Football Betting

Bengals hire Hue Jackson as assistant

Football Betting Lines

02/17/2012 - Cincinnati, OH (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Cincinnati Bengals hired former Oakland Raiders head coach Hue Jackson as an assistant coach Friday.

Jackson was fired by the Raiders in January following just one season as the team's head coach, finishing the year with an 8-8 record.

He will serve as the assistant to the Bengals' secondary coach, as well as the special teams' assistant.

Prior to being named head coach, Jackson was the Raiders' offensive coordinator in 2010. He joined the club after two years as quarterbacks coach for Baltimore and numerous other stops as an assistant, including coaching the Bengals' wide receivers from 2004-2007.

Also on Friday, the Bengals signed free agent running back Aaron Brown.

A sixth-round draft choice by the Detroit Lions in 2009, Brown has appeared in 22 career games with two starts for the Lions, carrying the ball 45 times for 189 yards.

He also has 18 career receptions for 138 yards and a touchdown.


<< Jackets' Lebda returns from IR; Sanford goes on
Columbus, OH (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Columbus Blue Jackets activated defenseman Brett Lebda from injured reserve on Friday and placed goaltender Curtis Sanford on it. Lebda missed five games with a hand injury suffered at Anahe

<< Gallovits-Hall reaches Bogota semis
Bogota, Colombia (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Edina Gallovits-Hall was among Friday's quarterfinal winners at the $220,000 Copa BBVA Colsanitas tennis tournament. The Romanian Gallovits-Hall snuck past 2010 Bogota champion and Colombian crowd f

<< Flyers' Sestito out with groin injury
Philadelphia, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Philadelphia Flyers announced Friday that enforcer Tom Sestito will have surgery to repair a torn groin muscle next week. The 24-year-old winger will miss 6-to-8 weeks. Sestito left Thursday's gam

<< Sundhage names Algarve Cup roster
Chicago, IL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - United States Women's National Team head coach Pia Sundhage has named her preliminary 23-player roster that will travel to the 2012 Algarve Cup in Portugal, it was announced Friday. Sundhage fielded a stron

<< Preds acquire veteran D Gill from Habs
Nashville, TN (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Nashville Predators added depth to their defense on Friday, acquiring veteran rearguard Hal Gill and a conditional fifth-round pick in the 2013 draft from Montreal. The Predators sent forwards Bla

Ticats snare Fantuz with four-year deal >>
Hamilton, ON (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Hamilton Tiger-Cats bolstered their receiving corps on Friday, signing free agent wide receiver Andy Fantuz to a four-year contract on Friday. "I'm coming home. After a very difficult deliberation

Roughriders OL Makowsky hangs up cleats >>
Regina, SK (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Saskatchewan Roughriders announced Friday that veteran offensive lineman Gene Makowsky has retired. The 38-year-old finished his 17-year career as the franchise's all-time leader in games played. "It's

Red Bulls waive Hot, Kassel >>
Harrison, NJ (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Red Bull New York announced Friday that it has waived defender Sacir Hot and midfielder Matt Kassel. "We want to wish Sacir and Matt the best of luck and hope to see them back at the club in the future," sai

Mourinho, Real focused on three points vs. Racing >>
Madrid, Spain (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Real Madrid is going for its eighth straight league win on Saturday as it welcomes Racing to the Bernabeu, but manager Jose Mourinho just sees the match as an opportunity to pick up three points. Los Blanco

Federer, Berdych, del Potro reach Rotterdam SFs >>
Rotterdam, Netherlands (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Swiss great Roger Federer, former Wimbledon runner-up Tomas Berdych and former U.S. Open champion Juan Martin del Potro were a trio of quarterfinal winners Friday at the $1.6 million

FOOTBALL BETTING : Crabtree's base deal: six years, $32 million

Football Betting

In the wake of the news that the 49ers have signed receiver Michael Crabtree after an extended holdout, there has been not a hint of the dollars to be paid to Crabtree.

And since this means that his agent hasn't leaked the numbers, it means that his agent feels no specific motivation to do so.

Possibly because his agent isn't all that thrilled to have his name on the deal.

So the numbers will come from sources other than Crabtree's agent. And we've gotten our mitts into them.

Per a league source, Crabtree has signed a six-year, $32 million contract. (The total includes guaranteed money, base salaries, and the one-time incentive based on achieving minimum playing time.)

The deal also includes $17 million in guaranteed money.

As reported elsewhere, the deal can void to five years based on performance triggers, wiping out a final year base salary of $4 million. But they won't be easily reached.

The source tells us that, in his first four seasons (including 2009), Crabtree must either qualify for two Pro Bowls, or he must qualify for one Pro Bowl in one year and he must participate in 80 percent of the offensive snaps in a separate year in which the team makes the playoffs.

In other words, if in 2010 he qualifies for the Pro Bowl and the team makes the playoffs and he participates in 80 percent of the snaps, he'll still need to make it to the Pro Bowl or achieve the 80-percent/playoffs in another season.

Since the chances of Crabtree making the Pro Bowl or participating in 80 percent of the offensive snaps this year is roughly zero percent, he'll have three years to get it done.

And it won't be easy. Frankly, he'll be hard pressed to make it to one Pro Bowl in three years with the likes of Larry Fitzgerald, Calvin Johnson, Anquan Boldin, Steve Smith, the other Steve Smith, Hakeem Nicks, DeSean Jackson, Johnny Knox, Percy Harvin, Greg Jennings, Roddy White, T.J. Houshmandzadeh in the same conference for sportsbook betting.

So, by all appearances, it's a six-year deal. And at $17 million in guaranteed money, the per-year guarantee is a tepid $2.83 million per year.

There's another problem with the deal -- it has no mid-tier incentive package. Instead, the additional $8 million that Crabtree can earn (pushing the max value to six years, $40 million) requires the kind of unrealistic, mega-star performances that no rookie is likely to ever achieve.

So while the contract paid to Packers defensive tackle B.J. Raji covers five years and pays $22.5 million, he has the ability (if he's a solid player) to make up the difference between his base deal and Crabtree's five-year, $28 million haul via the mid-tier incentive package in Raji's deal.

And unless Crabtree meets the performance thresholds necessary to void the sixth year, he'll be stuck under contract for another year at a base salary of only $4 million.

There's one other area of concern with the deal. Crabtree, per the source, received no option bonus. Instead, he has significant money tied to a fairly new device known as a "discretionary salary advance," which unlike an opition bonus is subject to forfeiture if Crabtree decides in a year or two that he wants to hold out for a better deal. (We're also told that the 49ers have included language that would make certain escalators subject to forfeiture, too.)

Meanwhile, the deal falls well short of the mark for which Crabtree and agent Eugene Parker were aiming -- the five-year, $38.25 million contract paid by the Raiders to receiver Darrius Heyward-Bey, the seventh overall pick in the draft.

Even if Crabtree successfully voids the final year, he'll make more than $2 million per year less on average than Heyward-Bey.

Thus, as we explained earlier in the day, this is a deal that Crabtree could have done in July, which would have given him a much better chance of making a contribution to the 49ers during his rookie year.

So while the final outcome can be described as win-win, the broader view suggests that it's really a lose-lose situation.

NFL Betting Lines

To visit this sportsbook go to MySportsbook.com for all your college football betting needs.