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00:00Big news in the National Football League as we start off the show.
00:03The biggest two-year contract in the history of the NFL has been given out to Daniel Jones
00:10as he is staying with the Indianapolis Colts for a couple of years at least.
00:15And Jones now going to start for the Colts next season.
00:18There was some thought maybe they would potentially even move on because he's injured and may not play for some
00:22of the season.
00:23But not the case.
00:23They really liked what they saw, especially the Colts played great football when he was the starting quarterback.
00:28Meanwhile, very bizarre situation percolating with the trade in the National Football League that involved the Ravens and the Steelers.
00:37It was thought that Max Crosby was going from Las Vegas to Baltimore.
00:41But apparently the Ravens didn't like what they saw on a physical and decided to back out of the deal.
00:47With NFL free agency opening up at 4 o'clock Eastern, Crosby apparently didn't pass his physical, according to Diana
00:56Rossini.
00:57And so the two first-round picks that the Ravens were going to send to Las Vegas are going back
01:02to them.
01:03And then the thought process would be maybe the Ravens would just draft a defensive end.
01:08So Crosby ended up having to make a statement as the Raiders are still now apparently trying to move him
01:14after saying that they wouldn't.
01:15And ended up trading him saying that Max continues to be on track of his recovery and he remains undoubtedly
01:23to return to the dominant game record that he has been these past seven seasons.
01:27There is no thought right now to Crosby being back with the Raiders, although it does appear on paper that
01:33that is the case.
01:34Very bizarre situation in the NFL.
01:36So what makes it even more bizarre is that very quickly after backing out of the Crosby deal, the Ravens
01:43ends up signing Trey Hendrickson, a guy who they're very familiar with, playing in the same division.
01:48Four years, $112 million, including $60 million guarantee.
01:53So it will be Hendrickson on the outside and not Max Crosby.
01:58And Hendrickson was set to potentially sign with several other teams, but this is the most money offered.
02:02And so Hendrickson ends up signing.
02:04What a wacky world we're living in in the National Football League.
02:07Well, if you thought that was crazy, how about this?
02:09In the NBA last night, Bam Adebayo ended up putting up 83 points by himself.
02:16Let me say that again.
02:1883 points as the Heat beat the Wizards, 150 to 129.
02:24It's the second most points in the history of the NBA, only behind Wilt Chamberlain's 100.
02:30He surpassed Kobe Bryant's 81.
02:33He made 36 of 43 free throws in the game.
02:40You can't make this up.
02:41Yes, the Heat did, by the way, cover the game as well.
02:43They were 15 and a half point favorites.
02:46OK, now to baseball and to the World Baseball Classic, where Italy takes care of Team USA last night,
02:53eight to six, and the story is a lot bigger than that because all of a sudden, out of nowhere,
03:01Team USA could potentially get knocked out of the WBC if Mexico wins and scores five-plus runs.
03:09How did this happen?
03:11Well, apparently, the manager of Team USA, Mark DeRosa, went on MLB Network early in the day yesterday
03:18saying that, hey, his team has already advanced to the quarterfinals.
03:22They're going to manage this game and these players a little bit differently.
03:25After losing the game and, I guess, realizing that Team USA could get knocked out,
03:30here's what he had to say about his comments earlier in the day.
03:34Is that true?
03:35Yeah, I misspoke.
03:36I was on hot stove with a couple buddies today and completely misread the calculations.
03:40We knew that Mexico was going to play Italy and then run in all the numbers if we lost tonight
03:46with the runs allowed and runs scored and outs.
03:49So I just misspoke.
03:52Ken, standing on the right.
03:54Mark.
03:55So the world will be watching tonight, then, I guess, with Mexico taking on Italy,
03:59a game that we thought may be meaning nothing.
04:01It could mean a lot.
04:02Mexico minus two and a half on the run line, and you see that total of seven and a half
04:08in this game between Italy and Mexico.
04:11There's a shot that Team USA gets knocked out based on this result tonight.
04:16All right, that's crazy.
04:17Let's move over to some National Football League highlights.
04:21Geno Smith is going back to the Jets.
