Giants lose TEs Ballard, Beckum to injuries
Football Betting Lines
02/05/2012 - Indianapolis, IN (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The New York Giants lost tight ends Jake Ballard and Travis Beckum to knee injuries in Sunday's Super Bowl against the Patriots.
Ballard went down with a left knee injury early in the fourth quarter. Replays on TV showed him trying to run and cut on the sideline, then collapsing and grabbing his knee.
Beckum left with a torn ACL in his right knee early in the second quarter and didn't return.
Indianapolis, IN (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Tom Brady set a Super Bowl record for consecutive completions and threw a 12-yard touchdown pass to Aaron Hernandez that helped the Patriots take a 17-15 lead over the Giants after three quarters. Brady's
<< Monaco titles in Chile
Vina del Mar, Chile (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Top seed Juan Monaco defeated seventh-
seeded fellow Argentine Carlos Berlocq 6-3, 6-7 (1-7), 6-1 in the championship
match at the VTR Open clay-court tennis event.
The 27-year-old Monaco now owns fou
<< Patriots lead Giants 10-9 after 1st half
Indianapolis, IN (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Tom Brady's four-yard touchdown pass to
Danny Woodhead ended a 96-yard drive and gave the Patriots a 10-9 lead over
the Giants at halftime of the Super Bowl.
Brady was 10-for-10 on the drive and comp
<< Stanley rallies from 8 back to win in Phoenix
Scottsdale, AZ (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - A week ago, Kyle Stanley blew an eight-
stroke lead in the final round to cost himself his first PGA Tour victory.
This week, Stanley made the big rally.
He fired a six-under 65 Sunday to come fro
<< Presbyterian football player dies
Clinton, SC (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Presbyterian College student-athlete Kyle L.
Allen died Sunday morning after being found unconscious in a campus fraternity
house.
The cause is being investigated by Laurens County Coroner Nick Nichols.
Alle
Indianapolis, IN (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Eli Manning and the New York Giants did it again, beating the New England Patriots with another game-winning drive in the Super Bowl. Ahmad Bradshaw scored on a six-yard touchdown run with 57 seconds remai
Released Underwood reacts to Patriots' loss >>
Indianapolis, IN (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Former New England Patriots wide receiver
Tiquan Underwood, released a day before the Super Bowl, sent dozens of tweets
during the game Sunday but didn't have much to say immediately after it was
over.
Gronkowski's 1st catch comes on record-tying drive >>
Indianapolis, IN (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - It took Rob Gronkowski nearly an entire
half to make his first catch in the Super Bowl.
The injured Patriot, who set the tight end record for receiving yards and
touchdowns during the regular sea
Giants defensive line key to another run >>
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - At one point in his life, Jason Pierre-Paul didn't want to
be a football player. But after a broken leg ended his basketball career in
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Super B
Gronkowski: 'Almost isn't enough' on Hail Mary pass >>
Indianapolis, IN (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - It took Rob Gronkowski nearly an entire
half to make his first catch in the Super Bowl.
Later, the injured Patriots tight end was several tortured inches away from
snaring a Hail Mary pass that would
FOOTBALL BETTING : Crabtree's base deal: six years, $32 million
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.
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