CFB Preseason Poll Reaction, Legal Sports Report, New York Jets Season Outlook | NewsWire, 8/14/24

Try and set the stage for what should be a great year of NFL action. There's a handful of teams that potentially can compete for a Super Bowl championship. Confusion and uncertainty this year more than some in the past. This team looks like it's ready to make a move, but we just don't know if it's bad or good this year. J.J. McCarthy is eventually going to take over, but it's like it's a no lose situation for them. I mean, they suck. They were seven only on sports Grid, but talking about playing Keyonte George Taeler Hendrix, Isaiah Collier, the rookie, Cody Williams, the rookie, Bryce Sands, the second year maybe keeping Walker Kessler. That means either Danny Ainge thinks that they're going to be a championship team in 3 to 4 years, or he's going to wait one year and he's going to trade Lauri Markkanen and he's going to get the farm betting above the rim. Only on sports grid, say the Thunder has the correct juice to the six and a half win total for the New York Giants. It's a losing seaso. It's a bad season in the greater New York area. Is Brian Daboll and is Joe Shane back next year as a Giants fan? What are you looking forward to? Absolutely nothing. You're hoping like the Yankees make a long enough run so you can forget about the Giants. The early line only on sports grid. The bottom of this field is a bunch of guys, quite frankly, that aren't on the tour, aren't on the DP tour, aren't on the Korn Ferry Tour. You know, the top 25 or so in this field. I mean, you've got Rory. You've got Lowry. You've got Scheffler. You know, all four Americans, Minwoo Lee and Jason Day, and you go to Mido Pereira and Joaquin Niemann out of Chile. So, you know, it really is pretty deep in game. Live prime time only on sports. Good morning. Welcome to Newswire here on Sports Grid. I'm Craig Mish. Plentf news notes and information as always to get to here on the show. Thanks for tuning in. The very latest in sports betting. We've got Jim Casali from Legal Sports Report. Some breaking news. We will get to on the state of DraftKings and their surcharge. Just a minute on that. In addition, we will have an intense look at the New York Jets, get a season preview and a preseason preview with week two coming up tomorrow night. In addition, we cover the very latest from The Sporting News. Michael Decourcy will tell us what to think about Notre Dame's football team and Texas's football team as the college football season begins officially on August the 24th. But let's begin with the big news in sports betting. Yesterday, a reversal a walk back a let's try this again by DraftKings. My goodness, the backlash ended up working. The company decided that they are not going to tax sports bettors out of their winnings at 8% or less. They make this announcement yesterday official and ironically, just before FanDuel does their earnings call. So they may have gotten word that FanDuel was going to say we're not going to do this. I don't know that that's the case. I'm being sort of, cryptic here, cynical, but needless to say, folks, we've been covering this story about DraftKings saying, hey, look, we're going to take a little bit of money out of your winnings because we're not happy with the amount of money we're getting taxed. And then a couple of weeks later, they say, nah, we're not going to do that. That's it. Why? Well, because you could pick another sportsbook. DraftKings made the right decision after making the wrong decision here, to say the least. More on this later. Okay, first round quarterback J.J. McCarthy, taken by the Minnesota Vikings thought process was he'll start at some point during the season, if not week one. It is not going to be week one. Kevin O'Connell made the announcement yesterday. J.J. McCarthy out of Michigan has a torn meniscus and is going to miss time. Now again, he hasn't had the surgery yet. Once he does, then we'll get a full timetable. But naturally he played so well at the University of Michigan, vaulted his draft status all the way up to the first round, and was battling with Sam Darnold for the starting job. But O'Connell yesterday telling the media in a very somber way to say the least, that he is going to have to miss some time. It has been determined that J.J. does have a tear in his meniscus, you know, in his right knee, you know, he will need to undergo a procedure that, you know, obviously, the that will hopefully take place, you know, in the near future here, don't have a timeline on that. But as far as the timeline of the injury, that will be something determined during the procedure, based upon, you know, whether it can just be a clean up or potentially a repair that won't be able to be determined until that procedure takes place. So I really, you know, would just be speculating on a timeline for a return at this point. Yeah. As I as I said, you know, post game, I thought Sam played really well in his 12 plays of work the other day. And really what that was, Kevin was just a continued, pretty consistent performance from what we've seen on the practice field throughout training camp, you know, Sam's had a really good camp, and my confidence level in Sam is very, very high, I'm really looking forward to Sam's continued, you know, growth, success in the offense. And I know his teammates and the rest of the coaching staff have been really enthused by what Sam's done. And you know, my like I said, my confidence level is really high in Sam. All right. Well Vikings go into the season with Sam Darnold fourth team by the way for Sam Darnold. And fourth time he's going to get an opportunity to start on a different team in the National Football League. Meanwhile Brandon Aiyuk you may have heard his name in the NFL over the last couple of weeks about potentially being traded. Some speculated to the Pittsburgh Steelers, some other teams as well. You see some fake billboards, billboards being posted in Pittsburgh welcoming him. Also, social media has loved this story, but the bottom line there's still no deal. I mean, this is even coming from Ian Rapoport yesterday. It sort of felt like maybe a deal was coming. Still no deal as well. I mean there just hasn't been a single accurate report on Brandon this offseason. I think that's just the best way to say it, all right. Browns make an announcement just 20 minutes ago. They've extended Pro Bowl linebacker Jeremiah Owusu-koramoah. And he finally got his contract that he was looking for out of Notre Dame 101 