Windfall For Bettors If New York Jets Continue Streak To SB XLIV

NFL News - January 19th, 2010 - Written by John

The New York Jets have been longshots all along, but continue to make gamblers oodles of cash by upsetting the Cincinnati Bengals and San Diego Chargers in the first two rounds of the NFL Playoffs. Even Darrelle Revis sparked a pretty nice payday when his acrobatic interception of Philip Rivers beat the odds for a +325 payout by Bodog.

If New York can continue the streak and win the Super Bowl, it will bring back memories of Joe Namath's infamous promise that he would shock the football world and the underdog Jets would upset the Baltimore Colts in 1969.

Like Namath, head coach Rex Ryan made a similar bold statement by asserting the Jets should be the favorites in the AFC in early playoff interviews, and that he would even pick his team for to win the Super Bowl.

If he was a bettor, he could have turned that confidence into an extra bag of dough.

Led by rookies who have far exceeded expectations in their first run through the playoffs, the Jets are underdogs in both scenarios of Bodog's Super Bowl prop betting page. The bet asks gamblers to predict the exact outcome of Super Bowl 44 out of the eight possible scenarios.

To even get to the big game, New York will have to beat the Indianapolis Colts again, this time with Peyton Manning, Dallas Clark and Reggie Wayne playing the whole way through.

The Colts are 15-0 this season when the trio plays a full game, and is favored by eight this weekend, according to NFL Betting Lines. They have been the favorites all along, and Bodog's likely Super Bowl outcome is Indianapolis beating New Orleans with a 23/10 payout.

The second most-likely scenario, the sportsbook says, is for New Orleans to beat the Colts with 14/5 odds.

But history says that match-up is far less likely than odds indicate because no no. 1 seed in either conference has made the Super Bowl since 2004.

That year, it was only the New England Patriots who emerged as a top seed and eventually beat the Philadelphia Eagles.

But what Indianapolis has going for itself is home-field advantage and the fact that it is the only team of the final four to reach the Super Bowl since Minnesota in 1977. New York hasn't made it since Namath's famous guarantee, and the Vikings haven't been since, although they were in the NFC Championship twice in the late 90s/early 2000s.

The Saints are one of five teams to never make the Super Bowl.

If they fail again, it would open up the possibility of Brett Favre capping his illustrious, and if nothing else eventful, career by proving what he felt all along. His career is still on the rise, reaching his second NFC Championship game in three years, and he's done it with two different, rivaling teams.

Minnesota has 21/4 odds to beat Indianapolis, and 11/1 odds to beat the Jets.