04:23Apparently, may have an opportunity to start there.
04:26Again, he started his career with the Jets.
04:28More likely, probably a backup if the Jets do draft a quarterback
04:31or go back to Justin Fields.
04:33Also, Romeo Dobbs is signing a four-year contract with the New England Patriots.
04:37It's worth $70 million.
04:40Dobbs played very well down the stretch with the Packers last season,
04:42and they also bid farewell to Stefan Diggs.
04:46The Lions have decided to take a shot with Isaiah Pacheco at running back.
04:51He will replace David Montgomery, who ended up going to Houston last week.
04:56The Eagles are finally diving into free agency.
04:59They've signed Tariq Woolen to a one-year deal.
05:01He played with the Seahawks last season.
05:03The Jets have signed Nashawn Wright to a one-year deal,
05:07and the Texans ended up signing the offensive tackle that they were looking for in the offseason in Braden Smith.
05:14Meanwhile, now let's go over to the NCAA conference tournament,
05:18and we'll get started with Arizona.
05:20They beat Baylor, and they end up moving on in the conference tournament.
05:2583-79.
05:27ASU wins, and they cover as five-and-a-half-point underdogs.
05:32And so now they'll take on the very good Iowa State Cyclones today at 1230.
05:36But going back to last night, here are Bob Hurley and Mark Few on the outcome.
05:41There were reports yesterday that you would not be returning as Arizona State's coach next season.
05:45I wanted to understand your reaction to that and how that played into the game.
05:47Well, I mean, I talked with – do you want to talk about it?
05:52Next question.
05:53Yeah.
05:53I talked with the team when we saw the reports.
05:56I don't want to, like, hide anything from them, and they're playing for each other.
06:02I'm coaching them to the best of my ability.
06:05I have not been told anything, so although I – the source is reputable, I mean, you know, and a
06:12guy that I know.
06:13But I'm just doing my job and coaching this team and enjoying these moments with this group right now.
06:20Well, I think first and foremost, appreciative of how the guys continue to improve and get better.
06:26I think if you watch this in the beginning of conference compared to the end, we improved in a lot
06:31of different areas.
06:32And they were coachable.
06:35They competed.
06:36They got better.
06:37Most coaches feel good about that as far as just weighing how tough it is to replace a whole team
06:47and some different challenges.
06:49And then with the Big 12 itself, I know we had the number one strength of schedule in the Big
06:5412 out of all the Big 12 teams.
06:57And you got more teams that have a chance at a Final Four than we've had in recent years.
07:03And that just speaks to how tough the Big 12 was this year.
07:10Gonzaga beats Santa Clara 79-68.
07:13So they win and cover as eight-and-a-half-point favorites.
07:17BYU beats Kansas State in a shootout.
07:20So they advance to the Big 12 tournament next round.
07:24Maryland handles Oregon in the opening game of the Big 10 tournament.
07:29The final score in that one was 70-60.
07:33And also, SMU defeats Syracuse 86-69.
07:40And this morning, Syracuse announced that Adrian Autry, after three seasons, has been fired by the Syracuse Oren.
07:50Welcome back to Newswire here on Sports Grid.
07:52Always great to catch up with Sam McQuillen from Legal Sports Report.
07:54You can read all of his information, columns, and opinions over at LegalSportsReport.com.
07:58He also joins us a few times throughout the week to go over the latest in sports betting.
08:02Great to have Sam back.
08:03Sam, thanks for coming on the show.
08:05NCAA tournament coming up next week.
08:07College basketball, of course, a big focus of sports betting and regulation.
08:11And just quite frankly, with being careful to make sure there are no more bad actors involved in this.
08:15And it seems like Prohibit IC360.
08:19Tell us more about them, exactly what is going on here,
08:21and how this could potentially affect the NCAA tournament,
08:24and more so even the conference tournaments, which are going on right now.
08:29Yeah, the NCAA announced that this year, starting with these conference tournaments
08:33and extending over into March Madness,
08:35there's going to be an extra layer of sports betting integrity monitoring this year.
