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00:00So, let's dive right into it and get started with the National Football League in case
00:07you missed it. Last night, it was a blowout in Pittsburgh. The Steelers beat the Jets
00:12and the final was 37-15. A very impressive performance by Russell Wilson in this game.
00:20Naturally, you would not expect the Steelers to make this kind of move to a backup quarterback,
00:26but it ended up working out in strong fashion. And after the game, Mike Tomlin extremely
00:32impressed with how his players played, not to mention the atmosphere.
00:35Man, nothing like primetime football at Akershaw, man. I'm just really appreciative of the atmosphere
00:40and the quality of play. I thought we got stronger as the game went on in all three
00:46phases, man. We made plays in all three phases. Last night, we talked about eight-player performance,
00:53particularly on stages such as this, primetime television and so forth. And I just thought
00:57we had a lot of guys that displayed eight-player characteristics. Can't say enough about young
01:02Beanie Bishop, man. That's an awesome evening, man, for him to get his first two interceptions
01:07versus a gold jacket guy like Aaron Rodgers, man. We're just appreciative of the work that
01:13was done tonight to make the night what it was. Hopefully, there's growth in this as
01:18we move forward, man, but it's good to get a win. We had a couple of injuries. Mon Adams
01:25had a knee injury, wasn't able to return. Dante Jackson had a shoulder injury, wasn't
01:29able to return. We had some other bumps and bruises associated with play. But man, I'm
01:34just really appreciative of the efforts of the men.
01:38Steelers get the win. Russell Wilson, no doubt, will start again for them next week. Meanwhile,
01:42Aaron Rodgers has seen a lot of changes with his team. New coach, new wide receivers, but
01:46the results have been the same. The Jets are falling out of this thing pretty quickly.
01:50Rodgers himself did not have a great game yesterday and admitted so after the game.
01:56It's been a rough stretch since we played so good on Thursday night. We've lost each
02:06of those four in different ways, but we've got to figure it out. Obviously, we added
02:16two big-time players to the locker room. One's here, one's coming Monday. So everything's
02:25still right in front of us. We've got to somehow keep the belief in the locker room and start
02:32a run. You can't win 10 in a row unless you win the first one, so we've got to be very
02:37critical of ourselves, each of us individually tomorrow, and then come in with the right
02:44attitude all week and go to New England and get a win.
02:48How do you get everybody to keep the belief in? It seems like a lot of the same mistakes
02:52you've had.
02:53Stop listening to you guys, number one. Number two, you've got to be accountable. I've got
03:02to play better. That's the key.
03:05Stop listening to the media. Okay, they tackle the players at the end of the game on Pittsburgh.
03:11I don't think so. Anyway, moving on to the Cleveland Browns, Deshaun Watson's going to
03:16miss the rest of the season. He had an Achilles injury that he suffered in their game yesterday
03:20against the Bengals. It was pretty obvious in watching. Watson, of course, has not played
03:24well since going to Cleveland and signing that mega contract. Didn't play particularly
03:30well against the Bengals even yesterday. Dorian Thompson-Robinson came in, and he also got
03:35hurt, so really unclear as to who's going to be the starting quarterback for the Browns.
03:38But more or less, their season is over. They're 1-6 to start the year. The Washington Commanders
03:43drafted Jaden Daniels to take them to the promised land. So far, so good. And even without
03:48Daniels, Washington clobbered the Carolina Panthers yesterday. Daniels suffered a rib
03:53injury. Looks like it could be one of those oblique-type deals. He is day-to-day, maybe
03:57week-to-week. There's some speculation he could miss this coming week's game, but naturally,
04:03Washington's played very well with him.
04:04Meanwhile, the World Series is set. It's East versus West. Yankees versus Dodgers. Dodgers
04:09had no issue last night closing out the New York Mets, so they move on to the World Series,
04:14which will begin on Friday. 10-5 was the final yesterday. And ironically speaking, the American
04:21League Championship Series, National League Championship Series, although they were somewhat
04:24competitive, were completely different because, you know, the NLCS was not. I mean, whoever
04:29won the game won big. The ALCS, every game went right down to the wire. But it is a trip
04:33back to the World Series, as many predicted at the beginning of the season for LA. And
04:38Dave Roberts, thankful for that opportunity.
04:40I think they proved to themselves how tough they are. I think that when you get in a position
04:48that we were in against a division rival, against a very talented team at that point,
04:55it turns into a street fight. And it's, you know, lose and go home, or you just fight
05:01like heck. And I think that that's what got us over the top in the DS, and also what bled
05:07into the fact, you know, allowed us to finish these guys off in six games.
