NFL Betting News at LinesMaker

Howie Roseman: We’re All in With Michael Vick

PHILADELPHIA (NFL/Alper) — A meet­ing with Robert Grif­fin III and rumored inter­est in Ryan Tan­nehill and Pey­ton Man­ning have raised some sus­pi­cion that the Eagles are in the mar­ket for a new start­ing quarterback. In a round­table ses­sion with reporters on Thurs­day, Gen­eral man­ager Howie Rose­man addressed that as well as the related topic of their sat­is­fac­tion with their cur­rent quar­ter­back. Accord­ing to Rose­man, there’s no change on the hori­zon under center. “We have so much con­fi­dence in Michael Vick lead­ing our team,” Rose­man said,... 

Jim Irsay Preaches Patience for Colts Fans

INDIANOLIS (NFL/Florio) — The NFL owner who has repeat­edly demon­strated that, when it comes to his Twit­ter account, he has no impulse con­tol is ask­ing his cus­tomers to not be so quick to turn their backs on his rebuild­ing team. “The sched­ule is out and new era is here … in 1998 we went 3–13 and it took us until Jan. 2004, almost 6 years, to win 1st play­off game,” Irsay said Wednes­day on Twitter. His one-word request? “Patience.” Sorry, Jim. It doesn’t work that way. There’s no six-year plan. There’s not even a two-year plan. It’s win now, or the fans may... 

Goodell: Minn. Faces ‘Serious Consequences’ Over Stadium Bill

NFL Com­mis­sioner Roger Good­ell told Min­nesota Gov. Mark Day­ton on Wednes­day that there would be “seri­ous con­se­quences” for the Vikings if a sta­dium bill is not completed. A Min­nesota House com­mit­tee voted down a bill on Mon­day that would have pro­vided for a new sta­dium at the site of the Metrodome, leav­ing the Vikings’ long-term fate up in the air. The team is com­mit­ted to play­ing in the Metrodome for the 2012 sea­son, even though its lease expired last year. Debate: Tough­est schedule Accord­ing to the St. Paul Pioneer-Press, Eric Grub­man,... 

Gregg Williams in Contact With NFL About Reinstatement Steps

The process of poten­tial rein­state­ment for St. Louis Rams defen­sive coor­di­na­tor Gregg Williams already is under­way, league sources said Wednesday. Williams, through his advis­ers, has been in con­tact with high-ranking NFL offi­cials to dis­cuss what steps are to be taken dur­ing his indef­i­nite sus­pen­sion to allow him to apply for reinstatement. Williams was sus­pended for his role in the New Orleans Saints’ “bounty” scan­dal, in which he offered pay­ments to his defend­ers for cart-off or knock-out hits dur­ing the 2009, 2010 and 2011 seasons. Debate: Tough­est... 

Team Takes on 2012 NFL Schedule

FLORIO/NFL — There’s much that can be said about the 2012 sched­ule. Since we aspire to focus not on any one team but on all 32 of them, I took a care­ful look at each team’s sched­ule and came up with one obser­va­tion per team. So here are they are. One per team. This way, no one can complain. But some­one surely will find a way to. Bills: Their suc­cess in 2011 hasn’t trans­lated to greater expo­sure in 2012. They’ll have no Mon­day night games, and they’ll have to flex their way into a Sun­day night appearance. Ravens: They’ll face the Steel­ers twice in 14 days.... 

Buccaneers Make Aqib Talib Available for Trade

There’s a new sher­iff in Tampa. Greg Schi­ano does things a lit­tle dif­fer­ently on the field, and he’s start­ing to get rid of Tampa’s prob­lem chil­dren off the field. PewterReport.com reports that the Bucs have dan­gled trou­bled cor­ner­back Aqib Talib for a pos­si­ble trade. Thus far, there have been no tak­ers. (And we don’t expect any to emerge.) The Buc­ca­neers have been extremely patient with Talib through his var­i­ous legal prob­lems. He’s set to go on trial for aggra­vated assault with a hand­gun on June 25. Talib has also seen his last two years... 

‘Thursday Night Football’ Schedule Kicks Off With Bears-Packers

NFL Net­work on Tues­day announced its expanded 13-game, regular-season, prime-time “Thurs­day Night Foot­ball” sched­ule, which kicks off in Week 2 (Sept. 13) and fea­tures nine 2011 play­off teams, includ­ing six that won divi­sion crowns and both NFC Cham­pi­onship Game oppo­nents (New York Giants and San Fran­cisco 49ers). Game times for the con­tests are 8 p.m. ET. Among the high­lights of NFL Network’s 2012 schedule: • The opener fea­tures the 185th meet­ing between Chicago Bears and Green Bay Pack­ers — the most-played rivalry in NFL history. • No. 1 drafted... 

Saints’ Graham Wants Drew Brees Signed

NEW ORLEANS (NFL) — The New Orleans Saints began their vol­un­tary off­sea­son work­outs Mon­day under unusual con­di­tions — cir­cum­stances that were not solely lim­ited to the fall­out from their “bounty” scandal. Saints quar­ter­back — and unques­tioned team leader — Drew Brees was notice­ably absent from the day’s work­outs, as the fran­chised signal-caller con­tin­ues to engage in a con­tract dis­pute with the team. One Saint, whose suc­cess is par­tic­u­larly tied to Brees’ pres­ence on the field, said Tues­day enough is enough, it’s time the... 

New York Jets Insist 2011 Drama a Thing of the Past

NFL — On the first day of vol­un­tary work­outs, the New York Jets made one thing clear: They’re putting last season’s drama behind them. “I don’t care what you call it, a broth­er­hood, a tribe or what­ever,” coach Rex Ryan said. “We want to be spe­cial, and I think that starts right now with the off­sea­son pro­gram and the con­di­tion­ing and the OTAs and the minicamp.” Jets quar­ter­back Mark Sanchez has tried to smooth the ten­sions in the Jets’ locker room that helped lead to a dis­ap­point­ing 8–8 sea­son in 2011. He and wide receiver San­to­nio... 

Gregg Williams Helps With Tornado Cleanup in Kansas

Wichita (PFT) — Rams defen­sive coor­di­na­tor Gregg Williams has been keep­ing a very low pro­file in the time since news sur­faced of the bounty sys­tem he admit­tedly ran in New Orleans. Williams recently made an unex­pected appear­ance in Wichita, Kansas, assist­ing with the cleanup of a tor­nado that struck on Saturday. “He’s a really nice guy,” res­i­dent Scott Lyon told KSN.com. “He went out and helped in a com­mu­nity he doesn’t live in. He just wanted to help us.” Lyons said he had told his girl­friend that it would be help­ful if some­one showed up with...