After not taking a snap in'09, Dallas' Kitna fresh

Football Betting Lines

08/26/2010 -

OXNARD, Calif. (AP) - Jon Kitna has looked pretty good this preseason, especially for a quarterback pushing 37.

Then again, he's well rested.

Tony Romo took every snap for the Dallas Cowboys last season, the only NFL quarterback to do so. That made Kitna the only second-stringer stuck on the sideline every week.

But Kitna didn't just watch and wait. He put his down time to good use.

Having absorbed 129 sacks the previous three seasons with Detroit, he spent the fall getting over lingering bumps and bruises. He became more familiar with the playbook and with his new teammates. He also encouraged Romo to keep going out, even for the routine handoffs at the end of blowouts.

``It's one of those things that when you get done with your playing career, you can look back and say, 'That was pretty special,''' Kitna said. ``Being able to take every snap, that's pretty rare. ... I was happy he got to do it.''

Kitna knows the thrill because he's among the handful of players to pull it off in recent years.

``Twice,'' he said, smiling.

Kitna and Romo are among nine players who went through a season taking every snap among quarterbacks - thus, discounting wildcat plays and other gimmicks - since 2006, according to research by STATS LLC. Their data by snaps dates to 2006.

Using attempts as the standard, STATS found 36 instances since 1990 where a single quarterback threw every pass. That includes Kitna in 2003 with Cincinnati and '06 with Detroit, and Romo last season.

Kitna's inactivity made him a bit of an unknown for the Cowboys this season. It was especially worrisome for team owner Jerry Jones because he remembers how the offense dropped off during the three games in 2008 when aging backup Brad Johnson replaced an injured Romo.

The Cowboys went 1-2, with one of the losses to a St. Louis team that lost its remaining 10 games. Dallas ended up one win shy of making the playoffs.

So after seeing Kitna against San Diego last weekend - 9 of 15 for 84 yards and a tying touchdown in the fourth quarter, with no sacks or turnovers - Jones declared, ``I'm going to sleep better about quarterback tonight than I've slept this year.''

``I thought Kitna did an outstanding job,'' Jones said. ``He scrambled out, had some pressure on him, and threw the ball out of bounds - that's what you want to see. You can't get that in practice with that kind of pressure. You want to make sure when you're 37, you've got your legs and he's got his legs.''

Kitna, who turns 37 next month, understands the owner being curious about whether age has caught up to him.

``Anybody who is over 35, you don't know - at any position,'' Kitna said. ``But I've been around some guys who've done it a long time. Warren Moon, he taught me how to take care of your body during the week so you can be ready to play on Sunday.''

Kitna came to training camp feeling fresh, not stale. Rather than having lost a step, his reaction time actually is faster because of his time with the team.

``It's the terminology,'' he said. ``We have plays that are called one thing here that meant something totally different others places I had been. So I had to reprogram my mind. When you're doing that, you get up to the line of scrimmage and you're not quite sure. If you're thinking about the play, then you're not going through the mental process of what you have to do once the play starts. Now, that's over for me. I can immediately draw the picture in my mind when the play is called and just play the game.''

That is, if you get in the game.

Kitna's last regular-season snap was Oct. 5, 2008. He missed the final 12 games of that season with a back injury.

The flip side is that the lack of wear and tear could extend his career. He's under contract through next season.

Longevity is a source of pride for Kitna, as well it should be. He's a former Central Washington star who wasn't drafted, was invited to only one NFL training camp, spent a year on Seattle's practice squad, a season in the World League and was the NFL's Comeback Player of the Year in 2003.

``I came into this league hoping to get one year,'' he said. ``My wife and I, we'd been married two years and we wanted to get out of debt. ... Going into year 15, I never would've dreamt that. So I don't even think much about how long I'm going to play. I just think that when the time is done, God will close the door.''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.

Wwwsoccerstore Football Betting News

<< Padres dominate D'Backs at home again
San Diego, CA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Adrian Gonzalez's three-run blast capped an early offensive attack, and the San Diego Padres continued their home dominance over the Arizona Diamondbacks with a 9-3 victory at PETCO Park. Gonzalez

<< Blake exits, Baghdatis advances at Pilot Pen
New Haven, CT (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Two-time champion James Blake was a second-round loser, while top-seeded Marcos Baghdatis was a third-round winner Wednesday at the $750,000 Pilot Pen Tennis event, a final hardcourt U.S. Open tu

<< Dodgers hold on to beat Brewers
Milwaukee, WI (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - James Loney drove in two runs and the Los Angeles Dodgers took a 5-4 win over the Milwaukee Brewers in the second of a three-game series. Andre Ethier hit a solo home run while Matt Kemp drove in one fo

<< Report: Nuggets to name Ujiri GM
Denver, CO (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Denver Nuggets are reportedly ready to name former team scout Masai Ujiri as the new general manager. According to The Denver Post, Ujiri, 39, was working with the team late Wednesday to finalize con

<< Phillips suffers bruised right hand
San Francisco, CA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Cincinnati Reds second baseman Brandon Phillips left Wednesday's game against the Giants in the sixth inning after getting hit by a pitch in the previous frame. Santiago Casilla had j

Oakland Raiders 2010 Season Preview >>
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - If the Oakland Raiders still have the gall to refer to their organization as the "Team of the Decades," they had better clarify which decades they mean exactly. In the first three of the 10 years comprising the just-passed

