It's an MLS regular season game. The winner will get three points, or a tie will mean each team earns a point. In terms of the standings, it's just another game. Right?

With CenturyLink Field already sold out and expecting over 67,000 fans, new Sounders acquisition Clint Dempsey set to make his home debut, and with the Portland Timbers in town contesting the league's fiercest rivalry, Sunday's game will be anything but ordinary.

“You recognize its your rival and it doesn't matter what position you are in the standings,” Sounders coach Sigi Schmid said after training Friday. “It's always going to be an important game.”

In addition to the aforementioned factors, Sunday's match will take on extra importance because the Timbers, unlike their first two seasons in the league, have the opportunity to both make the playoffs and finish ahead of their fierce rival in the standings.

Portland sits in third place in the Western Conference, in the midst of its most successful season to date. After a
slow start, Seattle is on the outside of the playoff picture looking in, five points back of Portland, but with two games in hand.  

“Maybe it takes on a little more significance right now because they feel 'Hey we're on top of them right now, we're ahead of them in the standings and maybe the power has shifted,'” Schmid said. “So it's up to us to come out and
reestablish ourselves.”

For a team that averages over 40,000 fans and routinely delivers one of the most raucous atmospheres in MLS, Sunday should still be an extraordinary day in the history of the Sounders franchise.

With the biggest crowd to ever see a soccer game in Seattle expected, the Emerald City Supporters, known for their massive tifo displays, are set to unveil the largest CenturyLink Field has ever seen.

“It's something you gotta get excited about,” Schmid said. “It's got to make the hair stand up on the back of your neck and you get there and hopefully the players can take that emotion and don't turn it into overexcitement.”

The fans, and Schmid, will hope to see Clint Dempsey get on the score sheet for the first time with the Sounders in his third game since joining the team from Tottenham. 

“It's just a matter of he not putting so much pressure on himself to try and get that first goal or try and get that first assist,” Schmid said. “Just let it come and I think once it comes he'll be settled and I think it will help our team.”

Whether Dempsey gets on the board or not, Sunday is likely to be one of the more memorable regular season games in the league's history, and one which will be remembered for much more than the impact it has on the league standings.

By Seth Vertelney | Goal.com

Let’s make a deal – every time Adrian Gonzalez or Carl Crawford or even Nick
Punto step up to the plate during the Dodgers’ three-game series with the Red
Sox, we think about to about this time a year and wonder: What if?

If the Dodgers’ brain trust wasn’t savvy and wealthy enough to pull off that
waiver-wire deadline deal at the end of August, 2012 and take on all that extra
payroll – including pitcher Josh Beckett – while giving up first baseman James
Loney, infielder Ivan DeJesus Jr., right-handed pitching prospects Allen Webster and Rubby De La Rosa and outfielder Jerry Sands, where would they be today? 

Maybe the move saved the Red Sox some $270 million in contracts spread out over
2018, but it saved the Dodgers some face. While Beckett has been on the DL most
of this year, Gonzalez, Crawford and Punto have been key ingredients in their
latest surge to the NL West lead. So how’d the Red Sox fare in all this?

The 24-year-old hot shot De La Rosa has finally worked his way onto the roster
recently, but not into the starting rotation – a place the Dodgers were comfortable
in placing him during the 2010 season before he blew out his arm. He remains on
a pitch count as they’re handling him with care two years removed from Tommy
John surgery. Webster remains at Triple-A Pawtucket (5-4, 4.13 ERA after a brief
callup in April, going 1-2 with a 9.57 ERA). Sands and DeJesus were traded to the
Pirates for ineffective reliever Joel Hanrahan, and are still wallowing away at Triple-A
Indianapolis. And, of course, Looney left to join Tampa Bay as a free agent.

Surely, all of this will give the national broadcast teams something to talk on
and on about as the series progresses. If only Manny Ramirez was still part of the
conversation. (You know, he is now available to either team).

