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09/10/2010 -
GAINESVILLE, Fla. (AP) -Just hours before Florida's season opener, cornerback Jeremy Brown was still wearing a protective boot on his right foot.
A teammate landed on him in practice earlier in the week, leaving Brown on crutches and out of the starting lineup against Miami (Ohio).
``Everybody kept saying, `Maybe you should just let it go and sit out this game,''' Brown said.
No chance. Not now. Not after all he had been through.
Brown spent his first two years at Florida battling a debilitating back injury. He had two herniated discs, inflamed joints, nerve damage and enough pain that he ``couldn't even put on socks and shoes.'' Compared to that, playing though a sprained ankle was easy.
``I worked so hard to try to come back,'' Brown said. ``I worked so hard for this moment, and here it was and I'm thinking I'm not going to be able to play. ... I just had faith. Then when it got closer to game time, I just said I have to go. I have to do what I can to help my team.''
Brown came up big, too.
Filling in for injured starter Moses Jenkins, Brown intercepted a pass late in the fourth quarter that ended Miami's slim shot at a comeback. Now, with Jenkins sidelined indefinitely because of a dislocated elbow, Brown will make his first career start Saturday when the eighth-ranked Gators (1-0) host South Florida (1-0).
It has to go smoother than his back injury.
``I'm just thankful to have this opportunity,'' Brown said. ``I would rather be on this end than the other end. ... It definitely puts a little pressure on me to step up. It's time to turn it up a little bit and get ready to go.''
Brown was ready to go as a freshman.
Coach Urban Meyer likes to point out that Brown, a third-year sophomore from Orlando, was ahead of Janoris Jenkins when he got hurt in 2008. Yep, the guy who made just about every All-Freshman team might not have gotten on the field had Brown not tweaked his back.
Brown did, and Jenkins took advantage. Jenkins started 25 games the last two years and emerged as the team's best man-to-man defender.
Brown could only think about what might have been.
``Sometimes when you have a serious injury, you second-guess and you wonder a little bit,'' he said. ``But my confidence is back and I'm past my injury.''
It wasn't an easy road, though.
Brown had a minor back injury in high school, but nothing that kept him off the field. He came to Florida in January 2008 and made strides in spring practice and summer workouts. But when fall practice rolled around, his back starting to tighten up. It kept getting worse, too.
Ice, heat, message therapy, nothing worked. Team doctors eventually ran tests that showed disc damage.
``When the MRI showed that my discs were messed up, I though, `Wow, this is serious,''' said Brown, who had his L4-L5 discs repaired. ``I've had a million procedures done, but we've got it taken care of,'' he said.
It took two years to get right, though. Brown spent countless hours in the training room, in the pool and hooked up to a back machine.
Nonetheless, there were times none of it helped.
``Whenever it would get bad, I would stay in bed for days,'' Brown said. ``I literally mean days. There were consecutive days I just couldn't even get up. ... There were times I couldn't even get out of bed, move. I just passed out on the ground. It was bad.''
It's better now, healthy enough that Brown beat out Moses Jenkins during training camp. Jenkins started the opener only because of Brown's foot injury. Brown didn't stay on the sideline long. He got a painkilling injection before the game and came on in the third quarter.
``He came out and played 31 plays and graded out a champion in his first ever game played at Florida,'' Meyer said. ``That's a heck of a story.''
It's just getting started. Brown will face South Florida's Evan Landi and Dontavia Bogan on Saturday. They combined for eight catches for 178 yards and a touchdown last week against Stony Brook.
The Gators are confident Brown is ready for the next test.
``All the things that he's been through with his back just shows that if you keep going and keep working hard good things will come to you,'' safety Ahmad Black said.Copyright © 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. The information contained in the AP News report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press.
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Rule No. 1 in the gamblers' handbook states, "Avoid sports betting on meaningless games."
When you're drowning in a sea of baseball monotony, however, things change. Even a hint of pro football betting can persuade the most disciplined bettor to break a few rules.
The NFL preseason is around the corner, with a tempting Hall of Fame match kicking off on Sunday. But bettors must stay vigilant. Wagering on NFL exhibition games is an entirely different beast than the regular season. Most fans don't recognize the players on the field because starters get as much action in August as Warcraft fans get on Prom night.
The only certainty about the NFL this time of year is uncertainty – and yet there are some who say betting in August can be a gold mine.
“I actually feel the NFL preseason presents solid profit opportunities for sharp bettors and handicappers,” Sports Expert Steve Merril explains. “My experience has been that the sportsbooks fear the preseason, which is evident by lower limits and massive moves.”
The line moves are attributed to the limited knowledge available regarding playing-time distribution. One team’s top unit out on the field for one more series has an impact on the pointspread. Setting lines in the preseason often is a shot in the dark.
“We base the betting lines mostly on public perception,” Pete Korner, founder of the Sports Club in Las Vegas, says. “It’s very tough to predict, almost a guessing game.”
The preseason is all about figuring out who’s in and for how long.
“It becomes a race between bettors and oddsmakers to find out how long the quarterbacks are going to stay in,” Korner admits. “If a sharp gets the information first, he could exploit an early line. I’m a full believer in moving the line in the preseason if the books find out something late in the week.”
Determining what each team’s motive is can help bettors handicap. To do this you must pay close attention to the philosophies head coaches employ in exhibition play.
“You need to know what a coach is trying to accomplish,” says Covers Expert Bryan Leonard. “Sometimes a new coach will want to instill a winning attitude. Others just want to make sure their starters don’t get hurt."
So how do you distinguish who’s playing scared and who’s playing for keeps?
“Head coaches on the hot seat or new coaches trying to implement a winning attitude usually try harder to win in the preseason,” Merril says.
Cleveland Browns head coach Romeo Crennel fits this criteria. He’s entering his third season as the sideline boss and has yet to lead the Browns to more than six wins.
Cleveland is an enticing bet as well because of the unresolved quarterback situation. General manager Phil Savage sacrificed the Browns’ first-round pick in next year’s draft for Brady Quinn, but the former Notre Dame quarterback hasn’t signed or reported to training camp yet.
Charlie Frye and Derek Anderson split time at QB last season and it looks like either player (or even Quinn) could be the opening-day starter.
“If a team has quarterback depth and the pecking order hasn’t been decided, it’s a big advantage,” Leonard says.
Even in the third week of the preseason when starters generally play the most, the final outcome of the game is in the hands of fringe players. A team's talent, all the way down to the last man on the roster, is something to consider.
The New England Patriots have long been considered one of the deeper teams in the NFL and coach Bill Belichick has said in the past he’s unafraid of stars getting hurt in games with nothing on the line. He shocked his colleagues in 2003 by playing some of his starters on special teams in the preseason.
“We want to have the team ready to play a tough, physical game and preparation has to go into that and I imagine a certain amount of injuries go with it,” Belichick told the Providence Journal in August 2003.
Bettors can only hope to find more teams that share the Pats' business-like approach to the preseason (New England is 17-9-3 against the spread since 2000) and take advantage of teams who detest the exhibition schedule.
To visit this online sportsbook got to MySportsbook.com for all your bet on football needs. Mysportsbook.com online sportsbook accepts Visa and Mastercard credit cards.
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