Ravens sign second-rounder DT Cody

Football Betting Lines

07/26/2010 - Owings Mills, MD (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Baltimore Ravens have agreed to terms with second-round draft choice Terrence Cody on a three-year contract.

The 6-foot-4, 349-pounder was the 57th overall selection in April's draft.

He was a consensus two-time All-American at Alabama and was a vital part of the Crimson Tide's national championship team in 2009.

"Mount" Cody compiled 52 tackles, a half sack and 10 tackles for a loss during 26 games in two seasons in Tuscaloosa. He started each of the 26 games he played at nose tackle during which time the Tide did not allow an opposing runner to rush for 100 yards.

Wwwcbot Football Betting News

<< Dolgopolov, Chela win Umag openers
Umag, Croatia (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Sixth-seeded Ukrainian Alexandr Dolgopolov and eighth-seeded Argentine veteran Juan Ignacio Chela were a pair of first- round winners Monday at the Croatia Open. Chela charged past Spain's Ruben Ramir

<< Nashville signs D Parent
Nashville, TN (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Nashville Predators have signed defenseman Ryan Parent to a two-year, $1.85 million contract. He will be paid $850,000 in the upcoming 2010-11 season and $1 million in 2011-12. The 23-ye

<< Celtics bring back Marquis Daniels
Boston, MA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Boston Celtics re-signed veteran guard/forward Marquis Daniels on Monday. Terms of the deal were not announced, per club policy. The seven-year veteran posted averages of 5.6 points and 1.

<< Bulls' sign Kurt Thomas
Chicago, IL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Chicago Bulls made it official on Monday by signing veteran forward Kurt Thomas. Terms of the deal were not disclosed, per team policy. The 37-year-old Thomas, a first-round draft pick by Miami in 1995

<< Toronto officially signs Kleiza
Toronto, ON (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Toronto Raptors have signed forward Linas Kleiza to a multi-year contract. Per team policy, no details of the deal were announced. The Raptors had signed Kleiza to an offer sheet that was not m

Saints sign second-rounder OT Brown >>
New Orleans, LA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The New Orleans Saints have signed offensive tackle Charles Brown, their 2010 second-round draft choice, to a four-year contract. Financial terms of the deal were announced. The 6-foot-5, 2

Hawks ink free agent Josh Powell >>
Atlanta, GA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Atlanta Hawks bolstered their forward position on Monday by signing free agent forward/center Josh Powell. Per club policy, terms of the contract were not announced. "I look forward to joining a f

Ravens rookie Kindle to miss camp due to head injury >>
Owings Mills, MD (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Baltimore Ravens rookie linebacker Sergio Kindle will miss all of training camp after suffering injuries to his head when he apparently fell down two flights of stairs at a private residence in Austin,

Report: Titans file lawsuit against Kiffin, USC >>
Nashville, TN (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Tennessee Titans have reportedly filed a lawsuit against the University of Southern California and head coach Lane Kiffin in the wake of the hiring flap surrounding Kennedy Pola. On Saturday, USC

Dolphins sign DT Stanley >>
Davie, FL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Miami Dolphins added some depth to the defensive line position on Monday by agreeing to terms with veteran tackle Montavious Stanley. Details of the contract were not disclosed. Stanley, a five

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.

FOOTBALL TRASH TALK

NFL Football Trash Talk

Trash talk has a place in every competitive endeavor (except baseball; those stirrup-wearers are too busy chewing on their sunflower seeds and their supplements to worry about what their opponents are doing).

Fantasy sports is no exception. Any intelligent discussion of the subject would probably start with a thesis statement or a definition of terms. Thankfully, this wont be an intelligent discussion.

Let me just say that I am happy to take a place in this space alongside my talented colleagues, even our commissioner. (You should see how she bleats like a demented paper boy about league fees on our fantasy site).

Trash talking, I would argue, is primarily about amusing your friends, their sheeplike demeanors and sloping foreheads notwithstanding. The best place I have found for football trash talking is at www.SportsAlarm.com.

Beyond the entertainment factor, though, I would recognize that the sophomoric ritual has one advantage, when properly applied. It magnifies your fantasy triumphs and mitigates your fantasy failures by transforming the eventual point total into an afterthought. Winning makes it seem like your opponent really is a truss-owning, lapel-pin-wearing nitwit. And in defeat, trash talk can be the air bag to break the fall from your hyperbolic heights. The plug-necked yahoos on your team, you can say, will be sacking groceries by the end of the season.

The best trash talk, in my view, is layered and nuanced. And it doesnt focus only on your opponents team. It picks apart your opponent. The idea is to create a shock-and-awe-scale blizzard of nonsense, and the goal is to make your opponent drop his hands from his keyboard in exasperation.

What team does your opponent root for? Accuse a Giants fan of having a Joe Namath pillowcase. Wheres your opponent from? Give a look of concern no matter his reply, then say, I'll try to type slower for you next time. Is your opponent into politics? Label everyone a tax-and-spend corporate shill.

Cap all that with a liberal application of irrelevance. For instance, dont just conclude by saying your opponent is a twerp who drafts like my grandmother. Say that your opponent is a sweater-wearing, eyebrow-plucking twerp who drafts his team about as well as Zsa Zsa Gabor gave acceptance speeches at the Oscars. By the time your foe makes sense of that, his starting running back will have had puppies.

But what about you? Hmm? Recall a memorable slam? Have a tried-and-true technique? Know someone who seems impervious to insult? Take a moment and tells us about it. Put together some (fit-for-publication) thoughts. You wont be too busy returning phone messages from your friends, Im sure, to reply.

In addition to the trash talking, the Sports Alarm has a huge gallery of high resolution pictures of beautiful women and models in bikinis. The most popular models are: Lindsay Lohan, Carrie Underwood, Alessandra Ambrosio, and Paris Hilton.