tackles, three and a half sacks, six pass deflections, two interceptions for the Cleveland Browns. And that great defense that they have going into the season. All right, Jamaar Chase missed the team's first practice. And naturally, he's got to be there. And who knows if he's going to get fined or not. He's looking for a new contract. First time in training camp. Chase actually not even present as the team was practicing. He's looking for a new deal, Zach Taylor, the head coach, said he is day to day. We'll take it one day at a time. We know the deal, Mike Brown, who's running the show on July, said that it was unlikely he would get a new contract extension, so we'll see about this drama. Wait to see Texas. How about Texas is off season and they're training camp as they get ready for their first game of the season. They've lost another starting running back. Christian Clark is now out for the season. He had an injury in practice. He'll undergo knee surgery. So they're going to turn to another running back. And Jn Blue who played 23 games with them 431 yards, four touchdowns, four catches, 45 yards in the College Football Playoff semifinal. So look for him to be the primary ball carrier for Texas. Also, Mike Hall, junior defensive tackle for the Cleveland Browns disturbing story last night being charged with domestic violence and Avon, Ohio allegedly threatening a woman with a gun on Monday night. Arrested and booked and his bond is set at $10,000. Hearing set for next month. Davante Adams back at practice after the birth of his son. He is, of course, still with the Las Vegas Raiders. Speaking of rumors that he was going other places, who knows. Three time all pro Raiders by the way. Still haven't figured out who their starting quarterback is going to be with the battle going on right now, maybe Kevin O'Connell ends up, Aidan O'Connell ends up starting for them. At least that's the rumor. All right, Yankees and white Sox yesterday. Bad news at the start of the day. Good news at the end of the day. The bad news at the start was that jazz Chisholm Junior is likely headed to the injured list with an UCL injury and naturally, this could go a number of different ways. Either rest and rehab and you may see him again this year. If it's surgery, you will not know determination as of yet, although the Yankees did bounce back last night against the White Sox. And guess who, Juan Soto. How much money can they pay Juan Soto in the off season? I don't know. Three home runs against the Chicago White Sox last night. Meanwhile, former Yankee Michael King, who was traded for Juan Soto. How about that? Goes six shutout innings striking out ten and is pitching amazing for the Padres, who are playing great baseball. Justin Verlander is on his way back to the Houston Astros, will make his second minor league rehab start on Thursday, and then hopes to join the rotan for the remainder of the season. He'll throw 70 to 75 pitches in his latest rehab, and then of course, can go 80 90in the next one. And then the Dodgers have another elbow injury. Are you kidding me? Right hander River Ryan who was so good for them one and 01.33 earned run average in four starts is going to have Tommy John surgery and is in all likelihood going to miss a full year of Major League Baseball. Walker Buehler has been out with a separate injury as well. All right, good news. If you live in Missouri and you like to bet on sports because there's a chance you may be able to do it legally, we haven't legalized like any states this year. It's been really quiet. But Missouri sports betting is headed to the ballot in November. As of now, it's the only state with this happening. So look for a resolution with Missouri betting coming soon. Dana White makes an announcement. Conor McGregor was supposed to fight for the end before the end of the year, and he was going to fight this guy, Michael Chandler. That's not going to happen. Dana White said, no, Conor McGregor fighting for UFC this year. Jim Harbaugh was invited to be the captain honorary for the University of Michigan opener as they start off their season. He declined that invitation, so he will not do it. And meanwhile, Vinicius Junior has reportey been offered $1 billion to play for a club in Saudi Arabia, which means if he accepts it, one of the best in the world. $4.2 million per week. I mean, it feels like that can't even be right. $4.2 million per week, $600,000 a day, $25,000 an hour, and $416 a minute. So he will rival the contract of our director, Luke here on the show. We'll see who ends up getting paid more money. We'll be back with Michael Decourcy from Sporting News right after the break. Don't go away. He's blocked well and tries to cut through the middle. Oh, your gut says Miami is going to win and you should take the over. You could also set your NFT. Selfies would only go up in value. They didn't. But your head is on sports Grid and knows the QB is in concussion protocol. The backup has a 45 QBR against the zone coverage. The New York team has the most sacks in the league. So yeah, trust your head. It's smarter to be on sports grid. There is going to be an energy to game time decisions that you will feel night in and night out. We're going to go through every single thing and I've got a great team behind me that's going to help me get the job done. I want this to be the place that people come to. We are going to hit every single one of those markets that you need to know about. There is not going to be a better place, I promise you, than game time decisions. We will have everything at our disposal and we will use that to our advantage. I'm Kevin Walsh, tune in to game time decisions from 6 to 8 p.m. eastern on Sports Gri. One change in the legislature in Missouri is that this this guy who's just totally against sports betting there is not going away. This has been in progress since last fall. They got 300 and some thousand signatures. All they needed was 170. But those were all certified by local election boards. That had to be done by earlier this month. By tomorrow, the Secretary of State has to verify all those signatures. Newswire only on sports grid. Welcome back to Newswire here on Sports Grid. We're going to preview a couple of teams in college football that are projected to be in the mix to get into this new playoff system. By the way, 12 teams will make the College Football Playoff this year. So Michael Decourcy is going to have his hands full following college sports following not just hoops but football as well. Michael, thanks