Where to watch the series:
Friday 7:10 p.m., Prime
Saturday, 1:10 p.m., Channel FOX 11
Sunday, 5:05 p.m., ESPN

The legend goes that when a fledgling ESPN asked NFL Commissioner Pete Rozelle to televise the 1980 NFL Draft, even the PR-savvy Mr. Rozelle doubted anybody would tune in.   

Fast-forward 33 years and John Brody, senior VP-sponsorship and sales  for the NFL, expected 50 million viewers to watch the three-day event  across ESPN, NFL Network and NFL Mobile last Thursday through Saturday  nights.



Among league sponsors and advertisers, the NFL Draft is now viewed as a 
"tentpole event" where they can directly connect their brands to the  country's
most-popular sports league, Mr. Brody said. A confirmed 19  sponsors activated
around this year's event at Radio City Music Hall vs. 16 in 2012. Among them:
Anheuser-Busch; Nike; Verizon; Pepsi; GMC; Visa; EA Sports; Under Armour;
Gatorade; and Castrol.   

Despite the recession, ad support is growing for the NFL Draft, which  now
competes with entertainment and reality shows in the heart of prime  time.
Advertisers spent roughly $15 million across ESPN and NFL Network  in 2012 vs.
$11.9 million in 2011, according to Kantar Media.   

Current NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell moved Round 1 to Thursday nights  in
2010 from its longtime perch on Saturdays. The gamble paid off:  ESPN's Round 1
coverage last year averaged 6.7 million viewers and a 4.4 rating vs. 5.1 million
viewers and a 3.4 rating in 2009.  

"To the credit of the NFL, it's the most robust league," said Ernest 
Lupinacci, founder of branding consultancy Ernest Industries. 
"They announced the [2013 regular season] schedule and people went  crazy.
It was as if they let us know they were bringing the McRib  sandwich back."  

"Our sponsors crave more access and more connection to the game the same way
the fans do," according to Mr. Brody. "Our partners are enablers:  They're the
ones who connect the sport to the fans."  

Here's how sponsors such as Verizon, A-B and Nike integrated their brands
into the festivities:   

• Verizon was the presenting sponsor of Round 3. The company hosted
  a "Draft Eve" party Wednesday, where its executives and customers
  mingled  with top draft picks and NFL starts. 
   
• Bud Light signed on to sponsor Round 2 Friday night as well as sponsor 
  ESPN's coverage. Bud Light's promotion offered to fly 32 NFL fans to  New York
  (one representing each team's fan base) and give them a VIP  experience that
  included a dinner reception with 32 NFL alumni, along  with green-room access at
  Radio City.  
  
• Nike, which took over as the NFL's official outfitter last season from
  Reebok, provided top prospects with No. 1 Nike jerseys. Similarly, the  league's
  official cap, New Era, handed out special "Draft Caps" to  prospects onstage.
  That's prime product placement when prospects  ascended the stage for the
  traditional handshake and hug with Mr.   Goodell.  

By:   Michael McCarthy        

Unlike the first, second and fourth weeks of the preseason, starters for each team will play a significant portion of the game. Both the Panthers and Ravens will also employ more detailed game-planning in preparation of the regular season. 

While it's still only an exhibition game that means relatively little in the
grand scheme of things, Thursday's matchup should give the most accurate glimpse of where each team is at going into the 2013 season. 

The Panthers welcomed Beason back to practice this week, per Joe Person of the Charlotte Observer, and there's a good chance he'll at least get some tune-up snaps against the Ravens Thursday.

Beason, 28, underwent micro-fracture surgery on his right knee this offseason and has since been eased back into camp work. He's played in just five games over the last two seasons, thanks to a number of injuries, but the Panthers hope he'll return close to the player he was during a four-year stretch from 2007-10 in which he averaged over 130 tackles a season.

With Luke Kuechly now manning the inside linebacker duties, Beason is penciled in at weak-side linebacker. The Panthers could have a very good trio of linebackers if Beason is healthy and active on the outside. 