Sabres ink F Stuart >>
Buffalo, NY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Buffalo Sabres have signed unrestricted free agent forward Colin Stuart to a one-year contract. Stuart skated in 67 games for Calgary's AHL affiliate in Abbotsford last season and registered a car

Presley named App State's starting QB >>
Boone, NC (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Appalachian State junior quarterback DeAndre Presley learned a lot as an understudy to the first two-time Walter Payton Award winner, Armanti Edwards. Now Presley will try to duplicate some of Edwards' success af

FCS Season Preview: Patriot League >>
Bethlehem, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Colgate's free-spirited offensive lineman can be more "The Gong Show" than "Dancing with the Stars." While the Raiders have their eye on making the FCS playoffs this season, junior Kevin Morgan doesn't always

U.S. set to kick off Worlds >>
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The United States National Team will kick off the 2010 FIBA World Championship in Istanbul, Turkey on Saturday when they take on Croatia in Group B play. Team USA, which is led by defending NBA scoring champion Kevin Duran

SPORTS BETTING: NFL Football Sportsbook Betting

NFL owners, already life's biggest winners, want to try their luck with the lottery.


That was the news out of their meetings last week, where team bosses voted unanimously to allow stamping state and local lottery tickets with franchise logos, if, ahem, any governments wanted to do a deal.

A shocker: Within days the Pats announced they'd be sponsoring the Massachusetts state lottery, the Skins said they'd slap their sticker on Virginia scratch-offs and the Ravens admitted they were talking to Maryland lottery bosses. In all likelihood, it won't be long before every team is a presenting sponsor of scratch-offs or just plain old pick fives. "The change in policy was approved 32-0," said NFL spokesman Greg Aiello. "So you can expect to see more deals soon."

It's a branding opportunity too big for the owners to ignore, and one a couple of dozen baseball franchises have enjoyed for years. The fact the NFL has been slower to act than those slack-brained Seligites is indicative of its complicated relationship with all forms of gambling. Consider this: Last Thursday, as the Pats and the Redskins finalized their new lottery deals, a lawyer representing the NFL argued before Delaware's Supreme Court that the state's newly signed sports betting law should be repealed.

The NFL betting is the face of opposition to sports gambling . And as much as it would like to share that responsibility with other leagues, that's not going to happen as long as more than 40% of all money legally wagered on games is bet on football. That's why the Brewers can do a multi-million dollar deal with a local casino, or the Celtics can make their own pact with the Mass lottery, and the response is, "Sweet, let's play." But when the NFL does it the stakes are higher, and everyone from NPR's Frank Deford to the Associated Press to the guys blogging at Deadspin will line up to play gotcha.

So I asked Aiello, who surely knew there'd be piling on, how the league can rail against being bait for sports bettors, then allow its franchises to be just that for lotteries, the most insidious and addictive form of gambling around. He emailed me this response: "We are not moral crusaders. NFL personnel are permitted to engage in legal forms of gambling, except for betting on NFL games. We are making a distinction here between the spread of gambling on the outcome of our games and supporting state lottery scratch-off games, that have nothing to do with the outcome of our games."

Here's where I should rip him. But, the thing is, he's right. Not to get Obama on you, but this is a complicated, nuanced issue. As much as lotteries are considered a tax on the poor, the NFL isn't a socially obligated government program -- it's just a business. Scratch-off's help the bottom line, sports betting doesn't. Now, it's okay to call the league hypocritical when it releases injury reports, which players have told me only helps bettors … But when it supports other forms of gaming? Big Deal.

Now, it's okay to call the league hypocritical when it releases injury reports, which players have told me only helps bettors. And it's okay to mutter something obscene when the league pretends gambling doesn't help drive TV ratings and fan interest and put money in owners' pockets. But when it supports other forms of gaming? Big Deal. The Bears should put an orange "C" on every deck of cards dealt at Harrah's in Joliet; the Eagles should slap their logo on roulette wheels at the Borgata in Atlantic City; the Dolphins should hold training camp at the El San Juan in Puerto Rico.

Seriously.

The NFL's problem, when it comes to the gambling world, isn't hypocrisy, it's worse: The bosses lack vision. That's why the league is picking unwinnable fights in Delaware and taking pot shots from critics after making smart sponsorship deals. Roger Goodell and his gang are acting and thinking locally rather than globally, which is rare for them, especially compared to their professional (and amateur) counterparts.

The NBA held its All Star game in Las Vegas and David Stern's kingdom didn't crumble (although the town did bring plenty of players to their knees.) I'd say it's 6 to 5 and pick 'em that Lebron will make a road swing through Sin City before his career is over.

Even the NCAA College Football Betting is more progressive on this issue than the NFL. Several years ago Rachel Newman Baker, college sports' gambling czar, opened a dialogue with Vegas bookmakers to learn about how they do business. She's visited Nevada sports books, studied their operations and listened to how they regulate action. Now she knows she can expect a call from bookmakers, who lose money when sports are fixed, if they think something sketchy is going on in NCAA games. She's not in favor of sports betting, but, as she once told me, "I know it's not going away, either."

The NFL can't seem to accept that. And until it can find peace with the idea, it'll get flack, even when it's right.

To visit this online sportsbook got to MySportsbook.com for all your Sportsbook accepts MasterCard needs.