Week 7 Monday Mood: Worst. Sunday. Ever.
I called Scooch this morning, and before I had finished saying, "Scooch, how's it going?" he was laughing. Not because I said anything funny. But he knew I was going to ask about the weekend, and he had an answer ready for me: "It was as bad as any Sunday I can remember."
It has been a dreadful season for bookmakers and for wise guys, since both of those groups tend to need the underdogs to make any money and underdogs have played like, well, underdogs.
Bookmakers thought the bleeding had stopped two Sundays ago, when the Browns, the Bucs, the Rams and the Raiders all covered. Finally, a return to parity, a return to normalcy. The public looked stupid, the wise guys looked wise, the books made money and all was right with the world. If you weren't careful, you could imagine Wayne Newton headlining, Evel Knievel jumping the fountain and the Stardust lighting up The Strip again. "Last week was the first glimmer of hope where people thought, 'Maybe we had a bad start to the season and things will turn around.'"
To see how oddsmakers hedged their bets this past weekend ... and still managed to lose ... you must be an ESPN Insider.
Chad Millman