for coming on Newswire once again. Good to see you. You too Craig. And I can't tell you I mean, as you can tell, I've been around for a while and I've been waiting basically my entire life for this college football season. I never believed in the poll system. I never believed in the four team playoff or the BCS system. It's not about what I think it that's that's the fundamental nature of college football. For my entire life. I think that so and so is better than so and so. And that's how they decided to champion now finally, it comes down to you basically have to win. You have to win to get in. Now they'll fill out the field with with the with the at large teams, like every other college sport does. But if you win like Florida State did a year ago, they can't say no. Right. And I feel bad for Florida State because they were like one year too early with their with their terrific undefeated team of a year ago. If that had happened in 2024, then a bunch of people in a room eating on on the CFP dime, couldn't have said no, they would have to be in. And so it's going to be really a wonderful college football season in many ways because of that, the best we've ever seen. Yeah. No, I agree completely. People have asked me, am I excited for football season and always am. And especially working here at Sports Grid. But I think this is, as you've said, very well put, going to be the best college football season of all time. I think it's going to be better than the NFL. I totally, totally feel that way going into the season. It's going to be great, okay, so let's start off with a team that I just simply hate talking about here on Sports Grid. But Mike, you want to do it. Let's do it. It's the most overrated team in the history of college football. The team that always you're paying a significant tax to bet on. They rarely cover point spreads, and it feels like one out of every 3 or 4 years. They say, I told you so. And then every other year they fall flat. It is the Notre Dame fighting Irish who open up in a season once again. Can't ever figure out these rankings. Mike, as one of the top teams in college football. Inevitably, until they lose to somebody and then we forget about them. Look, I understand their popularity. I would also say that their defense and their defensive backs, my understanding is going into the year, they're going to be as good as any team in football. I get that. But beyond that, what's to like about Notre Dame? Paint me a picture where Notre Dame wins it all. Oh, I can't do that. And I can't even paint a picture for you. Craig. Where they justify the preseason number seven ranking. Except one thing as I look at them and that is the schedule. The schedule is for a power team about as good as it can get, you're in an independent situation, so you make your own schedule. So that means they don't shove Michigan down your throat and they don't shove Alabama down your throat or Texas or whomever, you get to pick and choose. And that's. And they have not picked and choosed, a very difficult road for themselves this year. They do go to Texas A&M at the beginning of the season. Not the easiest opener. I'll give them that. They do have Florida State coming in to South Bend, and the rotation the USC use, the USC Notre Dame rivalry takes them to Southern California. That's often in the history of college football. Been a difficult trip for them. But overall it's just not that difficult. And so that I think, is what empowers them. They they they bring in a new quarterback. And Riley Leonard, who showed nice flashes when he was starting for Duke, missed the half a year last year with injury, but really looks like a gifted player, but lost a 1300 yard running back. And some teams, like, okay, they're going to get a lot better because they got a bunch of transfers nearly half of Notre Dame's transfers are walk ons, so not exactly inspiring to see that group come in. I just don't see them in any way as the seveh best team in college football coming up this year. And I hope it works out for Marcus Freeman. I really admired his work at Cincinnati that he did with the defense when he was the DC, with the Bearcats on their terrific teams at the early part of this decade. And I think he can do fine, but I just don't think he's going to do this fine this soon. Yeah, I would agree on all fronts. What's really interesting here, Mike, is that when you look at their season win total, I almost feel like I would want more of an adjustment here. Like if I could shop this and find a better number. We'll show it to you here on FanDuel. It's ten and a half. Is their over under. So if you go over that and that's your thing then don't listen to me. And take that plus 142. But I think we're on the same page here in thinking that they would go under that ten and a half wins. But I think, Mike, what I would do is I'd like to find a ten so I don't have to play this minus 176, because I'm not laying that on a season win total. Well, see, the one advantage they have relative to that total is what I just talked about. They've got three difficult games, and if they go perfect through the others, which I suspect they probably will if they win, one of the three difficult games, they've pretty much gone over and I think that's where the value is relative to that number. They just have to win one of them. And as I mentioned, the Florida State game, while possibly the most difficult on that on that schedule in terms of the opponent, not the venue, is at home. So that may be an advantage to them. Again, I don't think they're going to be the seventh best team, but that schedule is partly why I think a lot of people voted for them as high as they did, because they will look better than they actually are. Makes sense. All right, let's go to Texas real quick, do you feel the same way about the Longhorns? Their season win total is also ten and a half. Yeah, I see what I worry about with Texas is that transition to the SEC. It's just different now. The big 12 is not a poor conference but it's not the SEC. And they will have difficulties not only just with the opposition but just the new environments, the transition to a new conference that doesn't often go well. You go back to Miami in oh three when they moved over to the ACC in zero four, and they automatically started the decline. Mizzou, same thing when they moved to the SEC. Pretty rare for you to have a great, great season in your first year in a new conference. Great stuff Mike. Appreciate it. It all begins next Saturday. Thanks again