For all those times Cleveland Browns fans have complained that they could call better plays than the coach, now’s your chance.
As part of the All In Challenge, the Browns are offering the opportunity for two people to help script the first 15 offensive plays of a preseason game.
One winner will be determined via auction and the other from a raffle. Proceeds raise money for Meals on Wheels, No Kid Hungry, America’s Food Fund, World Central Kitchen and Feeding America during the coronavirus pandemic.
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With each passing week, we are graced with more football as leagues across Europe return from hiatus.
The Bundesliga resumed last weekend – you can find the betting preview for Germany’s top flight here – and a few more leagues make their triumphant return this weekend, giving us plenty of options to chose from on the betting front.
Of course, as more leagues make their way back, it can be overwhelming to comb through all the fixtures in search of the best bets, so I took care of that for you. Here are the best bets for this weekend’s matches across Europe.
Armenia
Lori (+275) at Shirak (-120), Draw (+250)
Don’t expect many goals when these sides meet on Saturday. Shirak have conceded just seven in eight home matches this season, while Lori have scored just five and conceded nine in their eight away from home. The last two meetings between these sides at Gyumri City Stadium produced a total of two goals, and a similarly low output should be expected here.
Pick: Under 2, 2.5 (-105)
Noah (+100) at Alashkert (+100), Draw (+230)
Noah are just 2-2-4 away from home this season, with those two wins and two draws coming against the bottom four clubs in the standings. They’re 0-4 against clubs ahead of them in the table, as Alashkert are. The home side has been really strong on its grounds this campaign. Look for Alashkert to make it five successive home wins over Noah on Sunday.
Pick: Alashkert (+100)
Belarus
Rukh Brest (+200) at Slutsk (+140), Draw (+220)
Rukh Brest are at their best when they can sit back and defend without having to force the issue themselves. They will be able to do just that in this spot, with the onus on Slutsk to attack as the visitors let the game come to them. Rukh Brest will make it incredibly difficult on the hosts to break them down, as they have done on a consistent basis this season, conceding just three goals in their five away matches.
Pick: Under 2, 2.5 (-110)
Estonia
FC Flora Tallinn (-154) at JK Trans Narva (+350), Draw (+300)
Trans will welcome the defending champions to town on Sunday, and you should expect them to park the bus for 90 minutes. The home side will hope to sit back and grind out a result against a Flora team that conceded just 10 goals in 18 away matches last term. Flora’s attack sputtered last weekend during a 0-0 draw in their first game back, and while they picked up where they left off on the defensive side, it will take time for them to find their rhythm on the front foot.
The last four meetings between these sides have produced a total of four goals, and we won’t see more than one or two on Sunday.
Pick: Under 3 (+110)
Faroe Islands
Skala IF (+2300) at B36 Torshavn (-1250), Draw (+950)
I’m all-in on the under here. Goals were incredibly scarce when Skala were on the road last season, as they allowed just 13 in 13 matches while scoring 17, with six of those 17 coming against the last-place club.
Don’t expect them to score many here against B36, who, excluding matches against the first-place team, allowed just nine goals in 12 home matches last season. The last two meetings between these sides in Torshavn last season each ended in 1-0 victories for B36, with another tense affair in the cards Saturday.
Pick: Under 3.5 (-115)
Hungary
Debrecen (+650) at Ferencvarosi (-260), Draw (+380)
Expect proceedings to be a bit stale in the first game back following the hiatus in Hungary’s top flight, as both attacks will require some time to round into form. Ferencvarosi have kept five straight clean sheets at home, and nine in 12 league matches on home soil this term. They’ll hold Debrecen in check here and grind out a timid encounter.
Pick: Under 3 (-125)
Alex Moretto is a sports betting writer for theScore. A journalism graduate from Guelph-Humber University, he has worked in sports media for over a decade. He will bet on anything from the Super Bowl to amateur soccer, is too impatient for futures, and will never trust a kicker. Find him on Twitter @alexjmoretto.
Tom Brady’s journey to each of his nine Super Bowls with the New England Patriots will be the subject of an ESPN series released next year.
Titled “The Man in the Arena: Tom Brady,” the nine-episode series will include a look from Brady’s perspective at the six NFL titles and three Super Bowl defeats he was a part of. It should be a rare opportunity for revelations from the usually private quarterback, who left New England this year after 20 seasons and now is with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
The series will be produced by ESPN, 199 Productions (Brady’s production company) and Gotham Chopra of Religion of Sports.