05:14And there'll be no question that when the series does begin on Friday night, many predicting
05:17this to be the highest rated World Series of all time, with the Yankees and Dodgers
05:22squaring off. All right, back to the NFL for a minute. The 49ers just can't beat the Chiefs,
05:26right? Chiefs win the Super Bowl matchup, rematch, 28 to 18, the final there. Packers
05:32beat the Texans, although they did not cover that short spread, 24 to 22. The Vikings finally
05:39lose a game last second kick for Detroit. They win 31 to 29. And the Eagles just dominated
05:46the Giants. I believe they had seven sacks in the game against Daniel Jones, 28 to three
05:52the final. Saquon Barkley, 176 yards rushing in that game. Meanwhile, underdogs won a
05:58little bit more yesterday, but still the favorites were really the story. Seahawks were the road
06:03underdog that ended up winning outright. Falcons were three-point favorites. Seattle goes on
06:07the road. They win with some good offense, also some timely defense. Strip sack for a
06:11touchdown on Kirk Cousins, 34 to 14. The Bills were down 10-0 at the half to Tennessee. They
06:18end up winning 34 to 10. Josh Allen with a big game there. Colts beat the Dolphins, 16 to 10.
06:24Dolphins quarterback Snoop Huntley was injured in the game, but Tua Tungavailoa expected to
06:28return this week. And meanwhile, the Raiders quarterback issues continue. Rams beat the
06:33Raiders. Raiders did cover the number, but there was an announcement this morning that Aiden O'Connell
06:39has a fractured finger and is going to miss weeks, not days. So Gardner Minshew, who came
06:44back in the game yesterday and threw a couple of picks, he is going to start for the Raiders,
06:47although their season seems to be going nowhere. All right, new number one in college football,
06:51of course, over the weekend, Georgia beat Texas. So that puts Oregon back at number one. Indiana,
06:56I mean, this may be one of their highest rankings in decades. As of right now,
07:00they are up to 13. They're undefeated on the season. Georgia, as we mentioned, beat Texas,
07:0530 to 15. Quinn Ewers really struggled in this one. Tennessee beat Alabama late, 24 to 17.
07:11Indiana, as we mentioned, crushed Nebraska, 56 to 7. The Hurricanes' defense has struggled,
07:16but their offense keeps rolling. They're inside the top 10, pushing for a playoff spot, 52 to
07:2145 was the final there. Kim Ward has had a fantastic season for Miami. And also,
07:26congrats to the New York Liberty. They end up winning the WNBA championship. Very exciting finish
07:32as they capture the title here in the 2024-25 season. All right, tomorrow night, the NBA season
07:39opens up. And of course, we'll have that covered for you. I believe Coach Young will be with us
07:43to preview the season and also some games. Let's get to the latest off the court,
07:46some last-minute signings, and some injuries in the NBA before they fortify the rosters for the
07:50season. The Warriors have extended Moses Moody, a three-year contract worth $39 million. He's a
07:57role player for Golden State, plays about 17 minutes a game, did very well for them last
08:01year. Also, Max Struess for Cleveland. He's out again, second straight year, six weeks with an
08:07ankle sprain. And Precious Achua of the New York Knicks are already missing Mitchell Robinson to
08:13start the season. He is going to be out for an extended period of time as well. Welcome back to
08:19Newswire here on Sports Grid. I'm Craig Mish. We're joined by Jim Ghazali of Legal Sports Report
08:24and everybody over at LSR getting ready for the election coming up. Not as much for the presidency
08:29as it is for the legalization or potential legalization in Missouri. We're going to get
08:34to that story here in a minute. Could be the big sports betting story of the year.
08:38Jim, first of all, thank you again for coming on Newswire. Good morning to you. Let's get started
08:43with the upcoming college basketball season. I know that everyone's very excited for that. Prop
08:48betting still getting a lot of attention. And I saw that there was a summit at Siena about the
08:55discussion on specifically prop betting for college athletes. It doesn't seem like there's any imminent
09:00change to this idea, but I've given my opinion on this before. I think there are so many things,
09:06Jim, that you could wager on. I think it's certainly possible that the elimination of
09:11college sports prop betting, I think, is upon us. It may not be in six months. It may not be in a
09:16year. It just seems like there's a lot of steam with this. Yeah, and we saw a handful of states
09:22already take some individual action on outlawing college prop betting within the last year. And
09:32Congressman Paul Tonko included an outright ban on college prop betting in his safe bet act that
09:38he unveiled with Senator Richard Blumenthal a couple of weeks ago. And Congressman Tonko,
09:46he's from my district actually up here near Saratoga in upstate New York. And he was in town
09:53last week to have a roundtable at Siena College to discuss with the players and coaches there
09:59just to see what sort of, you know, vitriol they're receiving and abusive messages that
10:06they're receiving on social media. So a handful of the athletes did say that they have been
10:12the victims of death threats and abusive, threatening messages on social media in regards
10:20to prop bets that they were ultimately unsuccessful in carrying out for these bettors. And we've
10:29really seen that sort of abuse on social media really grow and get, you know, to be quite honest,
10:39out of hand really. And that's why a lot of states took some action on this within the
10:43last handful of months. Like I said, Tonko's bill, the Safe Bet Act calls for an outright ban
10:50on college prop bet at the federal level. So obviously that would require all the states to
10:56back it. But Tonko was in town, talked to a bunch of athletes and coaches, including
11:03new Siena head coach Jerry McNamara, who won a national championship with Syracuse back in 2003.