for coming on Newswire. All right. Coming up next. We preview Texas A and M college football season with our social media correspondent Christian Block. We'll be right back. Block well and tries to cut through the middle. Oh, your gut says Miami is going to win and you should take the over. You could also set your NFT. Selfies would only go up in value. They didn't. But your head is on sports grid and knows the QB is in concussion protocol. The backup has a 45 QBR against the zone coverage. The New York team has the most sacks in the league. So yeah, trust your head. It's smarter to be on sports grid. There is going to be an energy to game time decisions that you will feel night in and night out. We're going to go through every single thing and I've got a great team behind me that's going to help me get the job done. I want this to be the place that people come to. We are going to hit every single one of those markets that you need to know about. There is not going to be a better place, I promise you, than game time decisions. We will have everything at our disposal and we will use that to our advantage. I'm Kevin Walsh. Tune in to game time decisions from 6 to 8 p.m. eastern on Sports Gri. One change in the legislature in Missouri is that this this guy who's just totally against sports betting there is not going away. This has been in progress since last fall. They got 300 and some thousand signatures. All they needed was 170. But those were all certified by local election boards that had to be done by earlier this month. By tomorrow, the Secretary of State has to verify all those signatures. Newswire only on sports grid. This. Is. Welcome back to Newswire here on Sports Grid. Today we're going to touch on a little college and pro football. We'll hit on the Texas A&M Aggies. We'll also hear from Jerod Mayo the head coach of the New England Patriots. And also the very latest from green Bay Packers camp. It's time now for the sports grid. Sound off. Let's begin on the college football gridiron with Texas A&M University. Remember a few years ago when they hired Jimbo Fisher away from Florida State and Jimbo Fisher was going to bring Texas A&M to the promised land of the College Football Playoff, two national championships to challenge Nick Saban. Well, none of that ever happened, really. And so Nick Saban is now gone and so is his buddy Jimbo Fisher. Both not coaching right now in college football. But there is a new day coming for the Texas A&M Aggies can get past some of this disappointment and work on getting themselves back into a position in the Southeastern Conference to compete, maybe get into that playoff. Let's find out and hear from our social media correspondent on Texas A&M. Here is Christian to block the team that caught my attention in the preseason. AP top 25 is Texas A&M. This is a program that has underperformed, particularly in the last two years. In 2022, they were the number six team in the preseason poll and finished the year five and seven. A year later, they finished seven and six and lost in the Texas Bowl to Oklahoma State. The biggest question mark is Connor Weigman, who's coming off a significant foot injury and has just eight collegiate starts. The talent is there. He has the pieces around him now. He just has to do it over a full season. And they ran into some good luck with their schedule. They avoided Alabama, Ole Miss and Georgia and all four of their ranked matchups are at home. I don't foresee Texas A&M getting into the college football Playoff, but I do expect them to be pushing for a spot late in the year. Thanks, Christian. We'll check back with Christian later in the week. Now let's check in with new England Patriots training camp where a very interesting statement was made yesterday. The New England Patriots have decided that they don't want fights in these joint practices or scrimmages or whatever they call it. It's easier said than done. We've seen so many of these happen during training camps. Two teams get together. They're seeing other players for the first time, and then fights happen on the field. But what would happen if the Patriots decided in their joint practices this week to have the players fighting against their opponent on the field? Well, Jerod Mayo, the head coach of the Patriots, has made some very interesting rules to help avoid that happening. Look, you don't fight in a real game. You fight in a real game, you get fined, you get kicked out. It's the same thing here. And look, my message to the players, if you get in a fight out here, if you're a starter, you're going to play the whole preseason game. If you're not a starter, you won't play at all. And so that's that's kind of my mindset with that. I have a feeling no backup players, no backup players on the Patriots are getting in a fight now. The starters still may get in a fight and then they have to play the entire, you know, preseason game and get upset. I could see that happening. But if you're trying to make a NFL roster and you're a backup player, there's no way you're fighting this week in those joint practices. All right. Meanwhile, the green Bay Packers very optimistic on their season with Jordan Love and their great set of receivers going into the year. Josh Jacobs at running back offense looks really good. But do they really have a true number one wide receiver going into the season. Seems like they have a lot of talented players. That question bothers Matt LaFleur a lot. Who says he'd rather play with less than name a number one? I get like, I want to vomit every time I hear number one receiver, to be honest with you, it drives me crazy. That's something that you guys talk about. I feel like we got a bunch of them, so I think, you know, especially those those I would say top four guys, they're all capable of being a number one in some capacity. And it's just, how do we want to attack somebody and where do we want to put those guys? And it allows us, I mean, who's going to get the ball I don't know. Yeah, that that's that could be tough. Maybe it will be a ten personnel team. Who knows ten players on the field. I don't think so. But good thought there. Funny comments by Matt LaFleur. It is a good question though I think. And look I understand that he doesn't want to hear it. But look the Packers do have a lot more weapons this year than they've had in the past. Remember, there was a period of time when Aaron Rodgers was the quarterback there that they just like refused to add a wide receiver and they just kept going with these