Bettors

Pro football bettors were gleefully giving thanks a few days early on Sunday as the teams most often backed by the little guys came in big. "We were due for one of these days," said Jay Kornegay, vice president of sports- and race-book operations at the Las Vegas Hilton. "I guess we were just in the spirit of giving. " For most of the season, the so-called public money - the small bettors who wager on certain popular teams, such as Pittsburgh, Green Bay, and Dallas - have been getting slammed.

While favorites easily beat the point spread in most of yesterday's NFL games, Pittsburgh Steelers fans and bettors alike had their day ruined when a Bengals touchdown with 14 seconds left gave underdog Cincinnati a 23-20 victory. In the process, the Steelers - four-point favorites - also blew the spread as they coughed up a 20-15 lead. The Denver Broncos' jackrabbit start has surprised both their opponents and the oddsmakers. After a horrible collapse last season, a head-coaching change, and a tumultuous off-season in which quarterback Jay Cutler was shipped to Chicago, the Broncos figured to be easy pickings'.

The Preakness Stakes, horse racing's second jewel, is not nearly as compelling a wagering magnet as the Kentucky Derby. But with the prospect of a Triple Crown champion still alive, a fair number of casual bettors, along with racing enthusiasts, will throw a few bucks into the pot. For one thing, a lot of sports fans are simply enamored of the opportunity to be part of sports history by having a winning ticket on the horse that could go on...

Wagering on the NFL and playing fantasy football share an important characteristic. In both cases, in the midst of the most innocuous game, a field goal or a touchdown of little apparent consequence can be a source of anguish or elation. Yesterday, the betting fate of an excruciatingly ho-hum game was decided by a score that will go largely unnoticed in today's box scores - except by the bettors who made or (more probably) lost money. The lowly Detroit Lions, deservedly 13-point underdogs to Cincinnati, were trailing by 16 when they mounted a drive in the closing minutes with Daunte Culpepper in a mop-up role at quarterback.

The veteran Philadelphia horse player said he had made his way to the betting windows more than a few times. Several thousand times, in fact. He has sampled the wares at the old Garden State Park, at Liberty Bell Park, at Keystone. Now, his haunts are the new Garden State Park and, in the summer and fall, Philadelphia Park, the renamed Keystone. He knows what he likes in a horse race. "I like 12-horse fields. That's where the fun is," said the player, who asked not to be named.

Sometimes, the bettors get it right. Oddsmakers made the Washington Redskins two-point favorites over Minnesota to start the week just as the Vikings replaced former head coach Brad Childress with Leslie Frazier. However, bettors - apparently assuming that the coaching change would revive the foundering Vikings - threw money at Minnesota with both hands, forcing a hefty four-point swing by kickoff. Suddenly two-point favorites, the Vikings rewarded the betting public's faith by holding off the Redskins, 17-13, at FedEx Field on Sunday.

The Pittsburgh Steelers walked off the field Sunday happy they'd just beaten the Chargers. A lot of bettors in Las Vegas were more concerned by how many points they ended up winning by. Winners turned into losers and losers ended up winning when a game that should have ended 17-10 or 18-10 instead went into the record books as the first 11-10 final in NFL history. Although the score made no difference in the standings, it did in the wallets of a lot of bettors in Las Vegas.

On the 12th floor of a Nevada bank building, a man in blue pinstripes faces his moment of decision. Amid the whir of computers and the rattle of teletype machines, he rips a sheet off the printer, pores through a maze of statistics and reviews the advice of his coterie of consultants. The telephone rings. A client is on the line. It is 5 p.m. on Sunday afternoon. It is time. "Eagles," he announces, "plus three and a half. " Michael Roxborough - America's premier oddsmaker - has just declared the New York Giants a favorite to beat the Eagles by 3 1/2 points the following Sunday in East Rutherford, N.J. With those few words, he triggers a chain of events involving bettors, bookmakers, handicappers and fans throughout the country.

They were all there yesterday. They all will be back tomorrow. The guys with cash-loaded briefcases chained to their wrists. The best- known racing writer in the country (who also happens to be one of the country's biggest bettors) and his entourage. Small bettors became big bettors. Non-bettors became bettors. Twin Tri madness at Delaware Park became a certifiable monster. And it is not over yet. Nobody has hit the twin trifecta since the pot stood at zero dollars May 21. Fourteen racing days later, the pot stands at $488,726.

It was a lesson in bookmaking, South Philadelphia-style. There was talk of "teasers" (combination bets where the odds are adjusted) and "working in the red" (deficit bookkeeping), and of bettors who try to "beat" those with whom they bet. All of it led to one Johnny Roast Beef, or "Beef," a South Philadelphia gambler who, on paper at least, owes the FBI $37,000 from the 1998 football season. No one expects Beef to pay the debt. But his gambling routine was the focus of intense questioning yesterday in the federal racketeering trial of reputed mob boss Joseph "Skinny Joey" Merlino and six codefendants.

