Billy Claude

Johntay Porter was a bench player for the Toronto Raptors. In the spring of 2024 he removed himself from two games claiming injury in which there was an unusual amount of money betted against him making his average points, rebounds and assists numbers. This was flagged by one of the sports betting firms and he eventually pled guilty and was banned for life from the NBA. Terry Rozier did something similar while he was on the Carolina Hornets in 2023. He was their big free agent signing at the time so a much more well-known than Johntay Porter. The NBA investigated and cleared him at the time but now Rozier is under federal investigation. Probably it didn't make as much news as it might because, first the NBA tried to keep it as quiet as possible, especially with respect to Rozier and second, both the Raptors and Hornets were very bad teams that had zero chance to make the playoffs.

The recent Jontay Porter and Terry Rozier scandals didn't have much effect on the NBA.

On the evidence part. this is what I found -- it is a small study of 500 Australian gamblers split into groups of those who gamble in game and those that don't. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7644858/#:~:text=Those who bet in-play,betting%2C holding other variables constant. They found those that bet in-played had more problem gambling issues. The study is certainly not definitive since their two groups were not from the same socio-economic background though they tried to account for those factors. Note also that in-game betting is not allowed in Australia so you have to do it via off-shore websites.

It won't ruin the NFL or sports but it will ruin many people and their families. There should be some control: 1. Ban advertising for gambling the same way it is banned for cigarettes. This has the added advantage of not having to see Kevin Hart every 10 minutes. 2. Ban the use of credit cards for gambling. This is already true in the UK and many states. 3. Ban gambling in any event that already started. If you can't enjoy a game without placing a bet on whether a team will score on the next drive, you are definitely an addict. This means when an addict loses a prop bet they at least have to switch to another game to get their fix.

My guess is this is just about a rehash of Brown's widely reported Chapter 11 filing last year rewritten to make it sound like it is new or, quite possibly based on MLFootball's reporting standards, they didn't even know or care whether it is new or not.

Willie Totten -- started two games at QB during the 1987 strike. Set numerous college records as Jerry Rice's QB at Mississippi State. IK Enemkpali -- broke Geno Smith's jaw because Smith laughed at him when he asked for his promised reimbursement for plane tickets to a Smith charity event. Marlin Briscoe -- first black starting QB in the NFL. Started 5 games in his rookie year with 14 TDs for Denver in 1968 before being traded to Buffalo after he found out Denver wanted to convert him to CB.

It's not a puzzle why the Jets are doing this and it is not because they will make money selling the tickets on the secondary market. The odds of them making money is the same as the odds of the Jets having a realistic shot at the playoffs this December. It has to be the Jets are having trouble getting people to renew their season tickets (not surprisingly) and they are offering an enticement that not only encourages the renewal of seasons for the 2025 season but also for the 2026 season.

I don't think the comparison in the original article is very useful. First, 2002 was before the passing game explosion so receiving numbers back then would be lower. Secondly, why compare someone's rookie season to career averages? Third medians are more useful than averages since averages will be more affected by complete busts and injuries. There were 16 WR drafted from #28 to #38 since 2014. 6 of the picks were last year. Coleman was 11th out of 16 in receptions and 7th out of 11th in 16 in yards. That pretty much put him as an average late first/early second rookie WR. The issue is that the Bills could have picked two of the players who did much better statistically than him including McConkey who had the best rookie WR season in a long time. Here are the rankings: By receptions 1. Ladd McConkey 2024 82 2. Kelvin Benjamin 2014 73 3. Tee Higgins 2020 67 4. Xavier Worthy 2024 59 5. Deebo Samuel 2019 57 6. Xavier Legette 2024 49 7. Elijah Moore 2021 43 8. Christian Watson 2022 41 9. Michael Pittman 2020 13 10. Rickey Pearsall 2024 31 11. Keon Coleman 2024 29 12. Zay Jones 2017 27 13. Phillip Dorsett 2015 18 14. N'Keal Harry 2018 12 15. Ja'Lynn Polk 2024 12 16. Devin Smith 2015 9 By yards 1. Ladd McConkey 2024 1149 2. Kelvin Benjamin 2014 1008 3. Tee Higgins 2020 908 4. Deebo Samuel 2019 802 5. Xavier Worthy 2024 638 6. Christian Watson 2022 611 7. Keon Coleman 2024 556 8. Elijah Moore 2021 538 9. Michael Pittman 2020 503 10. Xavier Legette 2024 497 11. Rickey Pearsall 2024 400 12. Zay Jones 2017 316 13. Phillip Dorsett 2015 225 14. Devin Smith 2015 115 15. N'Keal Harry 2018 105 16. Ja'Lynn Polk 2024 87 The good thing is that the pre 2024 receivers had an average of 6 more receivers and 75 more yards in their second seasons.