backup players. But yeah, Packers have some weapons going into the season no doubt. All right. Big news yesterday as DraftKings does an about face with charging sports bettors extra money after they win on the surcharge. What did they decide to do yesterday and why did they decide to do it? Jim Gazzaley will tell us next. Block well and tries to cut through the middle. Oh, your gut says Miami is going to win and you should take the over. You could also said your NFT selfies would only go up in value. They didn't, but your head is on sports Grid and knows the QB is in concussion protocol. The backup has a 45 QBR against the zone coverage. The New York team has the most sacks in the league. So yeah, trust your head. It's smarter to be on sports gri. There is going to be an energy to game time decisions that you will feel night in and night out. We're going to go through every single thing and I've got a great team behind me that's going to help me get the job done. I want this to be the place that people come to. We are going to hit every single one of those markets that you need to know about. There is not going to be a better place, I promise you, than game time decisions. We will have everything at our disposal and we will use that to our advantage. I'm Kevin Walsh, tune in to game time decisions from 6 to 8 p.m. eastern on Sports Grid. One change in the legislature in Missouri is that this this guy who's just totally against sports betting there is not going away. This has been in progress since last fall. They got 300 and some thousand signatures. All they needed was 170. But those were all certified by local election boards. That had to be done by earlier this month. By tomorrow, the Secretary of State has to verify all those signatures. Newswire only on sports gri. Welcome back to Newswire here on Sports Grid. Breaking news from the sports betting industry. Yesterday, as DraftKings walks back, a statement that was made a couple of weeks ago about adding a surcharge to winnings from sports bettors on their app. Let's bring in Jim Gazzaley for the latest on that, and also the update on Missouri's chances for having sports betting legalized this year. Jim, let's dive right into DraftKings. I mean, I guess it's better to right a wrong, but it was really hard to fathom how DraftKings could survive even taking, you know, a point 1%, 1% out of sports bettors money when they win because bettors have a choice to go other places. And in reading the tea leaves, did they just know that FanDuel was going to come out and say, hey, we ain't doing this? We already saw some other companies doing it too. I mean, the whole thing is just very bizarre to make to, by the way, to have somebody say that publicly as opposed to a rumor. We could do rumors all day. But to make that declaration, you know, not the best. Look, I would say, just to be honest, today. Yeah. And it was, you know, came after FanDuel released their quarterly earnings, earlier in the afternoon yesterday. And then DraftKings came out about two hours later and walked back tha, that surcharge, which, you know, got a lot of time and attention over the last, you know, ten to 12 days since DraftKings announced that during its quarterly earnings call about a week and a half or so ago. And, you know, I think when you you look at it, the strategy for them, at least on the surface, when they announced it was in an in an attempt to combat the high tax rates that they have to pay in a handful of states. And, you know, perhaps deservedly so, they received a lot of flak for it on social media. And, you know, interestingly enough, Craig, I come from, a tax communications world prior to my role here at Legal Sports Repor. So, the, the fascination for me not only in the surcharge itself, but also in the communication strategy around charging your customers a little bit more, I thought was was rather interesting. And like you said, they did walk that back yesterday, and, you know, FanDuel prior to DraftKings walking back this this surcharge, like I said, they released their quarterly earnings. They said that they were not going to be placing a surcharge on their customers. A couple other sportsbooks came out during their quarterly earnings call in the last week week, and a half, also saying that they weren't going to be attaching a surcharge to winning bets on their customers. So it seemed like DraftKings was left on a little bit of an island. And, you know, they said in their statement, listening to feedback from from their customers, that's, you know, probably in part, a large part very true. As as I said, there was a lot of discourse on, on social media about it, but also too, you have to think that them being the only sportsbook major sports book, applying this, this surcharge or at least talking about applying this surcharge because they said it wasn't going to start until January. You have to think them being on on this island all by themselves, coupled with the general discontent from customers around the potential for this to be enacted in a couple of high tax states, certainly led to that decision yesterday for them to forego this surcharge on winning bettors for DraftKings. Yeah. And again, you know, hearing feedback, that's the nice way to put it, Jim. There was no one happy with having money taken out of their wallet after winning. Come on, guys, get real. All right, so we are approaching the final quarter of the year in the fall, Jim. And we've gone through this entire year of sports betting. And it has been crickets for legalizing sports betting. And a lot of the, you know, states that still do not have it legal, especially in Texas. We just haven't heard all that much. Missouri started to make some noise. And, you know, we were a little skeptical as to whether or not this would actually get done. But here we go. Sports betting in November on the ballot in Missouri. Jim is there a chance that this goes through? If so, this will be our big sports betting state of the year. Yeah. And you know, to your point, Craig, this really isn't a time in the year where we're talking about states legalizing sports betting. But we have two potentially here with Missouri and Nebraska, which we'll get to in a couple of minutes. So yesterday, the Secretary of State's office in, in Missouri, announced that the path to legalizing Missouri sports betting will be on the ballot. Upcoming in in November. The voters there will get the chance to legalize sports betting after a couple of failed attempts in the legislature the last