🔥 Point (shaving)

Welcome back to our weekly pick 'em game. We’re putting five $50 gift cards up for grabs for anyone who can correctly pick the winners of five NFL games. 

Click here to lock in your picks for this week. 

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🏓 The Ravens are done playing around (literally). After the team fell to 1-5, the Ravens decided to gut the clubhouse of anything fun, including the ping pong table, video game consoles and cornhole boards. This is like the NFL equivalent of getting grounded by your parents.

🚔 The FBI just raided the NBA. Miami Heat guard Terry Rozier and Trail Blazers head coach Chauncey Billups were among 31 people arrested yesterday for allegedly point shaving, fixing games and running an elaborate poker scam with the Italian mafia. 

• Billups is being accused of taking part in an illegal poker operation that used X-ray machines in tables to read face-down cards, secret cameras in the card trays and contact lenses that could read pre-marked cards. This literally sounds like the plot of a Goodfellas spinoff. 

Rozier, who has already faced allegations of point shaving, is being accused of intentionally throwing games and leaving early with injuries to benefit sports bettors. In one case, Rozier had $200,000 placed on his under, a bet that paid out tens of thousands. They later counted the profits at Rozier’s house.

• Twitter is already digging up old clips of Rozier turnovers … and it's not looking good.

• Jontay Porter, who already got booked for point shaving as part of this same investigation, will be sentenced in December. From the sounds of it, he might not be alone. 

🤦‍♂️ The Giants just had an all-time choke job. Jaxon Dart and Cam Skattebo (a.k.a the all CTE team) came out of the gates firing against Denver on Sunday, but the Giants ended up blowing a 19-0 lead to the Broncos, with the defence giving up 33 points just in the 4th quarter. 

• With six minutes left in the game, the Giants had a 99% chance of winning the game. Serious proposal: Cam Skattebo needs to start getting snaps at linebacker.
  

• Watch this tape and tell me it wouldn’t rattle a QB to have this maniac running full speed at them. 

🤕 Justin Herbert is going to get killed by a defensive lineman by the end of the year. The Chargers QB has been blitzed 71 times (most in the NFL), pressured 100 times (most in the NFL), and sacked 17 times (6th most in the NFL). Not sure his O-line will be getting Rolexes for Christmas this year.

🍁 Vladimir Guerrero Jr. has ended the Leafs curse. George Springer’s 3-run homer may have sent the Blue Jays to the World Series, but Vladdy showing up to game seven in an Auston Matthews Leafs jersey (and not losing) did more for Toronto sports than most people will understand. Vlad and the Jays have killed one of sport’s most notorious curses (for now).

🏈 Russell Wilson is still beefing with Sean Payton. The veteran QB fired some shots at his old coach on Twitter, calling Payton classless (among other things). Payton said in his press conference last week that he’d wished the Giants waited until after their matchup with the Broncos to bench Russ. It’s pretty ruthless, but if we’re being honest, kind of fair. 

• If you need a reminder of just how bad Russell Wilson is at 36 years old, here’s his own fans booing him off the field after one play last week. 

🏀 Draymond Green opened up the NBA season by getting a technical foul within 7 minutes. Without actually touching the floor, the most annoying player in basketball managed to get called for a tech halfway through the first quarter of game one. It’s his 132nd career technical foul, including one that he got after scoring his first NBA basket.

• At least he’s got his blossoming sitcom career to fall back on. 

⛳️ In case you wanted to feel even worse about your golf game, this college player just shot two hole-in-ones in the same day at a tournament in Georgia. If it makes you feel any better, he hit his tee shot into the water on the next hole. Everyone needs to be humbled by the golf gods.

• Five value picks to score a TD on Sunday.

• Career change o’clock? Check out this sports industry job board.

• The best Week 8 Fantasy Football waiver-wire pickups.

• Where to find the best markets for every World Series bet. 

• How Will Smith caused beef between LeBron James and Russell Westbrook.

Shoutout @max444 for kicking off the NBA season with a 17x win, banking on four opening night props.

I guess it can never really hurt to throw in Isaac Okoro-under 0.5 three-pointers.  

Alright, that’s enough yelling for one Friday.

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