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WHAT
WOULD YOU PAY TO KNOW
the scores of every NFL game to be played during 2001 in the NFL�even
before the season starts. And as a �bonus,� how would you like to
know what the spread and totals would be from Game No. 1 to the
Super Bowl? You say �plenty!�? Well, it�s only $19.95. The title
of the book is the Las Vegas Pro Football Bettor�s Guide (2001 Edition),
it�s done by Patrick James Forsythe (58 pages, paperbound), and
it should make for interesting buzz this season.
The author,
who�s been entering the Las Vegas Hilton pro football contest for
several years and finishing respectably, has his own theory about
how to handicap the entire season�and he explains it all in one
page, especially the part about injuries and how to evaluate them
and compensate for key players lost for the game.
I know. You�re
thinking: �If this guy�s right, someone is going to get very rich
and some bookmakers and bet-takers are going to be very low on money
by season�s end.� There are infinite possibilities here�both good
and bad. If the author is very right, he�s going to be very rich.
If he�s wrong, and for a sustained period, he�s going to be very
broke and so are his followers. Yet less than eight weeks before
the regular pro football season begins, who�s to know? Maybe if
he�s right, everyone should have a copy to get on the bandwagon
early. If he�s terrible, the trick would be to go the opposite way
week after week, betting the reverse of his picks.
Can an individual
handicap the entire NFL season without knowing the pointspreads
and totals as early is mid-July, when the season doesn�t get underway
in earnest until September? Good question.
In the 2l years
I�ve been at Gambler�s Book Shop I�ve heard of only one other individual
who claimed he could do such a thing�bet without knowing the spreads
(only the schedule counted). Maybe there�s some validity to this.
The late Huey Mahl once claimed that the spread as a factor was
overrated and often misused by most bettors. He believed if a team
was going to win, that�s all you had to handicap, since few teams,
on a weekly basis won yet failed to cover. It was an interesting
theory, and one still honored by a certain segment of bettors who
don�t like their handicapping too complicated with power ratings;
home field advantage; the weather and motivation as factors to mull
over carefully.
The author,
who has been betting football for 15 years and who is employed at
a Las Vegas Strip hotel (not in the sports book) at present, does
suggest the lines and Totals he supplies for the entire season be
adjusted to for a special injury priority list he presents, which
he rates from very important to least important, by position. You�ll
have to buy the book to review his rationale and logic, but he seems
to make sense of it all.
I suggested
the author not print thousands of copies. He listened and did about
100. This is a �let�s see what happens� type of book. It�s already
selling � because if Forsythe is even semi-hot in Week No. 1 of
the regular season,
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