08:39So for the first time, referees and officials involved with these games and tournaments
08:44will be linked to a system, like you mentioned, Craig, called Prohibit,
08:47which uses an encrypted data network to prevent prohibited individuals from placing bets on games.
08:53It's actually the same system that helped federal prosecutors in January,
08:58exposed that point shaving ring, which I believe spanned 26 different college basketball players,
09:05allegedly conspiring to point shave and, you know, fix games across over the past two years
09:11at multiple different programs.
09:13So that was what they were linked to, which allegedly flagged the, you know,
09:18the problem bets that were placed that are the reason we kind of have heard about that whole scandal.
09:23So now they're extending it over to referees.
09:26It uses kind of this third-party integrity monitoring and regulatory compliance work
09:32that, you know, tracks who these referees are, who they interact with, a lot of their personal data.
09:38So in the past, it's really only been used for players.
09:41Now it's going to extend over to officials and referees.
09:43And this is the same firm that, you know,
09:45caught Luis Ortiz in his alleged betting scandal and Jonte Porter as well.
09:50So IC360 kind of has a track record of, you know, doing some strong work in this
09:55and bringing this stuff up to the surface.
09:57I think to your point, Craig, we, you know,
09:59we might want to be talking about now preventing this stuff from happening
10:02versus flagging it after the fact.
10:04So I think this is just kind of another way the NCAA is trying to, you know,
10:09increase the protections in college sports at a time when integrity concerns are really high.
10:14You know, just last week we had two former players were ruled ineligible
10:18because they wouldn't comply with the NCAA's gambling investigation.
10:22You certainly have NCAA president Charlie Baker has been very vocal about betting reform
10:27and, you know, eliminating prop bets or really restricting prop bets in general
10:32to kind of de-incentivize players from being swept up in schemes like this.
10:36And of course, he's been very vocal about prediction markets as well,
10:40how they sort of lack the same integrity protections a lot of sports books have.
10:44I think it's important to remember when talking about this story in particular is
10:48this is something that's going to be tracking sports bets and bets placed on platforms like
10:53FanDuel and DraftKings.
10:55It won't necessarily be tracking prediction market services because, again,
10:59they haven't technically been deemed gambling.
11:01So they don't get those same kind of protections that are automatically unfolded here.
11:06But I imagine that's something the NCAA is going to keep lobbying for and keep working on.
11:10Kind of a small measure, but always good to see them, you know, kind of inching
11:13more towards responsibility as much as they can.
11:16And speaking of responsibility, Sam, as we continue our conversation,
11:19we move to Connecticut, a new potential bill that could get passed.
11:23And I really like this idea, too, as I see some of what is potentially up for being voted on
11:29is the fact that if you decide that you no longer want to participate and bet on sports
11:33and you choose to make a withdrawal, you're going to have to accept that money back as
11:38opposed to changing your mind and betting again.
11:40I really like that idea.
11:42And it speaks to some of the definitely different ideas that they can come up with
11:46through legislation to help the average better.
11:50Yeah, Craig, I think that's a great point.
11:52Just the different ideas that are out there in terms of how we can help the average better
11:57and promote responsible gambling in general.
11:59This is the first I've heard of this kind of idea from Connecticut, where, you know,
12:04if you put in a withdrawal request, you take out your money and it automatically goes through.
12:09You can't change that kind of how the status quo is currently.
12:12It's a pending request.
12:13You can cancel it.
12:14Sometimes sports books even say, are you sure you want to cancel this?
12:17So designed to keep your money in there, whether it actually passes is a different question.
12:22The measure actually hasn't been voted on yet.
12:24It's only they've had hearing testimony and the testimonial stage from sports books like FanDuel,
12:30which testified saying that they were confused about who specifically this is intended to protect,
12:36which specific consumer harm this is designed to address.
12:39They said this could unfairly impact players who don't exhibit problem gambling behavior and kind of take away control of
12:48their own financial decisions from them.
12:50Another tribe that was partnered with DraftKings says that these requests are processed too fast to implement change and slowing
12:58it down.
12:59And it would just be overall too difficult to implement when they have, you know, all these requests are made.