The first step for Beason will be a return to live game settings. He might get that chance against the Ravens. 

The Panthers know that any rise in the standings in 2013 will be fueled by quarterback Cam Newton. This reality makes his dress rehearsal against the Ravens all the more important.

Newton, 24, has been somewhat erratic in his two appearances this preseason. Facing the Chicago Bears and Eagles, Newton has completed just 11 of 23 passes
for 128 yards, one touchdown and one interception. His passer rating over the two exhibition games is hovering just above 60.0.


The Panthers won't care about preseason performances if Newton takes a big step in the regular season. However, getting the young quarterback some confidence against a still-jelling Ravens defense would go a long ways in jumpstarting the offense ahead of the team's Sept. 8 opener against the Seattle Seahawks. 

The Ravens are unbeaten in the 2013 preseason, but this team likely feels a little uneasy about how it has played on both sides of the football early on. 

Quarterback Joe Flacco has thrown a pair of
picks on the first team offense that has been sloppy at times. Against the Atlanta Falcons last week, Flacco hit on a 77-yard touchdown to Torrey Smith, but picked up just 54 yards on his 18 other plays. A strong performance against Carolina would help settle any worries about the rhythm of the unit before the the start of the real games. 


The new-look defense has also had some struggles, especially against Atlanta. The Falcons scored 20 first-half points, led in large part by Matt Ryan and Steven Jackson. The Ravens' run-defense was especially poor, as Jackson rushed for 42 yards on eight carries in two quarters of work. 

Another poor showing against the Panthers isn't the end of the world for the reigning champions, but head coach John Harbaugh will want better. Facing Newton will be an especially important test for a defense that has many new parts
fitting into place. 

According to Aaron Wilson of the Baltimore Sun, veterans Brandon Stokley and Dallas Clark are expected to play "extensively" on Thursday against the
Panthers. 

The two were signed last Tuesday, largely in response to a rash of injuries to Joe Flacco's receiving corps. Neither played more than a handful of snaps against the Atlanta Falcons while attempting to learn the offense last week. 



The Ravens will want to see both over a larger sample size Thursday, when the starters and veterans are expected to play more snaps than in the first two preseason games. It'll be important for Flacco to continue developing timing and chemistry with both players, as each could play a defined role once the regular season begins. 

The Ravens won't be attempting to teach the old dogs any new tricks, but both need to show they can provide the Baltimore offense with something tangible. 

Neither the Panthers nor the Ravens can be too thrilled about the way their first two preseason games have turned out. Carolina has struggled at times on
offense while Baltimore has been up-and-down on both sides of the football.

Tonight's game should give a better indication of where both teams are really at. Game-planning for starters, who will play deep into the first half and possibly into the second half as well, will present a clearer picture. 

The Panthers obviously don't want to show all of their offensive cards in an exhibition game, but expect the play-calling to be more creative for Newton, who needs a spark before Week 1. 

The Ravens will want to see a better showing on the defensive end, especially in stopping the run. The Falcons gashed Baltimore with the first team defense on the field last week. 

Overall, both teams will want to see improvements across the board, but without adding any significant injuries. If the Panthers and Ravens can both accomplish that goal, Thursday night should be considered a win for both, regardless of the final score. 

Social media can be a great from of publicity, unless you’re using it to show yourself breaking the law.

Bron Bron might have gotten the cops in trouble by posting the video clip you see above on Instagram.

''It has been brought to our attention that a video was posted on the Internet by LeBron James … where it shows him being escorted onto the property of Sunlife Stadium for a concert on Friday,'' the Miami-Dade Police Department said in a statement.

''Upon further investigation, it has been confirmed that the Miami-Dade
Police Department did facilitate Mr. James from one intersection to another, in the adjacent area of the stadium. This was not a scheduled escort and although all safety precautions were taken, the department has identified these actions as a violation of departmental policy. The Miami-Dade Police Department will continue to look into the matter.''