That was the game in which one of the 49ers said they knew exactly what the Bills were doing but they couldn't do anything to stop the Bills. That's probably the goal of every OC in the NFL.

How is the bond for attempted murder charges only $10,000? That seems crazy low.

This lends credance to the rumors that he was just waiting to sign so he didn't have to answer questions about why he didn't show up to OTAs.

Is this true? Not whether Allen does or does not have supreme world ethic but whether that Allen is known around the NFL as an incredibly hard worker. Outside of the lock-down year when he was 24/7 with Palmer, I don't remember a large number of stories from the national media about how hard he works. I do remember stories about how competitive he is but that is not necessarily the same as working hard at it. The only stories that I recall (post-lockdown) are the ones where he said he doesn't watch too much film and some talking head comments that he relies too much on his talent and not enough in preparation. Again, I am not questioning whether he works and prepares hard but whether that is his image around the NFL.

FWIW, there were a lot of whispers (though denied by Pickett) that he did not behave professionally when he was benched by the Steelers: https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nfl/steelers/2024/01/02/steelers-kenny-pickett-blasts-rumors-he-refused-to-dress-as-backup/72085492007/

Yeah, I can't believe I missed out on my shot with Hailee either.

The Browns clearly thought Gabriel was going to go early in the 4th round, otherwise they wouldn't have picked him at the end of the third. I doubt they would be willing to risk losing their investment so quickly unless he looks absolutely awful in training camp.

I don't think that they will risk trying to sneak a third round draft choice through waivers. Unless they have a fortuitous IR situation I think they will trade one of the QBs before cutdown for whatever they can get, most likely Pickett. If they lose Gabriel to a waiver claim the Amari Cooper for Dillon Gabriel would be the most lose/lose trade since Sammy Watkins for Justin Gilbert and Johnny Manziel.

What about Dillon Gabriel? The Browns used the 3rd round pick they got from the Bills for him. My guess is that they will try to trade Pickett for whatever they could get for him and go with Flacco, Gabriel, and Sanders. They won't risk putting Gabriel and Sanders through waivers where chances are pretty good someone will pick them up.

There seems to be a disconnect between great hands in college and the NFL. Josh Reed and Zay Jones were also suppose to have great hands coming out of the college but neither displayed that in the pros. I don't remember any great catches by Kincaid either.

Certainly a possibility, the first testimonial on the MyLand website is from a pistachio farmer. Also I found it interesting that Tuel was working with the cannibis industry before joining MyLand: "A graduate of Washington State University, Tuel holds a degree in Communication and a minor in Business Development and is a former player for the NFL’s Buffalo Bills and Jacksonville Jaguars. Tuel made his mark on both the cannabis and autonomy-based fertilizer industries before joining MyLand.."

People see the 34-31 score in the 2022 Bills-Dolphins playoff game and think the offense was great and the defense was awful but it was actually the other way around. After the first quarter and a half the offense and special teams did their best to give the game away (two ints, a fumble returned for a TD, and a 50 yard punt return). The Miami scoring drives in that game were 38 yds (FG), 18 yds (FG), 8 yds (FG), 18 yds (TD), fumble return (TD), and 75 yds (TD). The defense also set up two of the Bills' TDs via interceptions (23 yds and 33 yds TD drives).

But that was mainly because Liverpool didn't try the last four games after clinching.

Why have a rule at all about when you can do an offside kick? With the present percentages, no team in the lead will ever do it, and even teams trailing would not do it until late in the 4th quarter.

Almost all teams that are on Hard Knocks was forced to do so. The only clear exception was 2020 when the Rams and Chargers were trying increase their profile due to the move to LA. They were the only teams since 2011 that were on Hard Knocks that were not on the list of teams that could be forced to do so. In previous years, the Bills were not on Hard Knocks because either (1) nobody cared about the Bills (pre-2018) or (2) the Bills could not be forced since they had been in the playoffs either of the previous two seasons. This season the NFL lifted the restriction regarding playoff teams so that 20 teams could be forced to be on the training camp Hard Knocks. This was partly because the expansion of the playoffs meant only three teams in 2024 (Bears, Broncos, Saints) and four in 2023 (Jets, Bears, Saints, Commanders) could be forced. https://www.si.com/nfl/nfl-teams-eligible-for-2025-hard-knocks-new-criteria It looks like the teams were able to convince Goodell to eliminate the off-season Hard Knocks after the embarassment to the Giants'.

It can also be because he wasn't where the QB thought he should be. Bills fans have said the same thing about Gabe Davis and Jet fans (and presumably Brown fans) have said the same thing about Elijah Moore to explain the higher percentage of uncatchable passes to those receivers.

That one was still better than Bills 5 Bengals 0 in 1978. Attendance was listed as 45,000 but seem more like 25,000.