense is worrying about Manning and some of the best receivers in the game. can they win the Super Bowl? Possibly, although they aren’t good betting value at only 6/1 based on their many postseason flameouts.

4. Denver Broncos (14/1 to win the Super Bowl) Broncos can win with anyone at running back and almost anyone at QB (and Plummer qualifies as “almost anyone”) because they are superbly coached. They also get a very weak AFC West this season compared to last year’s brutal three-way dogfight. Chargers are weaker, and Chiefs haven’t improved, so look for the Broncos to light it up this year, at least in the regular season.

3. Seattle Seahawks (12/1 to win the Super Bowl) This team returns most of the talent that got them nearly all the way last year, plus they have a soft schedule because they play in a pitiful division. Oddsmakers might make them heavy chalk but this is a team that should still win 10+ games this season, and could easily win 9 or 10 ATS.

2. Miami Dolphins (16/1 to win the Super Bowl) We’re swinging for the fences with this pick. The Dolphins should be excellent betting value this season, starting with the futures market to win the AFC East. If Culpepper is fit for the entire season that is, if he isn’t all bets are off. But he will rebound in Miami, and Ronnie Brown is ready to emerge as one of the best backs in the league. This is also the last chance for a number of defensive stars to get to the Super Bowl. They will make the playoffs, and they should be bet on to cover spreads in the regular season.

1. Chicago Bears (25/1 to win the Super Bowl) The Bears won their division last year without a functional QB (all apologies to Orton). When you have a defense like that you don’t need one. All the starters on defense return, and the draft made it an even stronger unit. Add to that two QBs who can play and you have the best betting value in the league. This team has no opposition in their own division, and will not be beaten by big margins in any games that they do lose. 25/1 is also a big price to win the Super Bowl – we’re not saying that they will win, only that those odds will come down a lot during the course of the season, making it a good value futures bet right now.