Tonight’s the night. The NFL draft.
I’ve always loved watching the NFL draft. Hope springs eternal for the losers, and for most of my life my team has had a high pick.
But not this year. The Eagles are picking last this year, and I don’t mind one bit. That’s what happens when you win the Super Bowl, and I’ll stop right there before I get too full of myself. People often ask me if the “high” has worn off yet? Trust me, the high will never wear off.
With the 32nd pick the Eagles will take the traditional “best player available,” but that doesn’t mean I’m not interested in what the other teams are doing. I’ve somewhat adopted the Browns as my second team, and they have two picks among the top four.
Why the Browns? Well, I have two good friends who live in Ohio, one a transplant from Pennsylvania and the other a life-long suffering Browns fan from Youngstown who went to Roanoke College. Plus, the only time the Browns would ever meet the Eagles in the post-season would be in the Super Bowl, and that’s not gonna happen.
It will be interesting to see what happens tonight, and I’ve been studying the “odds” of what could happen thanks to an e-mail from Scott Cooley. I don’t know how I got on the list, but a couple times a week I get these e-mails from Scott Cooley at scott.cooley@betdsi.com from some place called BetDSK Sportsbook. They give me odds on all kinds of stuff from all kinds of sports and it’s fun to look at.
This week’s e-mail from Scott concerned the odds of many things regarding the NFL draft. You wouldn’t believe the stuff you can bet on.
Some of it is football stuff, of course. For example, the odds of being the number one overall selection are as follows, as of Monday: Sam Darnold -150, Josh Allen +210, Saquon Barkley +750, Josh Rosen +1500, Baker Mayfield +2500, Bradley Chubb +3500, Minkah Fitzpatrick +7500 and the field is +3300, and that includes Tremaine Edmunds of Tech, who could easily go in the top 10.
In fact, Edmunds is one of 22 NFL Draft invitees, and you can get odds on who is the last player of that group selected. Odds are that Shaquem Griffin, a linebacker from Central Florida, will be the last one selected and you can get back +150 if you take him. In other words, you win 150 dollars if he’s the last one selected and you lose 100 if he’s not. Sam Darnold, by the way, is +12,000, so if he’s the last one taken among the 22 invitees and you lay $100, you’ll get back a cool $12,000. Of course, he won’t be. Edmunds is right about in the middle at +4,500.
You can also bet on some goofy stuff. You can bet Yes or No on whether a Drake song is used as a walk-up song for any NFL Draft selection in the first round. Yes is -200 and No is +150, so they’re telling you it will probably happen. You can also bet on songs by Future, Lil Wayne, Kendrick Lamar, Cardi B and Kodak Black being used as walk-up songs in the first round. What, no Rolling Stones?
Here’s a good one. You can bet, Yes or No, on whether the number one overall pick hugs his mom first. Yes is -300 and no is +400, so the odds are he does, whoever it is.
You can also bet, Yes or No, on whether the number one overall pick cries before greeting NFL commissioner Roger Goodell. You can bet Yes or No on whether the top selection refuses to make contact with Goodell. Yes on that one is +600 and no is -1000, so they’re telling you he’ll probably shake hands with Goodell.
You can bet “over-unders” on the number of players selected in the first round from schools or conferences. For example, Alabama’s over-under is 3.5, so if four or more are selected the “over” is a winner and if three or fewer are selected the “under” wins. I know this is elementary stuff for many of you but I have to cover all the bases for the non-gambling crowd.
Other team over-unders you can bet on include Ohio State and Georgia at 2.5 each and LSU at 1. And if you want to go by Conference, the over-under for SEC players selected in the first round is 7. To hit the over you would need eight, and that would be one of every four players selected in the first round(eight of 32 picks) coming from the SEC.
I don’t bet on any of this stuff but it’s fun to look at. The week before the Super Bowl is the biggest deal, as last year you could bet on anything from how long the national anthem would take to how many times Gisel Bundchen(Mrs. Tom Brady) would be shown on TV. And excuse me if I didn’t put the little “umlaut” over her “u,” as I haven’t figured out how to do that on the computer.
On Tuesday I got another e-mail with the odds of the Eagles visiting the White House. If you say they will you’re getting back $150 for a $100 bet, but if you think they won’t you have to lay $200 to win $100. In other words, the odds are the Eagles won’t accept. And the over-under on players who would skip the trip is 10.5. We already know UVA’s Chris Long isn’t going whether the team accepts or not.
Also, there are now odds for the new season of “Dancing with the Stars,” which features athletes. The favorite is Olympic figure skater Mirai Nagasu at +215 and the long shot is none other than Kareem Abdul-Jabbar at +2,000. So, if you risk $100 on Kareem and he wins you get back $2,000. Other notables are softball pitcher Jennie Finch at +970 and everyone’s darling, Tonya Harding, at +1,400. Watch your knees Jennie.
Betting can be fun, but beware it can be bad for your health. You’re better off just watching the draft and not worrying about what color suit Barkley will wear to the draft tonight.
I wonder what Scott would say the odds are of the Browns being in the Super Bowl next year?