A few of you have been pestering me

.... to start blogging more frequently, presumably because you are looking for a chuckle. Trust me: You don't need my blog for laughs. There's a lot of funny stuff out there. You just have to look for it. Every now and then you'll stumble upon something like this completely ridiculous and hilarious NASCAR betting piece on ESPN.com.

A few highlights that had me laughing:

"It's a pretty foregone conclusion," says Micah Roberts, who sets odds for properties under Palace Station Casino.

Perhaps this should have been taken down a couple weeks ago then.

"For the Sprint Cup, he has," says Jay Rood, who sets the odds for properties of The Mirage. "We're not offering anything on the championship. I would rather have it [off the board] than have it up there where you have to lay 10 dollars down to make a dollar on Johnson and you're giving crazy odds on drivers that have no shot at winning it.

"You're not giving the public a fair shake by doing that."

I'd like to go make a NASCAR bet at the Mirage this week but I'm afraid that Rood will call my Mom and tell on me if I get too good of a number.

And I'm pretty sure this wouldn't be the first time the Mirage didn't give bettors a "Fair shake."

"There's not that much interest when somebody checks out like that," says Fred Crespi, who sets the odds for The Palm. "There's more interest for the first 26 races than the last 10."

No joke here. The Palms is a great place to bet NASCAR.

Just make sure you don't win.


Last Saturday: 0-1, -$210

Year to Date: 21-20, +$136


One lesson learned in 2008: Numbers in college football are pretty much meaningless. I laid 26.5 on LSU and it closed 31. They won by 25.

Don't roll your eyes at me, Bennett.


(208) Cleveland Browns -3 (-106) vs. Denver Broncos

I'll do a little mock write-up for Ed's amusement. (You're welcome, bro.) Basically, I'm betting on the Browns because Denver is terrible. Their defense can't stop anyone. I think so little of the Broncos defense that I actually expect Brady Quinn to play well. How bad is the Denver 'D'? I saw on SportsCenter last night that opposing QBs are completing more than 70% of their passes against this garbage team. In fact, through eight games, Denver's defense is giving up a higher completion percentage to opposing passers than any team in the history of the NFL. And they will be without CB Champ Bailey and LB D.J. Williams tonight. Even Quinn should be able to carve these guys up. It's not like he ever struggled in college when he played on big stages or anything....

I like a bunch of games on Sunday. It may get messy.


Here are a few more items of note. Keep in mind that the Redskins got their asses kicked on Monday so instead of joking around, I'll take this opportunity to rant about stuff.

(I'm sorry but you could always just stop reading now, you know.)

* Why do I even bother getting my hopes up over the Redskins every season? I've wasted so many hours of my life on that team. I follow them day after day, week after week, year after year and for what? It's not like they're ever going to win anything significant. I feel like an Eagles fan. What's the point? They're never going to win, anyway. Losing at home like that to a crap team like the Steelers is just embarrassing.

* Gotta hand it to my brother Peter for taking the loss to the Steelers like a man. I'm told that while all the drunken idiot Steelers fans were waving their stupid towels and talking shit, he pulled his hood over his head and walked to the car, without mouthing off to anyone or "Accidentally" bumping into someone. Nice job, bro. Some day when Dad is too old to go to the games (But hopefully still paying the outrageously high ticket prices) you and I will go together, go way overboard on the drinking, and literally seek out a fight with someone, preferably Eagles fans. I can't wait for that day.

* Nice interception on Monday Night, Carlos Rogers. Would it have been easier if Roethlisberger had just run up to you and handed you the ball? Perhaps you should start using stick-em on your hands like the black WR kid in the movie Little Giants.

It's not like an interception return for a TD would have been a big play in that game or anything. Unbelievable.

* Congrats to the Giants for beating the Steelers without 'Fast' Willie Parker or Santonio Holmes, both of whom were back for the Redskins game. And congrats for beating the Cowboys with Brooks Bollinger under center. Tony Romo will be back for the Skins game, of course. I think Romo is the most overrated player in the league but he's still clearly an upgrade over Bollinger or Brad Johnson. It's a two-horse race between the Giants and Bucs to see which team can catch the most breaks this season.

* Saw that the Raiders cut DeAngelo yesterday. I've always said that guy is terrible. I wonder who is going to pick him up.... Gee, I dunno.... Tough to figure....Maybe the.... Cowboys? That would be shocking.

* I don't even know who is good in this league any more. Everyone acts like the Giants are the best team in the NFL and headed back to the Super Bowl. I expect them to lose to Ed's garbage team by double digits on Sunday night.

* The AFC is an even bigger collection of slop teams with terrible coaches. None of the teams in the AFC East are Super Bowl quality. The Steelers lead the North despite having a horrible offensive line and an injured QB. The entire AFC West sucks. I guess the Titans are good. I guess.

* I have a bet on Alabama to win the BCS Championship at 20-1. In order to do so, they would need to win at LSU on Saturday, beat Auburn at home in the Iron Bowl, win the SEC Championship game in Atlanta against Florida, and beat Penn State or whoever comes out of the Big 12 in Miami in the title game. Ed has calculated a running moneyline parlay on those 4 games to pay somewhere in the neighborhood of 9 million to 1. Could one of you math guys calculate it out for me and tell me what it would actually pay? Thank you.

* I have some Jorgen stuff today. He and I will be on the same side of a college football wager on Saturday. Take a wild guess which team it is. I gotta say the kid seems very happy at the Venetian. And I like having another person there to keep me abreast of what numbers they have available on certain things. It comes in very handy sometimes.

I also like that his Venetian shirt matches his man purse. It's very becoming. Frankly, I don't know how the cocktail waitresses resist him. But, by all accounts, they do.

* No Jeff stuff today. He's such a ball busting prick sometimes. And he doesn't even read this thing anyway. He's out of the blog for a while.

* I gotta hand it to the Democrats: They ran a great campaign. Basically, all they did was say "Everyone is pissed at Bush so let's find someone who is his exact opposite, is a ridiculously good orator, and somehow convince people that because he is different than Bush, he will be able to 'Change' everything." I'm not saying that everyone who voted for Obama is an idiot because I definitely don't believe that to be true. But I do think that every idiot voted for Obama. And in this country, if you lock up that idiot vote, you are made in the shade.

* Ridiculously funny post-election South Park on Wednesday night. Randy Marsh is comedy gold. It perfectly summed up all the idiots running around yelling "Change" over and over again like that has any actual meaning.

"Yes We Can!"

* How about FOX's decision to cancel the classic comedy King of the Hill to make room for another comedic abortion by Seth MacFarlane? I like Family Guy but American Dad is just complete and utter garbage and I'm pretty sure his new show (Which apparently centers around Peter Griffin's neighbor Cleveland Brown) will be even worse.

Why do people have to be so stupid that they can't appreciate any shows that have clever writing like King of the Hill or Arrested Development? FOX should just show a 30 minute clip of Peter Griffin farting in inappropriate places. That would probably draw better ratings than any of their good shows did.


Trivia Question for Thursday: Brady Quinn took over as starting QB of the Fightin' Irish during his true freshman season. Who did he replace?

** Friday's Answer: Mark Richt replaced Jim Donnan at Georgia.


The Redskins are off this week so my weekend will center around what happens on the track in Avondale, Arizona. Let's all hope that the Lowe's Chevy Imapla 48 is running well on Sunday.



Enjoy the game.