Bears Fans Might Finally Get to See Griese

Football Betting Lines

12/20/2006 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Chicago Bear fans may finally get to see backup quarterback Brian Griese over the final two weeks of the regular season. Of course, it has nothing to do with a quarterback controversy, and everything to do with the fact that Lovie Smith can rest some of his regulars now that Chicago, with their 34-31 overtime win over Tampa Bay, has clinched homefield advantage throughout the playoffs.

"It's not like we're going to shut down our team. We have a few things to correct going into the playoffs," Smith said.

Among those things, surprisingly, is the defense, which gave up 31 second-half points at home to a pathetic Buccaneer offense that was averaging around 11 points per game heading into Week 15.

"Obviously, you give up 31 points, it's not our best game. It was good enough to win, though," Bears linebacker Brian Urlacher said.

"We're 12-2, we have home-field advantage throughout the playoffs. What more do you want from us at this point in time?"

A few weeks ago, the answer to that question would have been "better play at the quarterback position." However, after throwing for a career-high 339 yards (the first 300-yard passing game by a Bears quarterback since 2002), two touchdowns, and no interceptions Sunday, Rex Grossman is playing well enough to quiet all of the naysayers.

"Three hundred yards looks good on paper, but as long as we win, that's the only thing that counts," Grossman said.

"Rex, the last two weeks, is back to the way he was playing earlier in the year," said offensive coordinator Ron Turner. "Earlier in the year, he was playing great football. Everybody forgot about that, and just remembered a couple of those bad games he had and forgot he was Player of the Month [in September] and Player of the Week twice, and that he was playing very well and very efficient."

With two weeks to go, it's not certain how much playing time Grossman and the rest of the starters will receive. A year ago, Chicago was in a similar position and opted to sit Grossman during the final week of the season, despite him still shaking off some of the rust from having missed the first 14 games. The difference was that there was there was no risk of having the distraction of people calling for backup Kyle Orton to start in the playoffs.

The same cannot be said if Brian Griese goes out and plays well. Some may remember what happened to the Buffalo Bills in 1999, when starter Doug Flutie sat out the final week of the season in order to rest for the Wild Card round, only to have his job given to backup Rob Johnson. Lovie Smith would never make such a foolish move late in the year, but that doesn't mean that talk radio shows and Chicago sports columnists wouldn't at least bring up the idea.

TANK JOHNSON'S FUTURE UNCERTAIN

Bears management is undoubtedly becoming frustrated with defensive tackle Tank Johnson, who seems to expose one character flaw after another. Just hours after issuing a public apology for his most recent arrest (firearms violation after police raided his Gurnee, Illinois home), Johnson was at a club where his bodyguard and close friend, Willie Posey, was shot and killed. Posey, 26, had also been arrested as part of the police raid of Johnson's home.

The defensive tackle was inactive for the Bucs game Sunday, and Lovie Smith did not have an update on his status.

"I think whenever you get into trouble, and it's not the first time, there's some concern on his part," Smith said. "But I haven't told Tank anything (because) when you lose your best friend, there's a grieving period that you go through.

"No decisions have been made about (his status). I have a little bit of input on most things around here, and this will be one of them."

It was reported that Johnson told teammates he is afraid that his days with Chicago are over. Bears players have come to Johnson's defense throughout the week.

"I support him 100 percent, but that's not even the issue right now," cornerback Charles Tillman said. "We're 12-2, that's the issue. We're playing for the moment, the now - the now."

"He's a really good guy," middle linebacker Brian Urlacher said. "He got himself in a bad situation. I don't think it's as bad as people are making it out to be. He's a great guy. He had some bad timing with a couple of things. I know he wants to turn it around and get things going in the right direction. Hopefully, he gets a chance."

The Bears are already without the league's best defensive tackle, Tommie Harris, who is out for the season with a hamstring injury. But considering the severity of Johnson's legal problems, the depth chart might not be a significant factor when the team makes a decision on the lineman's future.

WHO'S HOT

Tight end Desmond Clark had an unexpected coming out party against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and their strong pass-covering linebackers. Clark had a career- high seven receptions for 125 yards and two touchdowns.