The lesson of the day: Keep certain perks you get to yourself, especially if
you have 3.5 million followers.

It’s the latest research in the budding field of Twitter modeling, and as with much in statistics, it sounds a bit like magic. The researchers pulled several million football-related tweets from the Twitter fire hose during the 2010, 2011 and 2012 seasons. They then analyzed and cataloged the sentiment by team, ran the data set through a number of statistical models, and came upon several that either matched or beat traditional forecasts.

Conventional, non-Twitter prediction methods predict the winning team around 58
percent of the time. But by combining conventional methods with Twitter-based
models, the researchers were able to predict the game winner with 65.9 percent
accuracy. Models that used both Twitter and traditional data also made the most
accurate predictions on other sports-betting metrics, like the combined number
of points both teams scored.

“We find that simple features of Twitter data can match or exceed the
performance of the game statistical features more traditionally used for these
tasks,” the researchers conclude. “It is hoped that our approach and dataset may
be useful for those who want to use social media to study markets, in sports
betting and beyond.”

That, ultimately, might be the coolest takeaway from this research — the
implication that economists could keep plumbing Twitter for insight on a
yet-unimagined range of topics and fields. Twitter modeling isn’t exactly new,
of course: We’ve already seen the network predict elections, the stock market,
box office revenues and the spread of contagious disease. But there’s a
suggestion here that we’re just beginning to unlock Twitter’s predictive
potential: The network could predict any number of real-life phenomena — from
whether your home team wins its next big game to when hit-and-runs will occur.

In an opinion piece for the Washington Post Sunday, sociologist Fabio Rojas
(who has done a bit of work in this field himself) concluded that social
media modeling will be the death of the political polling industry — it’s far
more accurate, he argues, to analyze tweets than poll results.

That augurs an intriguing new world where social media-fueled predictions are
both more common and accurate. Thanks to Twitter, we could someday guess any
number of details about the future ahead of time — down to the results of
football games before they’re even played.

Article By: Caitlin Dewey

Source: Washington Post

We love sports in large part because of the uncertainty. It isn't scripted, and we can never be sure how it's going to turn out. Andrew Luck is one of the rare cases of something being interesting because we know precisely how the story is going to end.

Luck is everything he was made out to be coming out of Stanford. The Colts quarterback is practically a lock to be a
great player. Everyone can see that. And following his maturation into being that great player is going to be fascinating.

Luck has looked very good in the preseason as he prepares for his second season. In the preseason opener last week, he was 4-of-6 for 51 yards in limited work. Against the Giants he played one quarter, and one drive into the second quarter. He went 9-of-13 for 107 yards and two touchdowns, and when he took a seat the Colts led 17-3.

If someone said that, in about five months, Luck would be universally acknowledged as a top three NFL quarterback, would you be that surprised?

He had some things to work on after a very good rookie season, and looks much better in year two. He still has the athletic ability and the big arm, and in very brief preseason work it's obvious this familiar offense fits him well.

Last season Luck worked in Bruce Arians' vertical offense, and attempted more passes of 20 or more yards (101) than any other quarterback, according to Pro Football Focus. Joe Flacco was second with 92, and only five quarterbacks in all attempted more than 80. And Luck was good on those deep throws, completing 35 (his receivers had eight drops, too). But he had six interceptions (only Drew Brees had more on deep passes, with seven), and the heavy vertical attack also helps explain his 54.1 completion percentage. Not that he didn't do very well in that offense – he threw for 4,374 yards and led the Colts, who were 2-14 the year before, to a very surprising playoff berth.