“Through the series, we’re defining the key moments and challenges that were seemingly insurmountable, but through hard work and perseverance, became career-defining triumphs, in both victory and defeat,” Brady said.
Brady has won more Super Bowls than anyone else and remains an NFL star at age 42. Unlike Peyton Manning, his contemporary for much of his career and the quarterback he is most often compared to, Brady normally has been reticent to provide behind-the-scenes information.
Connor Schell, ESPN’s executive vice president for content and one of the creators of the network’s 30 for 30 series, thinks Brady has a fountain of memories worth telling.
“To have personal firsthand accounts and an athlete at Tom’s level who doesn’t often give firsthand accounts can add up to a remarkable series,” Schell said.
Schell points to Chopra’s storytelling skill as a key factor in making Brady’s experiences compelling to fans — even to the legions outside of the New England area who have generally despised the team.
“It is really a tribute to Gotham that he was able to earn that level of trust so Tom is willing to share his stories,” Schell said, noting that Chopra brought the project to ESPN. “We love these projects where these elements come together, and we’re able to give fans not just a good story but something they haven’t seen before.”
The episodes are expected to be grounded in Brady’s reflections and will include voices and outlooks other than his.
Schell added that ESPN is “thinking about how to evolve the genre and new ways to tell these stories and new hooks. And the access to Tom Brady is unique.”
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We enjoyed a profitable return to Bundesliga action last weekend, and I don’t know about you, but I had a spectacular time sitting on the couch for 12 hours watching the first major European league to make a triumphant return.
I plan on doing that all over again this weekend, so we might as well win some more money while we’re at it.
Borussia Dortmund (-143) at Wolfsburg (+350), Draw (+300)
Betting under any number in a Dortmund match since Erling Haaland came aboard has been a surefire way to gutter your bankroll – the club has scored 31 goals in his nine Bundesliga appearances. However, 22 of those came in Haaland’s first five matches, and only nine have been scored in the four games since, which includes last weekend’s four-goal outburst against Schalke.
Wolfsburg represent a tougher test, as Dortmund will be on the road against one of the best defenses in the top flight, which has conceded just 13 times in 13 home matches this term. The hosts will make life difficult for the high-flying Dortmund attack, which should be in for a bit of a letdown following that massive derby win.
Don’t expect more than a goal – maybe two – from Dortmund, while Wolfsburg are unlikely to contribute much to the total. They’ve scored just 16 times in 13 home games, and they’ve failed to find the back of the net in each of their last six matches against BVB, last scoring against them in a 5-1 loss in September 2016. Dortmund have kept four clean sheets in their last five matches and are a good bet to record another here.
Pick: Under 3 (-113)
Hoffenheim (+110) at Paderborn (+210), Draw (+280)
Both of these sides were held goalless in the first weekend back and they’ll be looking to get off the mark on Saturday, but another low-scoring affair feels likely. Paderborn have scored just 17 goals in their 13 home matches this season, while Hoffenheim are one of the lowest-scoring clubs away from home, recording just 16 goals and conceding only 12 in their 12 road fixtures.
Paderborn have conceded nine goals in seven home matches against clubs outside the top eight while scoring eight. They will be hard-pressed to add to that total against a Hoffenheim defense that’s allowed just three goals in its last five away matches, keeping clean sheets against both Union Berlin and Werder Bremen.
Paderborn have also never scored against Hoffenheim in five all-time league meetings, with those fixtures producing seven total goals. Both clubs were misfiring in their first game back from the break, and I’d expect much of the same here. This total is far too high.
Pick: Under 3 (-110)
Augsburg (+275) at Schalke (-105), Draw (+250)
There was little to like about Schalke’s performance against Dortmund last weekend. They’ll be looking to bounce back defensively here and should find more success. Excluding matches against Bayern and RB Leipzig, Schalke have conceded 10 goals in 11 home matches.
Conversely, Augsburg have scored just 12 goals in 13 away fixtures, failing to find the back of the net in each of their last four. Of those 12 goals, six have come against Hoffenheim and Werder Bremen – the clubs with the two worst home defensive records in the Bundesliga this season.
Don’t expect a whole lot from Schalke’s attack, while defensively, they should rebound from the four-goal beating suffered at the hands of Dortmund. This fixture ended 0-0 last season and a similar result can be expected here.
Pick: Under 2.5 (-105)
Alex Moretto is a sports betting writer for theScore. A journalism graduate from Guelph-Humber University, he has worked in sports media for over a decade. He will bet on anything from the Super Bowl to amateur soccer, is too impatient for futures, and will never trust a kicker. Find him on Twitter @alexjmoretto.