NFL Betting News at BetLM

Harper Wants Saints, Spagnuolo to Maintain Williams’ Intensity

New Orleans (NFL/Newsfeed) — The 2012 sea­son shapes up as a cru­cible for the New Orleans Saints defense. Between the stigma of the league’s “bounty” find­ings and the loss of line­backer Jonathan Vilma (sus­pened for the entire sea­son) and defen­sive end Will Smith (sus­pended for the first four ganes), per­haps no NFL defense has ever gone into a sea­son with more of a chip on its col­lec­tive shoulder. The man charged with ral­ly­ing the troops is Steve Spag­n­uolo, the for­mer St. Louis Rams coach and New York Giants coor­di­na­tor who led Big Blue’s defense... 

Fairley Arrested for DUI, Attempting to Elude Police

DETROIT (NFL/Newsfeed) — Detroit Lions defen­sive tackle Nick Fair­ley was arrested by Alabama State Troop­ers on Sun­day morn­ing for dri­ving under the influ­ence and attempt­ing to elude police, accord­ing to the Mobile County Sheriff’s office. WALA-TV in Mobile, Ala. reported Fair­ley was taken into cus­tody shortly after 1 a.m. and was released on $ 1,750 bond shortly after 9 a.m. Troop­ers also told the tele­vi­sion sta­tion that Fair­ley was tick­eted for reck­less dri­ving, no proof of insur­ance and hav­ing an open container. The Lions released a state­ment... 

Minnesota Vikings Stadium Bill Passes House, Goes to Senate

ST. PAUL, Minn. (NFL/Newsfeed) — The Min­nesota Vikings took a giant step Mon­day night toward a new taxpayer-subsidized foot­ball sta­dium when the state House approved leg­is­la­tion, but law­mak­ers upped the share the team would have to pay. On a 73–58 vote, the $ 975 mil­lion sta­dium plan remained alive. The state Sen­ate was to vote Tues­day on a com­pet­ing plan, mov­ing the Vikings closer than ever to a replace­ment for the Metrodome. Demo­c­ra­tic Gov. Mark Day­ton hailed the vote by thank­ing fans who have flooded law­maker phone lines, email inboxes and... 

Saints’ Williams Allegedly Told Hargrove to ‘Play Dumb’

NEW ORLEANS (NFL/Newsfeed) — For­mer Saints defen­sive end Anthony Har­grove was instructed to deny the exis­tence of a bounty pro­gram by Saints assis­tants Gregg Williams and Joe Vitt in 2010, accord­ing to a signed dec­la­ra­tion Har­grove sub­mit­ted to the NFL. Jason Cole of got his hands on the doc­u­ment, which was sub­mit­ted by the NFLPA in hopes of show­ing that play­ers were only act­ing under orders from coaches to keep the exis­tence of the bounty pro­gram quiet. “Those [exple­tives] have been try­ing to get me for years,” Williams allegedly told Har­grove,... 

Minnesota Pols in Tough Position as Vikings Stadium Vote Nears

ST. PAUL, Minn. (NFL/Newsfeed) — Min­nesota House Speaker Kurt Zellers could have been speak­ing for many of his fel­low law­mak­ers when he strug­gled to describe his posi­tion on a $ 1 bil­lion Vikings sta­dium bill before a vote that could be crit­i­cal to the team’s future in the state. “I won’t vote for it, but I want to see it pass,” the Repub­li­can said in an inter­view late last week on sports radio. With votes sched­uled Mon­day on a huge pub­lic pay­out, 200 law­mak­ers are under pres­sure from plenty of peo­ple who oppose the project — but worry... 

Fujita, Hargrove and Smith File ‘Reservation of Rights’ With League

NEW ORLEANS (NFL/Wyche) — While Saints line­backer Jonathan Vilma filed a let­ter stat­ing his intent to appeal his season-long sus­pen­sion Mon­day, three other play­ers sus­pended in the Saints bounty scan­dal, jointly filed, through the NFLPA, a “reser­va­tion of rights” let­ter to the NFL. Scott Fujita, Anthony Har­grove and Will Smith, filed notice that they reserve the right to appeal after a griev­ance filed by the NFLPA on their behalf chal­leng­ing com­mis­sioner Roger Goodell’s author­ity regard­ing these sus­pen­sions is heard. The NFLPA states that no... 

You Can’t Keep Colt McCoy Away From Work With Browns

Cleve­land (NFL/Newsfeed) — On Thurs­day morn­ing, the Cleve­land Browns leaked infor­ma­tion that they expected Colt McCoy to make a “big leap for­ward” in 2012. By Thurs­day night, he was on the trade block. Mon­day has arrived, and McCoy is back where he started: The Browns’ team facil­ity. Tom With­ers of The Asso­ci­ated Press noted that McCoy was present for the team’s off­sea­son program. Really, what choice does he have? Jason La Can­fora of NFL Net­work tells ATL that the Browns expect McCoy to be back on the team. The Browns can’t get any­thing for him... 

Kellen Moore: No QB Will Be More Motivated Than Me

Detroit (NFL/Newsfeed) –Kellen Moore learned over the week­end that col­lege suc­cess doesn’t always trans­late to NFL inter­est. The Boise State prod­uct won a record 50 games dur­ing his col­lege career, but he was with­out an NFL job until the Detroit Lions picked him up as an undrafted free agent. Moore’s fall from grace hasn’t dimin­ished reader inter­est in him. He was the most pop­u­lar search item on NFL.com Sun­day. Ian Rapoport of NFL.com broke the news about Moore’s arrival in Detroit, and gained roughly 600 fol­low­ers on Twit­ter imme­di­ately thereafter. While... 

Washington Redskins Release Jabar Gaffney

WASHINGTON, D.C. (NFL/Wyche) — The hint was cast when the Wash­ing­ton Red­skins gave rookie quar­ter­back Robert Grif­fin III jer­sey No. 10, which had been worn by wide receiver Jabar Gaffney. Real­ity came Tues­day when Gaffney was released by the Red­skins, accord­ing to a source with knowl­edge of the situation. The team later con­firmed the release on Twitter. The 10-year vet­eran had a career-best sea­son in 2011, when he led the Red­skins in both recep­tions and receiv­ing yards with 68 catches for 947 yards and five touchdowns. Wide receivers Josh Mor­gan and Pierre... 

Spielman Says Vikings Had Other Offers on Table for No. 3 Pick

Min­neapo­lis (NFL/Newsfeed) — Min­nesota Vikings gen­eral man­ager Rick Spiel­man rebuffed the notion that he “fleeced” the Cleve­land Browns by trad­ing the No. 3 pick in the 2012 NFL Draft, allow­ing Cleve­land to select for­mer Alabama run­ning back Trent Richardson. In the wake of Friday’s first big draft-day deal, some reports spec­u­lated that the Browns could have taken Richard­son with the No. 4 pick they orig­i­nally held because the Vikings were bluff­ing about other pos­si­ble trades. “We did have offers on the table, I can tell you that. I’m not going...