couple of years, the Secretary of State's office said that there was a sufficient number of signatures on a petition. They the group backing this effort, gave in about 340,000 signatures and they needed 170,000 to be verified. So, you know, obviously they're taking a large sample and, you know, running some percentages and that all came to fruition. So Missouri bettors will get the opportunity to legalize sports betting on the ballot in in November. Now this process has been been going on since the fall, DraftKings, FanDuel, both involved in this process. They've they've spent about $6.5 million on this effort to get that legalizing sports betting question on the ballot, in Missouri. So how this would work be a 10% tax rate on, sports betting revenue and the casinos and the professional sports teams in the state would have the ability to have in-person and online wagering. There's 13 casinos, six sports teams, and the state gaming commission would also be allowed to issue two untethered sports betting licenses there. And this state, Missouri, has always been a hot topic. Over the last couple of years, the push to legalize sports betting there passed the house in both 2022 and 2023, but ultimately met its demise in the Senate with Senator Denny Hoskins, who was trying to tie it to a VLT, a video lottery terminal, bill that that just didn't gain much support. So and it didn't really even come up all that much this last cycle in 2024. So, a couple of failed attempts through the legislature, but now we see sports betting will land on the ballot in Missouri coming up in November. Yeah. And yeah, I mean, maybe this Denny Hoskins needs to take a day off, the day that they decide to do, this this, this balloting. All right, let's real quick, we have two minutes left. Jim. Let's get to Nebraska. Not quite the same story here, but similar. They're trying to get online sports betting going. Yeah, you're exactly right. They already have in-person sports betting at a handful of casinos. But there's a special session going on in Nebraska right now, they're they're looking for ways to reduce the property tax burden in the state. And some lawmakers are pushing online sports betting as a way to do that. Some some brief mention of, legalizing online sports betting yesterday in the legislature, a constitutional amendment did pass out of committee, earlier this week on Monday, there is a companion bill that is still sitting in committee, and, you know, really the special session that's going on right now, it seems like based on the conversations, could could end at any moment. And could go on, you know, in, in perpetuity, it seems just based on the conversations. But, lawmakers, they're looking for ways to reduce the property tax burden on its residents, on its citizens, some have pushed this online sports betting bill conversations happening today. It's been mentioned, no definitive answer. But, you know, we're we're covering it at Legal Sports Report. So when there's news to share in Nebraska during this special session, you'll be sure that we have it for you, Craig. All right. Thanks so much for coming on the show. We'll keep an update on that and we'll talk again soon. Thanks for coming on. Thanks, Craig. Jim Gazzaley legal sports report. Coming up next. We're going to dive into the New York Jets. Andy Vasquez from new jersey.com NJ.com weighs in on training camp. Don't go away. Rockwell and tries to cut through the middle. Oh, your gut says Miami is going to win and you should take the over. You could also said your NFT selfies would only go up in value. They didn't put your head is on sports grid and knows the QB is in concussion protocol. The backup has a 45 QBR against the zone coverage. The New York team has the most sacks in the leagu. So yeah, trust your head. It's smarter to be on sports grid. There is going to be an energy to game time decisions that you will feel night in and night out. We're going to go through every single thing and I've got a great team behind me that's going to help me get the job done. I want this to be the place that people come to. We are going to hit every single one of those markets that you need to know about. There is not going to be a better place, I promise you, than game time decisions. We will have everything at our disposal and we will use that to our advantage. I'm Kevin Walsh. Tune in to game time decisions from 6 to 8 p.m. eastern on Sports Gri. One change in the legislature in Missouri is that this this guy who's just totally against sports betting there is not going away. This has been in progress since last fall. They got 300 and some thousand signatures. All they needed was 170. But those were all certified by local election boards. That had to be done by earlier this month. By tomorrow, the Secretary of State has to verify all those signatures. Newswire only on sports grid. This. Welcome back to Newswire the New York Jets getting ready for the Aaron Rodgers reboot season. But getting ready for a lot of drama. It looks like to let's bring in Andy Vasquez from NJ.com. He covers the New York Jets. And I mean, Andy, what would an off season be as we head toward the NFL preseason week two and the regular season without some drama? Thanks again for coming on the show. The Jets know how to do drama very well. So yes, I know a little bit about drama and happy to be here. Yeah, well, Andy, you know, this is a very peculiar story here, which also fits the Jets narrative here because Hassan Reddick was traded in the off season to come over and really fortify a very good Jets defense. And I assume, you know that that they talked about this as to what could potentially happen. There seems to be some miscommunication as to Reddick getting a contract extension or just simply playing out the season. What do you make of what's going on here? Yeah, I mean, it's strange. Obviously the only reason Hassan Reddick became available was because he wasn't going to reach an extension with the Eagles. So the fact that he was on the market, there's a reason he was on the market. The Jets knew why he was on the market. There's were many reports out there that he was offered an extension that he declined before the trade, and the Jets traded for him anyway. I mean, all throughout up until minicamp, really it seemed even up until training camp, it seemed like this is a slam dunk. It seems like the Jets need Reddick. Reddick needs the Jets, obviously. And obviously something has changed. The Jets. It's been out there repeatedly and you can see from