WHO'S NOT

As great as he's been, return ace Devin Hester displayed his greatest stigma on Sunday, when he fumbled three times against Tampa Bay. Fortunately for Chicago, just one of Hester's fumbles was lost. The record-setting rookie had five kickoff return opportunities, but averaged just 15.2 yards per. His most exciting work came on his six punt returns, which he seemed to average 25 yards of total running per return but just a little over 10 of yards actual yards gained.

NEXT UP

The Bears travel to Motown to face the 2-12 Lions.

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Andy Benoit is the author of Touchdown 2006: Everything You Need to Know About the NFL This Year. For more information or to contact Benoit, visit www.touchdown2006.com.

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SPORTS BETTING - Tennis is an underrated and under-utilized bettors' sport.

Ten years ago, at just about this time, I called Alan Boston in Vegas and left him a voicemail that went something like this (abridged version): "Hey Alan, Chad Millman from ESPN The Magazine calling. I want to do a book about wise guys, you in?"

A couple weeks later I got a message back (abridged version): "I don't know, maybe," Boston said. "Call me and we'll talk about it. But not later today. I got $1,000 on Andre Agassi to win the French Open at 40-1, and he's in the finals."

Here's what happened next (abridged version): Agassi won his tourney. Boston won his $40,000. I wrote sportsbook.

In the ten years since, how much has been wagered on the big-time tennis events? Put it this way: The Nevada Gaming Commission doesn't even track the number year by year because it's so small.

"Tennis makes up about one-tenth of one percent of our take," says Lucky's bookmaking boss Jimmy Vaccaro. "The last big golf major we probably had $100,000 worth of bets. In tennis, we might have written two big tickets."

Tennis' lack of popularity amongst the American bettoratti is no surprise, really. For starters, the biggest sports betting holidays -- the Super Bowl, the NCAA tourney -- are must see TV. People, at least the degenerates I know, plan vacations around watching those events in Vegas sports books.

But Wimbledon? Doesn't exactly reel in the whales. "Seriously, it's the nuts as an event," says Boston. "But who even knows when it's on?"

Here's another reason that helps explain why golf gets traction, something I call "The Bubbe Theory." My Bubbe is pushing 95 and has cataracts so bad that, to her, even the most crystalline Chicago day is mostly cloudy. But she still listens to the Cubs games, and she still calls me in a fit if she disagrees with something Rick Telander writes in the Chicago Sun Times. She's a sports fan. If she doesn't know you, you're just filling a niche. And niche players, even historically good ones like Roger and Raf, don't drive betting volume. Only the highest profile names attract square money, which inflates wagering totals like a shot of saline to the lips. Bubbe, and the public, loved Agassi, tennis' last cross-the-rubicon, mainstream draw. She also has a crush on Tiger. She's given me standing orders to put a sawbuck on the big cat whenever I walk through a sports book (or mistakenly tap into one via my Internet machine.) That explains why the Masters is getting $100K in action at some books while the four tennis majors might not get that combined this year.

This isn't a case of tennis being a difficult sport to bet. In fact, in Europe, it's probably the second most popular sport for gambling after soccer. Granted, as the WSJ football betting last week and The Mag's Shaun Assael examined in even greater depth last year, that might be because gamblers across the pond see it as an easy game to fix. But it could also be because, over there it holds the kind of sway the big two do over here.

Street corners in Spain are peppered with public courts and kids doing their best Raffy impressions. In some war torn parts of Eastern Europe poverty-stricken kids view tennis as an escape route, like football or basketball here. A couple years ago The Mag's Lindsay Berra wrote a great piece about Belgrade's Jelena Jankovic, Ana Ivanovic and Novak Djokovic. They learned the game as kids while bombs were raining down on their homeland. They practiced in drained swimming pools. Not exactly Nick Bolletierri conditions.

In the United States, casual fans think tennis is played four times a year. But on the tightly packed European continent, national interest in homegrown talent runs deep every weekend. Of the ATP's current top 20 players, only two, tennis betting and James Blake, are American. Fourteen are from Europe, representing six different countries.

No wonder fans from Lisbon to Bhudapest get jacked up for the net game, whether it's Wimbledon or a low-level tourney like the Estoril Open in Portugal (congrats to Spain's Albert Montanes for winning that one, btw). Chances are good that someone representing their flag will not only be playing, but have a shot at winning.

And that's all any bettor can ask for.

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