TEMPLE HASN'T beaten Penn State since before Pearl Harbor, but the Owls have covered. And really, outside of North Broad Street and Happy Valley, does anything else really matter? We went back to the 1994 Lions, arguably Penn State's finest team and one that was rooked out of a national title, to see how they have fared against the number in their meetings with Temple. The Owls may not have won any of those games, but they covered four of them. * The 1994 point spread was a ridiculous 44 and Temple acquitted itself quite well in the 48-21 loss.

Sometimes, the bettors get it right. Oddsmakers made the Washington Redskins two-point favorites over Minnesota to start the week just as the Vikings replaced former head coach Brad Childress with Leslie Frazier. However, bettors - apparently assuming that the coaching change would revive the foundering Vikings - threw money at Minnesota with both hands, forcing a hefty four-point swing by kickoff. Suddenly two-point favorites, the Vikings rewarded the betting public's faith by holding off the Redskins, 17-13, at FedEx Field on Sunday.

Pro football bettors were gleefully giving thanks a few days early on Sunday as the teams most often backed by the little guys came in big. "We were due for one of these days," said Jay Kornegay, vice president of sports- and race-book operations at the Las Vegas Hilton. "I guess we were just in the spirit of giving. " For most of the season, the so-called public money - the small bettors who wager on certain popular teams, such as Pittsburgh, Green Bay, and Dallas - have been getting slammed.

For the second week in a row, the Eagles delighted not only their fans but also the bookmakers. Among Sunday's early-afternoon NFL games, the Birds' home matchup against Atlanta was the most-bet contest at many Las Vegas casinos - and the money, both from the public and the professional bettors, was on the Falcons. The Eagles, who were one-point favorites, easily covered the spread with their 31-17 victory behind quarterback Kevin Kolb. The week before, the preponderance of money was also on the Eagles' opponent, San Francisco, and the winning Birds covered then as well.

Remember that Delaware NFL parlay bettor? He lost $5, his original bet. Actually, he could have won thousands, but word on the street is that he bet four $1,000 off-the-board three-team parlays in Delaware, taking both sides of two other games and the Eagles. Each parlay pays 6-to-1. So, for his $4,000 investment, he got back $7,000, a $3,000 profit. He could have done better. In his original Delaware parlay bet, the player had 14 straight NFL winners against the spread in Week 4. And a push in Week 5. If he had won that 15th game, he would have won $100,000.

There's been good news and bad news regarding picking NFL games around here. The bad news is that for the fourth straight week, the selections were on the minus side of the ledger. Last week for the games on which we staked our ragged reputation, the record was 3-4, which is in keeping with what's been happening to bettors in Las Vegas as underdogs have been beating the spread at better than a 60 percent clip. Now for the good news. On the season, Picks of the Week are 2-0. Atlanta at Cleveland (plus-3)

Imagine you could bet $50,000 on the Eagles on Sunday and be guaranteed of winning. There is a player who made a 15-team NFL parlay bet at Harrington Raceway in Delaware who is in exactly that can't-lose situation. Delaware has a $5, 15-team parlay bet in which the payoff is $100,000. The bettor who got his ticket at Harrington picked last weekend's 14 games against the spread. And got them all right. Because four teams had byes last week and there were not 16 games to find 15 bets, they carried one game over to this week.

Perhaps next week the oddsmakers will catch up to the Kansas City Chiefs, but for any bettors who could see past that franchise's woeful recent past, the Chiefs have been a money team in the early going. In running its record in the AFC West to 3-0, Kansas City is also 3-0 against the spread. In fact, the Chiefs were underdogs in their first three games, including Sunday's surprisingly easy 31-10 home win over San Francisco that had the 49ers a 21/2-point favorite. "The Chiefs have certainly exceeded expectations," said Caesars Palace sports analyst Todd Fuhrman.

The dog days of autumn have nothing to do with the weather. Those are the Sundays when the betting underdogs have their day, and usually that's bad news for the wagering public. Among Sunday's nine early afternoon games, underdogs won seven against the spread - and six of them outright. Underdogs also prevailed in a handful of late games. "When the dogs came out barking, they sure did us a favor," said Jay Kornegay, vice president for sports and race book operations at the Las Vegas Hilton.

The Preakness Stakes, horse racing's second jewel, is not nearly as compelling a wagering magnet as the Kentucky Derby. But with the prospect of a Triple Crown champion still alive, a fair number of casual bettors, along with racing enthusiasts, will throw a few bucks into the pot. For one thing, a lot of sports fans are simply enamored of the opportunity to be part of sports history by having a winning ticket on the horse that could go on...