Now with Pep Hamilton as offensive coordinator, Luck is running the same offense he did at Stanford. Mainly because Hamilton was Luck's offensive coordinator during the quarterback's final season at Stanford. In the Colts' two preseason games it's easy to see that Luck will be asked to complete a lot of high-percentage throws. He looks comfortable and confident. His completion percentage should skyrocket. It's 68.4 percent this preseason. His interceptions probably will go down, although he did get lucky Sunday night when Giants cornerback Aaron Ross dropped one on a play that Reggie Wayne eventually hauled in for a circus touchdown catch. Luck performed admirably in a new offense last year, but he seems like a perfect fit in Hamilton's scheme that has plenty of West Coast elements.

Luck's physical ability is special, even among NFL quarterbacks, and he showed it off against the Giants. His 18-yard touchdown throw to T.Y. Hilton on third and 11 was made with pinpoint accuracy right over the cornerback – and was also a very athletic catch by a rapidly emerging Hilton. His best play against the Giants was probably an incompletion. He rolled left, then contorted his body to deliver a perfect strike downfield between two Giants defenders to tight end Coby Fleener. Fleener dropped the throw. It was still a jaw-dropping pass.

Earlier this week, Andrew Luck was in the news because his teammate Reggie Wayne made a controversial comparison between Luck and Peyton Manning. Watch ESPN's First Take discuss the controversial comparison.

Ever since the Arena Football League's debut in 1987, it has been widely viewed with skepticism by most NFL fans and football bettors in general. The game is played indoors on a field that is 85-feet wide and 50-yards long. Players, who are often too small or too slow to make it into the NFL, are required to play on both sides of the ball. Punting is not allowed. 

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The creators of the game wanted to create a high-scoring, offensive brand
of football that would be attractive to fans that had grown tired of the
defensive battles in the NFL. They haven't had much success in capturing a wide
audience, but that may be changing.

The league signed a deal with NBC in 2002 for the network to televise games.
The contract, which gave NBC an equity stake in the league, provides the AFL
with a real chance to survive and possibly even flourish during the winter-spring
months when the NFL is in its off season. 

Just as the Arena Football League is increasing in popularity among fans across the
country thanks to the NBC deal, it is also seeing an increase in handle at sportsbooks
in Las Vegas and overseas. While many books have taken Arena Football action for
years, some have recently experienced a small surge in handle on the sport and
sportsbook managers believe that trend will increase in the future.

"We're not getting a whole lot of action, but probably more than last year," says
Bob Scucci, race and sportsbook manager for the Stardust. "We are putting 'totals'
on every game, which is something we didn't do last year. (It's because of) the fact
that they play during a real slow part of the (year), namely in February where you
haven't hit the peak of March Madness yet and it's after the Super Bowl. There's a
month when people might crave something different. (The Arena Football League)
might just fill a void."

Since arena football is a new phenomenon to many books and managers have
higher-volume sports to worry about, bookies that take AFL action rely heavily on
odds services like Las Vegas Sports Consultants for opening odds, line movements
and injury updates. Ken White, the new owner of LVSC, has been handicapping the
Arena Football League for years and is considered an expert on the sport by many
in the industry. 

White's oddsmaking strategy for the Arena Football League is similar that of other
sports, even though the game itself is much different. In developing power
ratings, he assigns numerical values to players for each of the 19 teams in the
league. Since most players play offense and defense, the process of developing
these numbers is much different than that of the NFL.

"I have to try and find out what their true position was, if they were an offensive or
defensive player in college or even in the NFL or NFL Europe," says White. "I
think they will be stronger on that side of the ball. So I will try and find out
if (teams) have a mix of those guys. Because if they have all offensive players,
they are going to be weak defensively and if they have all defensive players
they are going to be weak offensively."

Size and speed are evaluated differently in the AFL. White says that speed is not
as big of a factor in arena football because the field is so much smaller. While offensive
linemen in the NFL average around 330 pounds, a player in that position in the AFL
would not be considered undersized at 280 pounds. "I would probably give (an offensive
lineman) who is 280 pounds a pretty good size rating," he says. 