that Joe Douglas statement that they feel like maybe Hassan Reddick hasn't been as upfront with them. When Hassan Reddick was introduced on April 1st, he said that no matter what happened with his contract, he would, you know, give his best to the Jets. And obviously something changed with that contract thing, it's just strange to me. The Jets clearly don't want to negotiate with him until he gets in camp. Reddick doesn't have a guarantee on his contract. Why would a guy who's already underpaid ever show up at camp without a guarantee on his contract? And it's just a strange situation. So, I never thought this could get to this point. And now kind of everything is on the table because it's gotten this far, and it's very ugly. With the trade request. Yeah. I mean, look, I mean, the guy is just not going to play. I mean, that's at least that's what it seems like until he gets a new deal as you said, there's very little incentive. Now, on the positive side. And we'll take a look at this from the half full side. The Jets really while they lost a lot of players in bulk, they really didn't lose a lot of value. I don't think from their roster this past season where, you know, a few players that played last year went to some other teams, but the arrivals were really the story for the Jets, as in, it seems like they pushed the chips in by getting Reddick and also Mike Williams and Tyron Smith and Kinlaw. I mean, these were major additions. And look they need Reddick. We understand that. But if William Mike Williams is healthy eventually and playing in week one and Smith is guarding for Aaron Rodgers and Rodgers is back I mean I guess that's why it makes some sense that the projections have the Jets potentially being in contention to win the division. Yeah it's interesting because last year obviously there was soh hype about this team and they are much better positioned right now than they were a year ago to actually contend for a playoff berth, a division title. The first one in a long time, more than 20 years. And obviously they feel like they're in the mix for the Super Bowl. I still don't think they're quite there, but they're certainly deeper at wide receiver. They're certainly better on the offensive line, although because they were so handcuffed, Joe Douglas had to make some risky moves with Tyron Smith, Morgan Moses these are older veterans who are kind of injury prone, especially Tyron Smith, who's missed more games than he's played over the last four years. But he played 13 games last year with Dallas. I think he's the key. If he stays healthy, if he can give them 12 or 13 games, their offensive line can be really good. You got Breece Hall, you got Garrett Wilson. You've got, you know, superstar caliber players and those two guys. Jermaine Johnson is a rising star. Quinnen Williams we already know what he is. Sauce Gardner I mean their roster is loaded. They do need some things to come together. They need to stay healthy. But I think there's a strong argument. I wouldn't pick them to win the division, but I think there's a strong argument. They're the most talented team in the division right now. Yeah I mean injuries are always, you know, a factor there. And people always say if healthy. I mean Andy, that's every team in the NFL. Sort of unfair okay. So tell me this is the blind spot I think for a lot of people with you being at practice and a lot of people not, it's the rookies that the team's drafted, because a lot of times they're not really featured, Olu Fashanu, who was the cream of the crop with the Jets class offensive tackle in the first round, also Malachi Corley and then names that we actually recognize from playing at a high level in college, Braelon Allen out of Wisconsin. And then the player that maybe I'm most interested in is Jordan Travis. I know he's probably not going to see a lot of field time this year, but I am curious as to how he's looked in a reserve role if he's played at all. I haven't seen yeah, he's he's on the PUP list. So we've seen him do some throwing off to the side, but I'm guessing he will spend the year or he's on the NFI list because of the injury was before he reached the NFL. So I would imagine that's how that'll go. Or maybe he'll end up on the practice squad at some point, but so we haven't seen much from him. But I think being in a quarterback room with Aaron Rodgers is only going to help you. You will see a lot of Braelon Allen, I already can tell you it's pretty obvious he's number two on the running back depth chart. Breece Hall is talking about him differently than than the other running backs. I mean, it's a young running back room, two rookies and a second year guy. And is he abanikanda, Isaiah Davis is the other rookie, but it's clear that Allen is the number two guy. He had a great showing. I think it was six carries for 59 yards in the preseason game the other day, and he's a big, bruising runner. He's also only 20 years old. If he plays at any point this year, he'll be the first 20 year old in the history of the Jets to play in a game, which is pretty remarkable as well, Corley had a nice practice again yesterday. Was the Jets you know, most advanced practic. Most the longest practice, Rodgers threw about 30 passes, including the final pass of the day, which was a two point conversion to tie the game on a on a move the ball drill and he's looked good. And Fashanu they're they're just starting this week moving him around from left tackle to right tackle. He's going to be in a backup role. He played the entire first half in the preseason the other day, Saleh said. Ideally, he doesn't have to play any other games other than the preseason games this year, but he is a very nice insurance policy. If something happens to one of those tackles and I think he's looked like pretty solid through the first three weeks of camp, Andy always great stuff to catch up with you here. Real quick season win total nine and a half over under. Any opinion on that? I think it's going to be hard, but I think they'll they'll be over. I've got them at 11 wins and finishing second in the division all right. Fair enough Andy. Great stuff as always. Thanks for catching up with us and taking some time to come on Newswire. Thanks for having me guys. Appreciate it all right. We'll take a quick time out here on the show and be back to wrap it up with some last licks next. Rockwell and tries to cut through the middle. Oh, your gut says Miami is going to win and you should take the over. You could also said your NFT selfies would only