25 observations from the football and sports betting worlds:

1. Wouldn’t be nice if more coaches were as straightforward as Cal’s Jeff Tedford was when talking about his decision-making in the Golden Bears loss to Oregon State? Tedford doesn’t shirk from the hard questions, but of course the queries aren’t quite as aggressive in Berkley as they are in Columbus, Baton Rouge, and other more football-centric locales.
2. I’ve got a friend, a serious bettor in Las Vegas, who leaves baseball behind once the gridiron battles begin. He has bet a single baseball game since Labor Day. He bet on the Rockies in the one game they lost in the last 22. That’s hard to do.
3. That horrendous timing reminded me of the people who withdrew from Pinnacle when they stopped serving US customers just in time for Neteller to go south. Two people who should have been better informed asked me recently if they had any chance at their Neteller money. If you somehow missed it, you’ve had access to that cash for a while now. Check their web site..
4. Rutgers and their coach Greg Schiano aren’t making a lot of friends this season..
5. With the erratic quarterback play of the Bears, it is no surprise that the injured Lido Sheppard finds his way back to the lineup this week for the Eagles. Also in Philly, it looks like Brian Westbrook should have let the Eagles know immediately when he received his $3 million roster bonus twice by mistake. Not only is the money being withheld from his paycheck, but Westbrook is on the hook for getting the $1.3 million in taxes back from the various agencies that collected it..
6. Starting his career with a 17-1 record, UW coach Bret Bielema was off to the second-best start in the history of Big Ten football coaching. If you want a record that will never be broken, here’s one for you. Kicking off his career in 1901, Fielding Yost led Michigan to a 55-0-1 record before suffering his first loss in 1905. Of course the propensity of the Badgers to allow big plays defensively finally caught up to them the past two weeks, and Bielema’s career mark is now 17-3..
7. With rare exceptions, teasers are terrible bets in college football. Look at Louisville. The Cardinals are 2-4 against the spread, failing to cover by 25, 11½, 40½ and 24, while notching their only two covers by 10½ and 14..
8. Now don’t misread the above. We’re not saying you don’t shop for points and good value in college football, we’re telling you that it is simply less likely that the games will land within tight margins in college football as opposed to the NFL..
9. Boy that “Beckham to Change the Face of American Soccer” thing really was worth all the media coverage this summer, wasn’t it?.
10. Is this really a member of the American media actually digging deep into the truths about sports betting? Yes it is. The Baltimore Sun’s Bill Ordine writes:.”Over and over again, the lesson is driven home that a reputable, government-regulated, tax-paying, vested self-interest sports gambling industry — along with strong policies among sports organizations to educate and police players and officials — is about the only way to keep instances of game-fixing to a minimum.”.
11. In the Monday Night Football booth Jimmy Kimmel said hello to Joe Theismann, “watching from home with steam coming out of his ears.” Theismann, of course, was canned from the ESPN broadcast last year and was none too happy about it. Kimmel has been banned from future Monday Night Football contests for being “classless and disappointing”..
12. Kimmel had a great line about an employee who had unhappily separated from ESPN/ABC last year as well. In the booth during a cold, windy, rainy game in Seattle, talk turned to the conditions and Kimmel said “if only John Madden were alive to see this.” Funny that ESPN didn’t find criticizing someone working elsewhere to be “classless and disappointing. ” You hire Rush Limbaugh on your pregame show and fire him for being Rush Limbaugh. You have Jimmy Kimmel in your booth and ban him for being Jimmy Kimmel. If only they’d ban Stuart Scott for being Stuart Scott..
13. John Fox says that even if David Carr is healthy, he may not be the Panthers quarterback after the bye week. It really speaks to the lack of quality quarterbacks when a 43-year old man gets offers early in the week from two teams and then heads up the effort of one of them to beat the other that Sunday..
14. Don’t look for relative youngster Drew Bledsoe to come back. He’s rebuffed offers and is happily attending school board meetings.
15. Since I like trip reports from places I want to see a game someday, and since I’ve never been to Lambeau Field, I enjoyed Steve Czaban’s report from Green Bay..
16. My appearances on the Friday Czaban show appear to be relatively set in stone at 8:10AM EDT on the 100+ Fox Sports Radio affiliate’s that carry his program. The show also runs on XM 142, which also offers a replay where I appear at 2:10PM EDT..
17. Here’s what passes for monumental if you’re Syracuse these days. Trailing 38-14 (after leading 14-0) in an empty Carrier Dome Syracuse’s final running play of the day was a 13-yard gain by Doug Hogue. With that carry Syracuse became the final 1-A team to rush for 100 yards in a game as a team this season. No way Greg Robinson is back next year if the Orangemen lose at home to Buffalo Saturday. So do Syracuse fans root against the humiliation, or root for the housecleaning?.
18. R&B singer R. Kelly is probably looking for vacation property in Maine these days..
19. You Mid-Atlantic types shouldn’t get too excited about the potential for legalized sports betting in Delaware. Even if they have it, it will be in a lottery-type fashion, meaning parlay cards with lousy payoffs..
20. Is it more impressive that the 6-0 Patriots have outgained their opponents by 1050 yards or is it more impressive that they’ve covered all six games by a total of 82 points?.
21. Looking for an old-fashioned complimentary selection phones with sound analysis and interesting pointspread data? Dave Fobare’s comp phone is at 1-770-618-8700, while Matty Baiungo and Erik Scheponik share a comp line at 1-404-250-7555. Both are 24-hour broadcasts, so call any time..
22. Remember the preseason thought that Air Force would struggle as Troy Calhoun instituted an offense with more passing using the run-oriented personnel inherited from Fisher DeBerry? Well Calhoun didn’t just fall off the turnip truck. Against Colorado State’s weak run defense, the Falcons ran the ball 69 times and threw only 7 passes. Air Force won 41-21 as tight end (yes, tight end) Chad Hall ran 31 times for 256 yards. Hall started the season as an H-back type labeled as a tight end but is carrying the ball out of the backfield..
23. According to the Phoenix Coyotes (that’s a hockey team, by the way), Penn State should not be using the phrase “White Out” when they encourage fans to wear white to night games. The tradition-laden Coyotes hold the trademark to the phrase. Penn State is now using the phrase “Penn State White Out”, which means that it’ll soon be lawsuit time..
24. In their last 19 games, the Minnesota Vikings have allowed an opposing team to rush for over 100 yards exactly once, when the Vikes let the Rams run all over them to the tune of 168 yards in last season’s finale. Minnesota is allowing 63 yards per game on 2.7 yards per carry since the beginning of last season..
25. The Hoover (Alabama) High School football program immortalized by the ESPN program “Two-A-Days” is in upheaval, with the coach being investigated for unauthorized benefits, an affair with an administrator, supporting two families, and all sorts of other tawdry allegations to go along with more mundane stuff like academic malfeasance to keep players eligible.

Have a great weekend. Good luck and be careful.