The Arena Football League was designed as an offensive league, with most combined
scores for a game nearing the century mark. According to White, the quarterback
position is rated much differently than it would be in the NFL.


"Because (the quarterbacks) pass for so many more yards and so many more
touchdowns, I have taken an average of the league and how the league does and I
have changed my rating scales to how the AFL would come out in average
quarterback (rating), it's much different than an NFL guy," adds White. "So the
offensive ratings are a lot higher than the defensive ratings, that's why you
get higher totals in the games."

As it is in the NFL, kicking is also a big factor in the AFL. However, field goals and
extra points are done much differently in the arena game. In the AFL, the goal posts
are nine-feet wide with a crossbar height of 15 feet (as opposed to NFL goal posts,
which are 18 ½ feet wide with a crossbar height of 10 feet). One point is awarded for
a normal post-touchdown conversion and two points are earned for a conversion by
drop kick. A field goal counts for three points and a field goal by drop kick tallies
four points. "It is good to have an accurate kicker (in the AFL)," says White.
"A couple of the better teams have the better kickers."

Since players play both offense and defense in the Arena Football League, injuries are also a
very important factor for oddsmakers and handicappers, maybe even more so than
in the NFL. Arena teams have 19-man active rosters and eight players are on the
field during play. Besides the kicker and quarterback, each team has one
offensive specialist and two defensive specialists. All other players go both
ways.

Home field advantage in arena football counts for five points in the point spread, as
opposed to the NFL where it counts for three, according to White. This is both because
the games are higher scoring and that the crowds in the AFL are livelier and they are
right on top of the action because of the way the fields are configured. 

All these differences make the AFL tough to handicap for oddsmakers. White says that
LVSC spends almost as much time on their arena numbers that they spend on setting lines
for the 'major' sports. 


"I feel the numbers are (solid)," comments White. "We put a lot of work into them.
We've seen huge differences so far between ourselves and the offshore
(sportsbooks) because they put up different lines out there and it's kind of a
little competition we've got now, to see who makes the better number. 


"The tough part about it is that right now there isn't a lot of action out there
besides 'wise guy' action. There's just not a lot of people going to the book to
bet arena football. Somehow we want to change that and get more people involved.
Since the games are on NBC now we can get some more people involved by watching
and going down to the book to place a wager. We know that it is all 'sharp'
money coming in (on the AFL) so we have to be on our toes in this sport and make
the best number we can."

Despite White's assertion that the lines for the Arena Football League are solid,
Scucci says that his lines at the Stardust see a lot of movement, which gives
bettors a wide range of options in terms of the numbers they can get on a particular
game, especially with totals. As a result, the Stardust and most other books offer
low limits on arena games.


"(Totals) are a lot more volatile," he says. "When you are talking
about totals that are close to 100, you can be five or six points off and it
won't make much of a difference. To see a five or 10 point move on a total
wouldn't be out of the question. "To see a ('side') move from 'pick' to four is
not unusual at all. So that is just an indication that that the lines are not
solid and there is going to be a great deal of trial and error before we really
nail this down.

"You can have a lot of exposure (on arena football games), even with low limits.
It doesn't take long to lose a lot of money when you are four or five points off from
where you should be. There is going to be a learning curve. We went through the
same thing with NASCAR 10 years ago when we started booking it. When the
bettors know a lot more about the sport than you do, it makes it difficult to put up solid lines."

One reason arena football may eventually have widespread success in both the sports
betting world and the business world is that, unlike the other sports leagues, the AFL has
realized that embracing the sports betting industry may help them achieve their
long-term goals.

"(The AFL) is in favor of advertising point spreads and letting people know about the
sport and who's favored," says Scucci. "They are not fighting the casino industry to
get our lines off the games. They realize that betting on the games can be a positive
to the sport. As a result, the league has been very cooperative in giving information
about injuries or anything we need to know. It helps when you have the cooperation
of the league." 

Arena Football: A Whole Different Ballgame
by Jeremy Martin