go up in value. They didn't. But your head is on sports Grid and knows the QB is in concussion protocol. The backup has a 45 QBR against the zone coverage. The New York team has the most sacks in the league. So yeah, trust your head. It's smarter to be on sports grid. There is going to be an energy to game time decisions that you will feel night in and night out. We're going to go through every single thing and I've got a great team behind me that's going to help me get the job done. I want this to be the place that people come to. We are going to hit every single one of those markets that you need to know about. There is not going to be a better place, I promise you, than game time decisions. We will have everything at our disposal and we will use that to our advantage. I'm Kevin Walsh, tune in to game time decisions from 6 to 8 p.m. eastern on Sports Gri. One change in the legislature in Missouri is that this this guy who's just totally against sports betting there is not going away. This has been in progress since last fall. They got 300 and some thousand signatures. All they needed was 170. But those were all certified by local election boards. That had to be done by earlier this month. By tomorrow, the Secretary of State has to verify all those signatures. Newswire only on sports grid. Welcome back to News Wire here on Sports Grid. Let's touch on some lions at the end of the show, but not the lions you think of will also hit on the Olympics. Put a bow on that and hit a baseball as hard as you can. You may break a scoreboard. It's time now for some last licks. Let's begin with the pre game yesterday Tampa Bay and Houston at Tropicana Field in Saint Petersburg. Very underrated scoreboards by the way at the trop. The stadium itself is really old and antiquated. They do have really nice scoreboards though I will say Yordan Alvarez did some damage to one of the scoreboards yesterday, hit a home run off of the board pregame, smashed it and he must have hit like some button because it just destroyed the whole thing. I mean, you could see it there. Scoreboard went bananas bonkers, however you want to say it had to be replaced. And what was really funny about it is that Alvarez was asked about doing the damage to the scoreboard and said, hey, it wasn't even me and I ain't paying for it, which is kind of funny because he knows that it was him, that he did it. And, you know, naturally left handed hitter, big guy hits the ball far, may damage the scoreboard. He did it there. Hopefully they get that thing fixed in the tropics. One of my very few things that I do like about Tropicana Field. Last time I went to the trop was last summer. I took my son. He had never been there before, different kind of stadium to say the least, and need some upgrades or getting a new stadium, I believe, here in the next five, ten years. But Alvarez is not going to be part of that new stadium. And stop breaking scoreboards would be my answer to him. All right. Precious issue of the New York Knicks in the NBA. Has some new friends in Zambia, which is where he's originally from a posting on his Instagram that he's hanging out with the Lions, not the oh my gosh, not the Detroit Lions. Those are real Lions folks posting videos on Instagram. And what's funny is social media took to this, of course, and said that it was all fake. And then they didn't realize that he actually posted video of this as well. There's no faking it whatsoever. I don't know how this even happened. And why were they so tame that it looks like he's literally in the wild hanging out with these lions? I don't know if that's in his contract or not. Precious. Take it easy, buddy. You still got to play a long time in the NBA. But needless to say, he's enjoying his vacation in Zambia. And yes, folks, if you check out his IG or his social media channels, you will see that that is legit. Him hanging out in the wild. All right, finally, you may have heard the story at the Olympics, and this was one that I think caught a lot of people's eye when Jordan Chiles ended up winning the bronze medal, but had to give it back because of a technicality. I mean, honestly, do we even know if she's given this back? We just hear that she has to. The US is fighting this and saying that she shouldn't have to. And there's also somebody else that's fighting for her. And that is the hip hop rap star, one of the all time greats from public Enemy Flavor Flav. Now, if you're unfamiliar with Flav's work, it includes yelling, singing over a lot of the songs on Public Enemy's records, CDs and tapes in the past, and it also includes him having a medallion of a clock around his neck is just who he has been for years wearing shades, having the clock, wearing a hat sort of off to the side as you can kind of see there. I think Flav has made a medallion in the size of a bronze medal to give to Chiles, so she can have that as a memento, just in case she has to give her bronze medal back. So really good job there by Flavor Flav. And yeah, we've talked a lot of rap and hip hop at the end of the show. A lot of Snoop Dogg references a lot of flavor Flav references. I don't mind that. That's what that's what I grew up in the 80s and 90s around a lot of these hip hop and rap groups may have a record or two right here to my left of Public Enemy. A lot of them, actually. All right, that'll do it for the show today. Set you up for the rest of the day here on Sports Grid. Got the early line coming up next. It's an hour preempted program. Airs in the morning. Also in the afternoon just for your familiar also Kaplan and crew, 1:00 eastern. Make sure you catch that show right here exclusively on Sports Grid, followed by Farrell coast to Coast at three. Game time decisions. With all of your action in Major League Baseball coming up tonight in game live, prime time and then sports rage tonight with game. Make sure you are watching, listening and streaming that show live. Thanks to our director Luke and of course our producer Frank. I'm Craig Mish. I will see you tomorrow for another edition of the show here on Newswire. As we get ready for the return of the WNBA. That's right. Games in the WNBA ramp back up tomorrow. And there are two NFL preseason games, which we'll dive into as well. So with that, I hope you enjoy the rest of your day here on Sports Grid, and I'll see you back here tomorrow morning for our next edition of the show. That's every single Monday through Friday, 11 a.m. to 12 p.m. exclusively here on Newswire. Have a great day, everyone. I'll see you then.