13:04So many, you know, everyday people are requesting to withdraw their money.
13:07You know, whether that's actually true, you know, that's a different story, but that's what they're saying so far.
13:12Interesting enough, the bill would also add some other protections.
13:14So we could see it change shape throughout the legislative process.
13:19One big protection that sports books are against so far is prohibiting the use of AI, which is certainly something
13:24we talk about often in this space.
13:27It's something that has sports books have, like many other companies, you know, to be fair, have really taken a
13:32hold of in terms of how it's going to help, you know, generate more business,
13:36get more knowledge about their customers, deliver them personalized bets and promotions.
13:41So this bill would actually prevent sports books from doing that in Connecticut.
13:45Sports books have testified so far saying that it could, you know, unfairly cause, you know, more restrictions to happen
13:53to them than intended.
13:54They say they're complying with a lot of these concerns already.
13:57And on top of that, they said it could also hurt their ability to track players exhibiting problem gambling behavior,
14:03which is something they've definitely talked about with AI, but, you know, we don't have so much evidence in terms
14:08of how they've actually implemented it.
14:10So I'd expect this bill to be heard again before the legislature adjourns on May 6th.
14:15So they'll have then to act, see if any of this testimony from the sports books has caused a change
14:19of heart or if any other, you know, crazy protections get added in there.
14:22You never know what's going to happen, but definitely an interesting problem gambling protection bill to be watching in Connecticut.
14:29Sam, the state of Georgia has yet to legalize sports betting, and I'm not sure that that happens anytime soon.
14:34It feels like a couple of members of the legislature trying to sort of maybe steamroll this thing forward to
14:40try to get it going.
14:41And now, of course, some pushback here.
14:43I don't know that it'll ever happen in Georgia, but I said that about Florida for years, Sam, and it
14:47ended up happening here.
14:48What's the latest there?
14:51Yeah, Craig, if I were you, I would just keep saying it doesn't happen then with your track record.
14:54Eventually, this will all get through, right?
14:56That's at least what one lawmaker is hoping in Georgia.
14:59It was actually the first time ever that a bill was heard on the House floor that would have legalized
15:05sports betting in Georgia,
15:06which is a huge state that sports books would love to have online.
15:09Obviously, there's a huge appetite for sports in the state.
15:12But the really interesting thing here is the lawmaker, Representative Al Williams, who testified against the bill for about nine
15:19minutes on the floor,
15:20effectively killing it when it was voted down 98 to 63.
15:24He's actually one of the biggest proponents of sports betting in Georgia.
15:27He's been calling for the legislature to legalize it forever, but he actually spoke against the bill.
15:33He's the incoming head of the National Council of Legislators for State Gaming, which is kind of a group of
15:39state legislators from around the country
15:41that all talk about gaming and, you know, share best practices and advices and advocate for it together.
15:46But he came out and said he wasn't included in the tax revenue process for the bill.
15:51Under the current bill that was just voted down, the money would have gone towards education in Georgia
15:56and toward the scholarship fund for, you know, individuals who meet certain standards in the state to allow them to
16:05go to college
16:05and private high schools potentially.
16:08But he said he wasn't involved in this tax process, which is kind of questionable because it's the same bill
16:14that's been around since January of 2025.
16:17So he came out and said, you know, if you're not going to involve me at all, then I'm going
16:21to come out against it.
16:22And this is what you should expect.
16:23So it seems to kind of be getting personal here.
16:25I have one source in the state who's saying that, you know, the bill is as written, has been that
16:30way for over a year now.
16:31If he wanted to make any changes, he had the opportunity, especially with the position he's in as well.
16:37And they also added that he didn't really express these concerns until very late in the process.
16:41So unfortunately, it looks like sports betting would not be legalized in Georgia this time for a strange political reason.
16:47But maybe next year there are no more reasons.
16:50But, you know, we'll have to keep seeing, keep watching how things progress in Georgia.
16:54Sam, great stuff, as always.
16:56We will talk again soon.
16:57Thanks for coming on Newswire.
16:59Yep.
17:00Thanks a lot, Craig.
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