Sportsoverdose Blog

NFL

November 30, 2011 | Salmaan S

No shame in tebowing

I was one of the Tebow-haters at the beginning. I didn’t like the fact that he couldn’t throw the ball and that he was the poster boy for the evangelical right. I didn’t like the amount of coverage and analysis he got on Sportscenter despite being a bad to mediocre quarterback on a bad Denver Broncos team.

But then, something happened. I watched him play against the New York Jets. And for most of the game he looks absolutely atrocious. But once again, when the game was on the line, something changed. And I must admit, I began to root for Tebow. There is something truly exciting about rooting for a player who can’t throw the ball at all, but somehow time and time again manages to seemingly will his team to victory.

There is no denying how exciting Tim Tebow is to watch. And it’s fun to hear commentators and analysts rip him apart, dissecting his throwing motion, saying he can’t run an NFL offense. But the bottom line is its nice to root for an underdog, and for something we have never seen before. And watching Tebow run that option offense in the NFL, where you never see this work, is just fun to watch. So I have no problem admitting it, I am now a full fledged Tim Tebow fan. I will root for him to keep defying the odds and keep confounding all the experts.

Sports Gambling

November 15, 2011 | Salmaan S

Why sports betting is evil

Let me take you back 9 years or so, the New Jersey Nets are up 21 pts going into the 4th quarter in a playoff game against the Boston Celtics. I am basically counting the 1500 bucks I am about to win in a 4 game parlay. What follows is only the greatest 4th quarter collapse in the history of the NBA playoffs. And thus the end of my sportsbetting career.

Now in hindsight, this was actually the best thing that could have happened to me. But at the time, it was absolutely devastating of course. But what that fluky collapse led to was me coming to the realization that sportbetting was inherently evil. No matter how many good stretches and hot streaks you could ride, you would never overcome one inescapable fact.

You can’t quit while you’re ahead. So however high you run up your account, or no matter how many times you are sure you have stumbled upon the perfect system, its only a matter of time. Because the true sports gambler never stops while the going is good, they just push it and push it until inevitably all the money is gone.

So why did it take me so long to realize this? Well, because sports betting is fun. REALLY fun. Having action on a game, immediately makes unwatchable games more exciting than your favorite team in a playoff game. The downside is it automatically makes games without action boring, as you begin to forget the actual joy of watching sports. But after I was putting $10 at a time into my online sports betting account, and opening paypal accounts, just so I could get action on another game, I had a feeling that this just wasn’t smart.

So fast forward to the Nets playoffs game. As the Celtics are mounting this insurmountable comeback, I am thinking, how is this possible? But what I didn’t know at the time was that sports betting is pure evil, and if I didn’t lose this game in excruciating fashion, there would be another game and another collapse. Because there is no perfect system. There is no discipline. There is no selectiveness. And nobody quits while they are ahead. Which is why sports betting is evil, and the sooner you realize it the better off you will be.

New Features

October 27, 2011 | Scott B

A better homepage: Today’s top stories

Today we’re happy to announce the launch of our new homepage.

At first glance, it might not look very different but we are now displaying the day’s top stories rather than just the latest news.

Previously the homepage displayed the latest stories from thousands of local news sources which wasn’t exactly the most relevant and important news of the day.

Now we’re able to show only the hottest stories, with related articles grouped together so you can get the entire perspective from each teams’ local papers and blogs.

Well how does it work, you may ask? We’ve created a super-advanced algorithm that takes into account a wide range of factors and data and determines what the top stories of the moment are. The result – a curated, in-depth group of stories on the homepage that rival those of every major sports website out there.

So take the new homepage for a spin and let us know what you think. We hope you enjoy it as much as we do.

NBA

October 13, 2011 | Salmaan S

Top 10 reasons why David Stern should be fired

10) We just had a lockout in 98-99, where we were forced to be subjected to a 50 game season. Clearly if he couldn’t get the job done back then, why do we have to deal with him again.

9) His smile is pure evil.

8) His motives are questionable, since he’s always been a proponent of globalizing the game, so he might actually like the fact that NBA players are going to be forced to play overseas during the lockout.

7) He is withholding too much information, its hard to fathom that the NBA is losing as much money he claims, and there are probably numerous fudging of numbers and factors that he is ignoring.

6) He gets booed mercilessly at the NBA draft every year, and seems to enjoy it, so its possible he’s just being vindictive and this is his way of getting back at all the fans.

5) He is opening the door for his good buddy Gary Bettman’s league, the NHL, to emerge and rake in a ton of fans looking for something to replace the NBA.

4) It took fans years to come back, and he seems to either have forgotten the fact because he’s too old, or is being naive enough to assume fans will come rushing back just like that.

3) The NBA is coming off their best season in years, and he is completely killing all their momentum.

2) They just need a new point of view.

1) He thinks they have the leverage of the NFL, the NBA is not in the same league as the NFL in terms of fan loyalty, and the longer they wait, the more fans they are going to lose. Did anyone even realize the NHL was gone for an entire year? Nuff said.

Fantasy Sports

October 10, 2011 | Salmaan S

Should I stream players in fantasy sports?

For anyone who has been in a fantasy league before, this is probably an issue of contention that comes up a lot. Is it ethical to stream?

Do you need to stream to keep up in a competitive league, or to elevate a crappy team to contender status?

And if your league has a pickup limit per week, should it even be an issue. I mean if you can’t pick up a waiver wire stud later in the week, just because you streamed earlier in the week, isn’t that a dire enough conseqeuence.

Now recently I have been accused of streaming in my fantasy league, and as a staunch detractor of streaming in all sports, this cut me deep. But the question is, should it bother me, if everyone has the ability to stream, its not like its an unfair playing field, it just depends on how much effort you are willing to put into your league.

But in my humble opinion, the point of fantasy sports is to see who drafted, traded, and made the best pickups, not who managed to sneak a few extra games out of waiver wire players. So the verdict is, no you should not stream players, because it is unethical.

Fantasy Sports

October 3, 2011 | Salmaan S

Goodbye fantasy basketball, hello fantasy hockey!

Now that the we are on the brink of the NBA season being canceled, and at least shortened for sure, there is an open gap for fantasy addicts such as myself to fill the everyday joy of fantasy basketball.

Enter into the fray, fantasy hockey, with all those players nobody except the hardcore fans have ever heard of. Now granted its only been a little over a week, but I must say its looking like this will be an adequate replacement.

It has the everday appeal that fantasy football lacks, and since most people are on the same learning curve as I am, its wide open and super competitive. It probably also helps that I drafted an absolute force of a team, but the bottom line is that I think this will hold me over till the NBA comes to its senses.

Annoucements

October 1, 2011 | Scott B

It’s about time

Sportsoverdose.com has been around for a while now and today, we finally have a blog.

Here, the team will be blogging about everything from new features, what’s happening inside the company, and general commentary on the world of sports and fantasy sports (we’ll try not to bore you with how our fantasy teams are doing).