Anybody who has punched a wall or thrown a remote control after a seemingly meaningless touchdown late in an NFL game understands the correlation between point spreads and fantasy football results.
EVERYONE HAS A STORY
Remember that meaningless Chargers/Raiders game early in 1989? I do. I had a bet on the Chargers +4, which meant that as long as they didn't lose by more than four points, I would win. The Raiders were up three with less than 30 seconds remaining and content to run out the clock, even though they were on the Chargers 1-yard line. The Chargers called a timeout.
The angry Raiders scored on the next play. I lost.
Years later I discovered fantasy football. It was 2008. I had Brian Westbrook. With his Eagles leading 10-6 in the final minutes, Westbrook looked to be headed for an easy touchdown when he decided to kneel at the one-yard line to allow his team to maintain possession and run out the clock.
He didn't score. I lost.
MORE FANTASY FOOTBALL/POINT SPREAD CORRELATIONS
They both make meaningless games meaningful. Nobody wants to watch the Patriots blow out the Bengals unless Tom Brady's on your fantasy team or you bet on the Patriots to win by two touchdowns.
They both make the end of games exciting. If Adrian Peterson's on your fantasy team, you watch, even if the Vikings are up by ten with five minutes left. And if you bet on the Vikings to win by 11, you're not going anywhere.
Neither the point spread gambler nor the fantasy owner shares the same goal as the actual players. In my Chargers/Raiders example, the Chargers were trying to preserve the slim chance they had at victory. They did not care whether they lost by three or ten. It was still a loss. In the Brian Westbrook fantasy fiasco, he was doing what was best for his team. He didn't care about my fantasy team.
Wives don't exactly know how involved their husbands are either. Sure, she knows you place the occasional bet, but you "forgot" to mention the several hundred dollars you have on the Packers +6. She knows about your first-place fantasy finish in the League of Failed Athletes last season, but she doesn't know about the other nine leagues you lost.
CONCLUSION
Although the NFL embraces fantasy football and condemns gambling, there is a strong correlation between the two. And even though I quit gambling years ago, I still launch the occasional remote control at the television.
Brian Westbrook fantasy fiasco:
The NFL Fight Against Gambling: http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2009/08/24/nfl-goes-to-higher-court-for-injunction-against-d elaware-betting/
Submit Your Theory
Fantasy football stat geeks put those spreadsheets down. A football game contains too many variables to make that kind of research worth your time.
Jillian Harris' Hot Dog theory of men lacks several crucial 'condiments-as-windows-to-men's souls.' Missing from the theory are, coleslaw, relish, cheese and chili.
A virtual man cave is a place where men can express their male pride without fear of reprisal. The ultimate "virtual man cave" exists. It's called fantasy football.
Turns out, the meteorite that supposedly killed the dinosaurs may have been 300,000 years late.
Human motivation exists in a five-tiered structure. The five tiers from lowest to highest are sociological needs, personal security needs, social needs, esteem needs and the penultimate need: self-actualization.
Great man creat history through their actions, leadership, art, and innovation. At least, Carlyle thought so in the 19th century.
Want to know the secret to personalities and personal success? Use hair part theory. It worked for Margaret Thatcher.
A theory developed by Pavlov that shows one can change a stimulus part of a stimulus-response pattern (like a flinch from a loud noise) to something neutral (a blue light turning on) and generate the same response. In this example, the blue light could cause the subject to flinch.
The explanation for 'Lost' is Jason Hunter's Time Loop theory. But you have to see it to really get it.
The island used to be connected to the rest of the Earth, but was detached during electromagnetism experiments conducted by the Dharma Initiative. It is capable of traveling anywhere with the only parameter being gravity
The most widespread and enduring conspiracy theories—British intelligence killed Princess Diana, the U.S. government orchestrated 9/11—are completely absurd. But that doesn’t stop them from drawing a vast and vehement audience. David Aaronovitch picks apart 12 grand conspiracy theories to conclude that they are concocted and promoted, in large part, by educated losers. (Yes, he actually calls them losers.)
'Gravity' hints at the passion behind Newton's theoriesDetroit Free PressBY JOHN MONAGHAN It's an image planted in the mind of every schoolkid: Isaac Newton sits beneath an apple tree as a shiny red orb bonks him on the noggin. ... ABC's Lost: Lighthouse Episode Recap & TheoriesMetrowny.com...
The island used to be connected to the rest of the Earth, but was detached during electromagnetism experiments conducted by the Dharma Initiative. It is capable of traveling anywhere with the only parameter being gravity
Now that they've had two days to think about it, what can the Internet's brainiest 'Lost' theorists tell us about the show's final season?
Inflation theory, which posits that the universe ballooned from subatomic scale to the size of a soccer ball during its first 10-33 seconds, has had great ...
There are a million different ingenious theories out there that explain this or that certain phenomenon and many are very complicated. See which one are surfacing on the interwebs today.
Nick Jonas (and the Administration) has just released a new song and it's called "Conspiracy Theory."
Listen to the newest single from his upcoming album "Who I Am" below:
Amateur historian Rick Rogers has spent decades developing a theory that either Dutch or Spanish traders visited Hawaii before Captain Cook's 1778 arrival. Maps from 1589 showing an approximation of Hawaii's shape and location; remains of a 1664 women indicating she had syphilis and the disappearance of 5 Spanish ships plying the Manila to Acapulco trade in the 1500 and 1600s make his case.
Scholars at the global warming skeptics thinktank, "The Science and Public Policy Institute (SPPI)" say ocean acidification theory is a scare tactic ignores Cambrian data, the chemistry of CO2 and the alkaline affect of ocean rocks.
Twitter Activity