11:10And he said that this is a new sort of challenge that current student-athletes are facing. He
11:18said that he did not face any of this sort of social media backlash really during his playing
11:24days. The NCAA too, they just put out a study last week that found that about 12 percent of
11:31abusive comments on social media directed towards college athletes in the last couple of years
11:37were related to sports betting. Like I mentioned, a couple of states, Ohio, Louisiana,
11:43Maryland, Vermont, they took action on banning the college prop bets this year. New York,
11:49Massachusetts, it's not allowed in either of those states. That was baked into the regulations before
11:55those markets even launched. So it remains to be seen what sort of success the Safe Bet Act on its
12:02own will have. It was met with some pretty stiff criticism when it was released and formally
12:11introduced a couple of weeks ago. In addition to that college prop betting ban, it also calls for
12:17regulating sports betting at the federal level with affordability checks, deposit limits,
12:24advertising restrictions, as well as limiting the use of AI by sportsbooks. So Craig, a lot still to
12:31come on this Safe Bet Act. This will obviously stretch into the new year. Nothing's going to
12:36happen on it before Congress breaks for the year here in the next couple of months after the election.
12:42So we'll see what Tonko does with this bill. He did tell me when I spoke to him the other day
12:47that they do plan to file this bill again in the new session once the new year begins.
12:53All right. So speaking of elections, there's a very big one coming up, of course, for the
12:57President of the United States. But in the state of Missouri right now, there's nothing you can do
13:02to stop the ad campaigns, whether it's on social media or on TV. A lot of opposition to the sports
13:10betting bill. A lot of people want sports betting legalized in Missouri. If you're on social media,
13:15you're seeing a lot of this, even if you don't live in Missouri as well. So I mean, it's kind
13:21of hard to predict. It feels like, Jim, that this vote is going to be close. I know in all
13:25of the pollings that we've seen, most people in Missouri want to legalize sports betting,
13:31but it's not like an 80-20 type thing. It seems like 60-40. So no telling how this is going to go,
13:36I guess. Yeah, you're absolutely right. I think the last polling that I looked at recently showed
13:41about a 52 percent rate of support for legalizing sports betting in Missouri. So, you know, at this
13:49point, it could be a toss up, though we did see last week a local news article in Missouri came
13:57out that said that the opposition did remove about a million dollars worth of TV ads in the lead up
14:06to this ballot question that we'll see that first week in November. So that would suggest that
14:13perhaps the opposition is seeing some polling that doesn't look like it will go in their favor.
14:21But again, to your point, Craig, I do think it'll be a relatively close vote that we'll see what
14:29happens in the next couple of weeks. But in the lead up to all of this, a lot of money has been
14:35thrown around. More than 44 million dollars now has been spent both for and against collectively
14:42on this ballot question, whether or not to legalize sports betting in Missouri. In the
14:48last week, we saw Caesars throw in another six thousand dollars behind the several hundred
14:55thousands of dollars that they they spent the week before. Caesars, of course, is in opposition
15:02of this ballot question. They are not in favor of the language that would basically allow
15:09FanDuel and DraftKings to come into the market, while Caesars already has several land based
15:14casinos in Missouri. Now, on the for side, for voting in favor of the Missouri sports betting
15:24legalization, the Sports Betting Alliance contributed about one hundred thousand dollars to
15:31the pro on this ballot question. So we'll see what ultimately happens. Like I said,
15:38they did. The opposition did remove a lot of those TV ads last week, and that'll continue,
15:44obviously, until Election Day. And both newspapers, both big newspapers in Missouri have both endorsed
15:53the ballot question in favor of legalizing Missouri sports betting. So we'll obviously
15:58see what happens, what shakes out when this vote comes to pass in the next couple of weeks.
16:02Yeah. About two weeks away from Super Tuesday should be a big one. All right. Latest update in
16:07New York. Not surprising here. Sports betting operators just bringing in the dough here
16:13in the month of September. I mean, football is back. I mean, Yankees in the playoffs,
16:17Mets in the playoffs. A big handle I'm seeing coming in from New York.
16:22Yeah. Over two billion dollars was bet in September. They went back over the two billion
16:28dollar mark. Second highest monthly handle figure ever to zero seven billion dollars back
16:35in September was only behind, I believe, maybe January of earlier this year, where it was about
16:44two point one one billion that came in. So second highest handle month ever. Again,
16:50the second highest revenue month ever at two hundred and four point seven million dollars.
16:56So Sportsbooks won nearly two hundred and five million dollars. And as we know, New York has
17:01that industry high 51 percent tax rate. So the bulk of that going back to New York state.
17:08But yeah, NFL betting returns. The dollars keep flowing over two billion dollars for for New York
17:14sports betting apps in September. We'll see how that trend continues now throughout the rest of
17:20the football season. Craig. All right, Jim. Well, naturally, the Yankees in the World Series,
17:24my guess is it will continue. Thanks again for coming on Newswire. I really appreciate it.
17:28Thanks, Craig.